DOWN THE DRAIN
Some old pipelines generally develop leakages due to various reasons like rusting.”
Similar breaches and leakages have surfaced across Hadapsar, Kothrud and Bavdhan over the past month, exposing what residents described as a “recurring and costly failure” in the city’s water distribution network. An official said, “On many occasions, sudden and unplanned digging damaged the pipeline. Pune: As Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) prepares to impose stricter water cuts, residents have criticised its failure to promptly repair damaged pipelines, fix leaks and seal seeping storage tanks, allowing thousands of litres of water to spill onto city roads. The incident is far from isolated. Officials from PMC’s water supply department admitted that unplanned and unsupervised excavation works had emerged as one of the biggest threats to the city’s pipeline network. The pipelines were damaged recently in areas of Kothrud, Paud Road, Balewadi, Hadapsar and Shivajinagar. The teams are working on plugging the leakages.
The latest incident unfolded in Kothrud on Monday, where a PMC water distribution pipeline was ruptured during road excavation work, resulting in significant water wastage.