The sight of people drawing water from hand pumps, mostly restricted to rural areas, is likely to become a reality in the core city areas, if the rains fail to show up by the end of July. With the monsoon playing truant in the city, like other parts of the State, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is mulling the use of unutilised underground water and installing hand pumps — known as borewell among the citizenry — in some parts of the city from next month. The PMC will take up this task on a war footing, provided that there is no rain by July 31. Municipal Commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi said this during the PMC general body meeting today.

He said, “This year, the condition of water availability is very dire, owing to the absence of rain. There is only eight TMC water available for the city, which will not suffice even for the next six months. This is an emergency situation. There is a huge reservoir of underground water available across the city, which has remained unutilised by and large. During the peak summer season, the underground water level in the city goes down to 6.2 metres, while in the post-monsoon season, it is available at 4 metres.”

Later, while talking to The Indian Express, he said, “We have carried out a survey of the underground water availability in Pune with the help of the Groundwater Surveys & Development Agency ( GSDA). The hand pumps could be installed in slum areas, as well as the areas where there are bungalows. But we are not going to make any haste and therefore wait till July 30. If there is no rain till that time, we will go for installation of hand pumps after that.”

Pardeshi said the PMC can currently draw 700 MLD water from Khadakwasla dam, which needs to be taken up to 850 MLD to meet city’s demand. Replying to some corporators’ objection that while the citizens are facing the water shortage problem, the builders’ lobby is being supplied uninterrupted water, he said, “It is true that we are not being able to keep watch on that, but we will do that from now onwards.” He also said that the PMC is also considering providing potable water from Pashan lake using membrane filtration system, developed by the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL).