The minister also issued orders to curb the canal water supply to the city, which will further reduce 175 cusecs of water supply to the city. To offset this, he has asked the corporation to make arrangements to provide water from Lashkar and Holkar.
Irrigation officials said these cuts would enable the PMC to store water till the month-end and the PCMC for 108 days.
Pawar said this was the first time the state was facing such a situation, where the live storage of water in all the dams had come down. “The live storage in the dams came down to 7 per cent from 13 per cent last year.”
Pawar also ordered the district collectors of Pune and Satara to direct irrigation officials to supply water only for drinking purpose and not for irrigation. The meeting was attended by principal secretary of water supply and sanitation Ajit Kumar Jain, MKVDC executive director Hanumant Kolawale, divisional commissioner Dilip Band, Mayors Rajlaxmi Bhosale and Aparna Doke, commissioners Mahesh Zagade and Ashish Kumar, superintending engineer of Pune irrigation division Avinash Surve and executive engineer Khadakwasla division Vijay Ghogare.
Pawar has directed the corporations and the district administration to take over all borewells and wells in the district. It has been estimated that there are 399 wells and 4,820 borewells in the district, of which 155 wells and 1,575 borewells have potable drinking water. “Water will be supplied from these sources after testing,” he said. “The builders should make use of sewage water after treatment,” he added.
The Minister told the PMC to dig at least five borewells in the 152 wards of the district with the help of the Groundwater Survey and Development Agency, which will take up the number to 760 borewells, and also provide 20 1,000-litre syntex tanks. He also directed the civic body to provide four extra tankers for each ward to address the situation. The dead storage water, which is about 0.75 TMC, in the dams will also be used for meeting the situation.
He said the tanker operators cannot raise prices arbitrarily. “If there are any reports of untoward rise, we will seize the tankers and operate them on our own.”