Water supply disruption continues in Nashik city; NMC adds 11 MLD to supply, plans to roll out 62 tankers

Nashik: Water supply across the city has remained severely disrupted for over a week, triggering widespread complaints from residents and corporators, some of whom have alleged supply of muddy and foul-smelling water in several areas.Taking serious note of the situation, chairperson of the Nashik Municipal Corporation's (NMC) standing committee, Machhindra Sanap, on Thursday directed the civic water supply department to significantly scale up emergency arrangements across the city.Sanap instructed officials to deploy two water tankers in each of the city's 31 municipal wards, taking the total number of tankers to 62. At present, only 15-20 tankers are being used to cater to the entire city, which officials and elected representatives admitted is grossly inadequate given the scale of disruption.The directive was issued during a standing committee meeting on Thursday, where members raised strong concerns over the prolonged disruption in water supply across all six divisions of the NMC. Standing committee members said the water supply department had enforced a two-day shutdown on April 4-5 to carry out repair works on major water distribution pipelines and water treatment plants. However, despite the shutdown and repair works, water supply has not returned to normal, leaving large parts of the city facing acute shortages.Members also pointed out that residents are receiving erratic and low-pressure supply, while some areas have reported contaminated water, compounding the crisis. "Even after the shutdown and repairs, supply has not stabilised. In many localities, water is either muddy or foul-smelling," members said during the meeting.Admitting to the seriousness of the issue, Sanap said the water supply situation in the city had worsened in recent days. He revealed that he received over 200 complaints from residents in the past three to four days regarding inadequate and contaminated water supply. "Citizens are facing severe hardships. Immediate corrective steps are required," he said.Sanap directed the water supply department to immediately take all necessary measures to restore normal supply and ensure equitable distribution across areas. He specifically instructed officials to increase the number of water tankers in all six municipal divisions and ensure that at least two tankers are available in each ward until the situation normalises.Responding to the concerns, Ravindra Dharankar, superintending engineer (water supply and sewage), said the department would soon scale up tanker services as directed. He assured that arrangements were being made to deploy two tankers in each of the 31 wards at the earliest to meet emergency demand.Dharankar also informed the committee that NMC has increased the city's water supply by an additional 11 million litres per day (MLD) over the past three to four days. The total supply has gone up from 614 MLD to 625 MLD in an effort to compensate for the disruption and ensure that residents receive adequate water. He added that at the end of Feb, the city was receiving around 600 MLD.Civic officials said efforts are underway to stabilise supply in the coming days, even as residents continue to depend heavily on water tankers and private arrangements to meet daily needs.