Protest at PMC headquarters against yellowish & foul-smelling water supply to Nagar Road areas

Pune: Corporators from the Nagar Road area held a protest at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) headquarters on Monday, raising concerns over the alleged yellowish and foul-smelling water supply in various localities under the Wadgaonsheri constituency for nearly a month, despite repeated complaints by residents.“These areas are already grappling with water scarcity and the contaminated supply has only worsened the situation. We urge the administration to resolve the issue at the earliest,” corporator Suhas Tingre said.The corporators said residents across the Wadgaonsheri constituency, spanning four municipal wards, have reported irregular and contaminated water supply for the past 27 days in areas including Dhanori, Tingrenagar, Nagpur Chawl, Shanti Nagar, Vimannagar and Wadgaonsheri. After accepting a memorandum from the protesters, PMC commissioner Naval Kishore Ram said, “Our experts are visiting the affected areas and a delegation of civic officials will also inspect the ground situation. The issue will be resolved within the next couple of days.”Former deputy mayor and area resident Siddharth Dhende urged the administration to urgently ensure a supply of clean water, warning that the current water quality posed serious health risks. “The water we are consuming is highly unsafe and could lead to health problems. Residents have already lodged several complaints,” he said.Echoing similar concerns, resident and corporator Sheetal Sawant said PMC should refrain from imposing water cuts till the issue was resolved in the affected areas. “Strict action must be taken against the officials responsible,” she said.Civic officials attributed the issue to disruptions in pumping operations caused by frequent power outages on the Chakan-Karanjvihire power line, which supplied electricity to the pumping station and water treatment plant of the Bhama Askhed project. They said water leaving the treatment plant was fully purified, but contamination was occurring further along the distribution pipeline.Last week, the mayor’s office had conducted a meeting and site visit to assess the situation. The mayor emphasised the need for a comprehensive inspection of the entire water supply system — from the treatment plant to the distribution network — and called for scientific testing of water samples collected from the residential areas.