Over 7 lakh citizens receiving improved water supply at their taps

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• OCW improved water supply in more than 100 areas.
• 39 alternate day supply areas converted into daily supply
• Water quality of city at 95%

Nagpur: “BohotachchaPani Mil Rahahainaajkal, hum bahotkhushhain” (Compared to last many years, this season not only summer but present days too are very much smooth,” an all smiling Rukhsana Begum, resident of Kumbhartolislumshared her satisfaction while narrating her experience about the present water supply situationin her area.

Another resident TarabaiShende,resident of Bagadganj seemed relaxed after the water supply situation improved in her area, which had made people cry during summers till last year, improved after dedicated efforts from team OCW.

Mr. PrabhakarBawne of Nehru Nagar Zone too mentioned the remarkable betterment in the supply scenario of his area. “There have been weeks when we could not get sufficient water and this is not too long in the past. But these days the situation has kept improving constantly. We are thankful to OCW.”

These are just representative reactions from more than 7,00,000 citizens who are benefitted after Orange City Water (OCW) and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) took conscious and continuous steps to relieve their water woes in last three years.These smiling faces are the assets of OCW& NMC which have been jointly handling the operation & maintenance of the city’s water supply system.

It must be mentioned here, to achieve this; OCW’s technical experts have been taking conscious technical efforts which are now showing results. There are more than 100 areas spread across the city where the water supply has improvedfrom alternate day supply to daily 2-3 hours with adequate pressure. For instance, areas like Sumit Nagar of Gittikhdan GSR command area is now receiving supply of 2 hours daily, whereas areas like Karimabad which faced issues with pressure conditions are now receiving upto 4 hours daily supply with adequate pressure. andmore than 7 lakh people are relieved of the woes they faced till very recent years. To name a few, there are areas like Kumbhartoli, BagadganjBabulkheda, Chandramani Nagar, Rambagh MHADA, Gujarwadi, Gautam Nagar, Saibaba Colony, Gauri Nagar, Chikhli Layout, ItwariMaskasath, Ansar Nagar, Nava Nakasha, Hardas Nagar, etc.

Senior Citizen LilabaiAnantrao Kharetold, “The water now received is sufficient, with adequate pressure and is clean.”As she spoke, she happily observed her daughter-in-law who was busy teaching Lilabai’s grandchildren some rhymes during the morning hours which earlier she spent on the public stand-post for fetching water.

The supply scenario has shown improvement in every zone: like Laxmi Nagar (12 areas); Dharampeth (19 areas), Hanuman Nagar (66 areas); Dhantoli (20 areas); Nehru Nagar (33 areas); Gandhibagh (21 areas); Satranjipura (45 areas); Lakadganj (24 areas); Ashi Nagar (27 areas); Mangalwari (22 areas).

For those who suffered for years together this betterment brought by OCW proved the much awaited relief. Even during the harsh Nagpur Summer days, NMC-OCW havenot only managed to keep the water supply situation under control but also provided sufficient and adequate water supply.

PritiDeshmukh, of Lakadganjtold that the earlier they used to receive alternate day water supply which has now turned into regular and that they have started receiving sufficient water daily.

Where there was scope for drastic improvement, OCW made the most out of the opportunity and converted many areas like Bangladesh, Baraipura, TelipuraPewatha, SambhajiKasarpura, Bairagipura, Bharat Gas Line, Chandrabhaga Nagar, Chattisgari Ram Mandir from alternate day supply to regular supply. Where there was regular water supply OCW improved it by working on the pressure conditions and improved the pressure in areas likeMahajanwadi, Nandagiri Road, Swami Nagar, Barse Nagar, Sobakhet, Gondpura, Hedau printing press chowk to Babu BasodChowk, Vinkar Colony.

“There are many areas who had water supply network laid but were not charged i.e. there was no supply of water through the laid pipelines. OCW gauged the scenario there and through thoughtful water management at city level diverted required quantum of water to those areas and got them charged which made the citizens of those areas happy”, said Mr. Rajesh Kalra, Dy. Director, O&M, OCW.

Meanwhile, along with improvement of water supply, making alternate days water supply into daily supply maintaining the quality of drinking (potable) water has been another priority for OCW since the very beginning.

From 79% when OCW took over, the water quality has reached the 95% mark.

The improvement in the water quality could be achieved due to tremendous hard work of OCW Zonal Network Engineers in identifying and rectifying or isolating the source of contamination. Replacement of dilapidated pipeline and repair of major leakages eliminated the contamination source.

It may be mentioned here most of the polluted water complaints the source is the illegal tapping from existing main pipelines. The process of identifying such points and isolating them is a continuous process. Since these illegal pipe connections are so rampant in the city of Nagpur it will take some more time to completely eliminate such sources of water contamination.

The regular and scheduled state of the art in house developed Tank cleaning machine has ensured maintaining quality standards at intermediate storage points.

The chlorine dosing from Water Treatment Plant is maintained at optimum level and further down the line the booster dosing of chlorine at MBR, GSR and ESR by Hypochlorite solution or Bleaching powder is also being maintained to ensure potable water supply to the service areas at all times.

The dedicated Water quality team has been continuously monitoring the water sample collection, analysis, report generation, polluted water complaints, resampling and complain closure. The Water Quality Executives have been imparting water surveillance training to Zonal officials at regular basis.

Social harmony can also be put forth as a significant achievement as water connection at each household has resulted in getting rid of the major cause of conflicts i.e. the public stand-posts. Major part of the city now has individual water connections owing to the rehabilitation works carried out by OCW under the 24×7 Uninterrupted Water Supply Scheme.