Mumbai Water Tanker Strike: BMC invokes Disaster Management Act; to requisition all water tankers, wells and ponds in city

Confirming the developments, Bhushan Gagrani, BMC commissioner and state appointed administrator said that the order to requisite control of all the privately owned tankers and borewells will come into effect from April 15 and will be implemented with the help of the RTO and police department.

“As long as the strike is on, we will take control of all private supply and will be requisitioning control of all the tankers under the disaster management act, which empowers the commissioner to do requisition of any place or thing which is necessary for public convenience whenever there is a disaster-like situation,” said Gagrani, adding that the order of requisition will remain in place until the strike is called off.

According to the civic chief, legal action will be taken against those private borewell and tanker owners who refuse to abide by the order and hand over control to the civic body. Typically, more than 2,000 water tankers cater to Mumbai’s burgeoning water demands and they procure water from over 2,000 privately owned wells and borewells, dotted around the city. However, Gagrani maintained that borewells within the compounds of residential societies, which cater to the residents, will not be requisitioned under this move.

The ongoing crisis

The order is aimed at preventing long term water woes this summer as well as easing the current water crisis that has crippled citizens, in vein of the water tanker association’s strike, for the past four days. Earlier on April 10, Mumbai Water Tanker Association (MWTA) launched an indefinite strike in protest to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) notices issued over the past few weeks which called several operators of ring-well and borewells to either cease supply of water to tankers or obtain a fresh license from the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA).

Following day one of the strike, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on April 11 had directed the civic chief Bhushan Gagrani to seek solutions to the ongoing strike to prevent a prolonged crisis during the summer. In light of the directives, the BMC on April 11 deferred the clauses of its notices to the ring well and borewell owners for two months. On Sunday, deputy chief minister, Eknath Shinde – while addressing a press conference – also said that he directed BMC chief Gagrani to ensure that the norms are not changed, until the onset of monsoon by June 15 to prevent suspension of water supply through tankers.

Even so, MTWA refused to budge, maintaining that they will not resume their services until they are assured that the state government officially amends the CGWA norms.

On Sunday, when The Indian Express contacted the MWTA, representatives refused to comment on the civic decision to requisite their resources.

While Mumbai has an actual demand of 4,505 MLD of water per day, the BMC is currently able to supply only 3,950 MLD of water daily, leaving many pockets to experience a shortfall in supply of water. Amidst this lacuna, several areas resort to water tankers for their daily water needs, with these tankers supplying 200-2000 MLD of water across Mumbai. Besides meeting the needs of residential areas, this water is also used for commercial purposes as well as in ongoing infrastructure works such as road concretisation, coastal road project, Metro works and the bullet train project.

In light of the current strike, water taps across several residential pockets have been running dry over the weekend while civic works have also taken a hit.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Manoj Ganguli, a resident of Andheri’s Kanakia Rainforest in Marol said that 10 buildings encompassing over 600 flats of their society had not received a drop of water since Saturday evening, compelling them to buy mineral water bottles for their needs.

“For the past few years, the BMC water supply in our complex has been very erratic and thus, we have been procuring between 20 – 29 water tankers daily for years. Naturally, this strike has hit us very hard and left us feeling helpless. Since Saturday evening, we haven’t even received a drop of water in our taps. Even though we were purchasing mineral water bottles, now, even the shops are running out of them. Being summer vacations, children are also getting restless without adequate water supply,” said Ganguli.

In a bid to ensure smooth supply of water to private housing societies and other dependent stakeholders, the civic body on Sunday also formulated an SOP enlisting 12-point norms for the civic departments, residential societies as well as private tanker and borewell operators.

What are the civic SOP entails

The legal department as well as the disaster management department of the BMC are set to issue a joint notification order for the requisition of water tankers along with their drivers, cleaners as well as office staffers from the operator’s office. Once issued, the traffic commissioner will requisition all vehicles and personnel, with immediate effect. In what will be overseen by the zonal deputy municipal commissioner, each ward officer has been directed to constitute a team of officers ranging from the assistant engineer from the water works department, pest control officer as well as Medical health officials, accounts officer, regional transport officer and local police inspector to oversee the ward-wise water supply operations.

To ensure timely deployment, health officials will assess the requirements of the RTO inspectors at each ward, who will communicate with the transport commissioner. Following this, each ward team will receive requisition for tankers from societies at the Citizen Facilitation Centre (CFC), to collect payment and issue receipts for water tankers to be filled at the filling points, To corroborate how many water tankers were supplied to them in the past, each society has been mandated to provide evidence from the tanker operators.

The ward level team is slated to oversee the transportation of tankers to their filling points wherein the tankers will be replenished and then dispatched to societies. These filling points will be provided with police protection from local police stations. According to the SOP, the payments made by the society at the CFC will be in tune with the market rates provided to the previous suppliers alongside 25 percent administrative charges. Meanwhile, the requisitioned tanker owners will be paid on the basis of the submission of supply receipts from societies, after they are verified by the designated teams.