Dombivli to have no water supply for 16 hours on Tuesday for pipeline leak repair

Water supply to the whole of Dombivli will be completely shut for 16 hours next Tuesday. The water supply department of the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation has decided to take up urgent repairs to stop a leak in the city's main pipeline.

The corporation has appealed to citizens to store the water they need in advance so that they do not face a shortage.

Shailesh Malekar, executive engineer in the corporation's water supply department, said supply to Dombivli will remain completely shut from 8 am to midnight on Tuesday, November 3, a total of 16 hours. Because of the shutdown, water is likely to arrive at low pressure on Wednesday morning. Residents should therefore store enough water to last at least one to two days.

Dombivli gets its main water from the water treatment centre on Netivali hill. From there, water travels through a 1,100 mm diameter main pipeline via Khambalpada to the water tanks near the old Ramchandra cinema hall in Pathareli, and is then distributed from there to the eastern and western parts of the city. A major leak has now been found in this main pipeline near the Khambalpada transport depot. The leak must be stopped immediately to prevent wastage of water, which is why the 16-hour shutdown is being taken.

The total daily water requirement of the Kalyan and Dombivli cities is about 365 million litres. In areas facing a shortage, the corporation supplies water through about 15 tankers a day. To avoid severe shortages or uneven distribution in Dombivli, a ward-wise water distribution arrangement, a zoning system, was introduced 15 years ago by the then executive engineer Pramod Kulkarni, deputy engineer Pramod Upadhye and executive engineer Tarun Junejas. Under this arrangement, the city receives regular water in three shifts: morning, afternoon and night.

Within the corporation's limits there are many underground pipelines dating back to the days of the old municipal council, from which water leaks continuously. The corporation currently faces a major challenge of about 28 per cent water leakage, and the administration is trying to curb it. Experienced engineers of the older generation have retired, so newer engineers are finding it hard going when problems arise in the underground pipelines.