Ratnagiri council plans Monday water shutdown, 10% cut from Tuesday to avoid summer shortage
Ratnagiri Municipal Council will shut water supply every Monday and cut supply by 10 per cent to make the Shil dam stock last, while the Panwal dam is expected to supply the city in two months.
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To ensure that Ratnagiri city does not face a water shortage in the coming days, the Ratnagiri Municipal Council has drawn up a water-saving plan. Nimesh Nair, the council's water committee chairman, announced this at a press conference. Council president Shilpatai Surve and vice-president Samir Tiwarekar were also present and briefed journalists on the water policy.
The city gets most of its water from the Shil dam, which is currently 99 per cent full. However, temperatures are expected to rise further, which will speed up evaporation and could deplete the stock. Keeping this in mind, the council has decided, as a precaution, to start planned water cuts now. The council's main aim is to ensure there is no water shortage in the city over the next five to six months.
Under the plan, water supply will be shut down every Monday. The cut will begin from the coming Tuesday with a 10 per cent reduction in water supply. The city needs 20 MLD of water a day. The Monday shutdown will save about 80 MLD a month, which will help the stock last longer. In addition, the daily supply time will be cut by 15 minutes to prevent wastage. According to Nair, these measures will make the current stock last until April and May.
Alongside conserving the Shil dam's water, the council has also begun work in earnest on other and new sources. The biggest relief is that the city will start receiving water from the newly built Panwal dam after two months. The Panwal dam has plenty of water at present, but technical hurdles were holding up its delivery to the city. The work of connecting the pipeline from the dam was stuck, so the water could not be used directly until now. All obstacles to this work have now been cleared and it has been speeded up.
Laying a 1,300-metre main pipeline to bring water from the Panwal dam to the city had been left incomplete. Because of this unfinished work, the dam's water could not be used by the people of Ratnagiri despite its plentiful stock. However, after the intervention of the guardian minister and the district collector, the issue of the contractors' pending bills and funds has been resolved. The administration has expressed confidence that the work of connecting the 1,300-metre pipeline will be completed within the next two months.
