Water cut never reached 30%, but more pipe bursts in store

Mumbai: Were you surprised at receiving adequate water at home despite the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) imposing a steep water cut last week? The reason that happened was because the water cut was not steep at all. The civic body had doubled the water cut from 15% to 30% on March 24 to save Mumbaikars from a water crisis, following a series of pipeline bursts in the city. However, the cut never really turned out to be 30%.
Despite having lost several million litres of water to the pipeline bursts, the BMC hydraulic department managed to supply almost the same amount of water — 2,900 million litres daily (mld)— as it had been doing since last monsoon. “The city was only subjected to a 2% hike in water cut,” a senior hydraulic department official said.