Panvel City Municipal Corporation is facing renewed pressure over water scarcity after civic officials said water from Morbe dam cannot currently be drawn for the PCMC area because the resource was allocated to private projects in 2019.
The demand to use the dam, located in Panvel taluka near Taloja MIDC and outside PCMC limits, was raised by PCMC opposition leader and former Raigad Zilla Parishad vice-president Arvind Mhatre. Mhatre has proposed installing a pipeline and filtration plant to bring the water into the civic area.
PCMC executive engineer for water supply Vilas Chavan said the civic body had previously attempted to take over the dam. “We have attempted to take over the dam. But the dam has been allocated to a few persons for their project in Aug 2019. Hence the dam water cannot be drawn,” Chavan said.
Mhatre claimed the water could be supplied to the corporation area by investing between Rs 5 crore and Rs 10 crore in a pipeline, filtration unit and other supporting infrastructure. He and Congress corporator Haresh Keni recently visited the dam to assess the possibility of using it as an additional source.
Morbe dam is a 66.5-metre-high structure whose construction began in 1970 and was completed in 1974. The report describes it as having a 110 MLD capacity, while also stating that its supply capacity is 2 MLD. Its water storage area covers 45.7 acres within a total area of 243 hectares.
The dam currently supplies water downstream to Morbe, Chinchvali, Dohere Pada and Kondle villages. Any proposal to redirect or expand its use for PCMC would therefore involve questions about existing allocations, downstream supply and the infrastructure required to treat and transport the water.
The dispute highlights the administrative difficulty of adding a nearby water source when ownership, allocation and operating responsibilities are divided between civic and irrigation authorities. Although Morbe dam is geographically close to the corporation area, PCMC officials have said proximity alone does not allow the civic body to draw from it.
The immediate issue remains unresolved: the opposition has called for a pipeline and filtration project, while the civic administration maintains that the dam water cannot be drawn under the existing allocation. No implementation timeline for the proposed infrastructure was provided in the report.
