The Ane water crisis has eased temporarily after the administration began supplying tankers to the Junnar taluka village on Thursday, following a warning by the gram panchayat that residents would launch a road blockade over the prolonged disruption. The Belhe Regional Water Supply Scheme has remained shut for around one and a half months, forcing residents to buy drinking water as local sources declined.
The tanker arrangement was started after the gram panchayat submitted representations to the district collector, Junnar MLA Sharad Sonawane, the panchayat samiti and the Alephata police station. With the immediate supply restored through tankers, the proposed road blockade has been suspended for now.
Ane’s local wells have recorded a decline in available water after lower rainfall in the area this year. The village has therefore been dependent on the Belhe regional scheme, but the scheme has been non-functional since 9 September, according to the report. The second phase of the scheme has also not yet started, adding to the pressure on households that rely on the regional network.
Residents had faced difficulty obtaining water for daily use and drinking. The disruption also required some people to pay for privately supplied water. Local representatives said the tanker service provided temporary relief but did not resolve the underlying failure of the regional supply system.
Deputy sarpanch Suhas Aher said the closed supply from the Belhe scheme should be restored immediately. He said the road blockade had been suspended because tankers were arranged, but a permanent restoration was necessary to remove the inconvenience faced by villagers.
Contractor Mangesh Shinde attributed the interruption to a burst pipeline at Rajuri. He said construction at the location had made it impossible to repair the old pipeline. Work on laying a new pipeline has consequently begun, and he said the work would be completed within four to five days, after which water supply to Ane would be resumed.
The incident has exposed the dependence of a village network on a regional scheme at a time when local groundwater availability has weakened. Until the replacement pipeline is completed and the scheme becomes operational, tankers remain the immediate arrangement reported for residents. The next stated milestone is completion of the new pipeline at Rajuri and restoration of the Belhe regional water supply to Ane within the contractor’s four-to-five-day timeline.
