Pune Municipal Corporation leaders will meet Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis next week to seek adequate water for the city until the next monsoon, amid uncertainty over the civic body’s 13 TMC allocation and ongoing weekly water cuts.
PMC standing committee chairperson Shrinath Bhimale said local leaders would travel to Mumbai for the meeting and press for arrangements that ensure uninterrupted drinking-water supply for residents through the remaining months before the next monsoon. “All leaders are of the opinion that city residents must receive adequate water supply until the next monsoon,” Bhimale said, according to the Times of India.
The city is currently facing water cuts once a week. The possibility of increasing the restriction to two days a week is under discussion, but Bhimale said a final decision was likely to be deferred until after Diwali. Any such change would directly affect household supply schedules across PMC limits.
The immediate dispute centres on the city’s water quota. Although 13 TMC was officially allotted to PMC at the recent Khadakwasla canal committee meeting, the civic administration has expressed doubt about whether it will receive the full allocation over the next 10 months. The concern follows PMC’s consumption of approximately 6 TMC during the previous four months.
The reported uncertainty highlights the administrative structure behind Pune’s water supply. The civic corporation manages distribution within the city, while allocation and reservoir management involve the state irrigation department and canal committee decisions. The irrigation department has been pressing for an alternate-day water supply model within PMC limits, citing depleted stocks in the dams.
Bhimale said drinking water remained the priority and that party leaders would take all necessary steps, including seeking the chief minister’s intervention, to protect the city’s supply. He also said he had not attended the canal committee meeting at which the 13 TMC allocation was made.
City-based activists have separately asked the irrigation department to disclose its water-management plan until the next monsoon. They cited 23 TMC of water currently available in the dams and sought publication of the exact quantities reserved for urban and rural areas.
The next formal step reported by PMC leaders is their meeting with the chief minister in Mumbai next week. The question of whether Pune’s weekly cuts will be increased is expected to be considered after Diwali, while the irrigation department’s allocation and reservoir-management details remain central to the city’s supply planning.
