Pune’s once-a-week water cut began on Thursday, with residents across the city worried that delayed restoration and weak pressure could disrupt supplies through Saturday. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has imposed the shutdown as part of a 10% reduction in water supply after a weak spell of rain in August and September reduced storage in the dams serving the city.
The weekly closure is expected to continue until summer, according to sources in the PMC and the irrigation department. The restriction covers Pune as well as areas merged into the civic limits. In neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad, residents are already receiving water on alternate days, while the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation is yet to decide whether further restrictions will be required.
PMC estimates that the Thursday shutdown could save water equivalent to nearly 40 days of Pune’s requirement. A civic official said that if the measure continued for the next nine months, it could conserve more than 2.1 TMC of water. The decision follows a fall in reservoir levels after the city’s water sources had been close to full capacity earlier in the year.
The combined stock in the four major dams supplying Pune stood at 25.8 TMC on Wednesday, according to the report, compared with 29 TMC on the same day last year. The report also cited dam storage at about 25.7 TMC, or 88%, and noted that nearly 19 TMC of surplus water had been released from Khadakwasla dam into the Mutha river in July, when all five dams supplying Pune were at 100% capacity.
For residents, the immediate concern is not only the day of the shutdown but the time required for the network to stabilise after pumping resumes. Residents have reported that supply restoration can take much longer than the official schedule, with low pressure affecting households even after water returns.
“At present, we are already getting water at low pressure. Now every Thursday there will be a complete shutdown, which will have a cascading effect till Friday,” said Mundhwa resident Atul Lonkar. He urged water supply officials to visit neighbourhoods and assess conditions on the ground.
Aditi Tupe, a resident of Vishrantwadi, said that after previous closures, restoring supply to normal capacity had taken almost a day. “This should not take more than three to four hours,” she said. Her concern highlights the operational challenge facing the PMC: reducing consumption without allowing interruptions to extend beyond the announced shutdown period.
PMC water supply chief Nandkishor Jagtap said pumping operations at all waterworks and overhead tanks would resume on Friday morning. The objective, he said, was to move water into the distribution network quickly. “Our teams will monitor water flow in every zone and take corrective measures wherever required,” Jagtap said.
The Thursday shutdown therefore places pressure on both water conservation and distribution management. The civic administration’s stated saving depends on maintaining the weekly schedule, while residents’ experience will depend on whether the network can restore pressure and supply within the promised timeframe. PMC teams are scheduled to monitor water flow across zones after pumping operations restart on Friday morning.
