Pune’s existing 13% water cut should not be increased to 20% because the Khadakwasla dam chain has sufficient stored water, Sajag Nagrik Manch president Vivek Velankar said in a memorandum submitted to Pune Municipal Corporation Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram.
The civic group’s representation comes ahead of a meeting scheduled for October 28 between the Water Resources Department and representatives of all political parties to discuss Pune’s water supply. The district administration has suggested increasing the water cut to 20%, according to the report.
The Khadakwasla dam chain currently has 25.66 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water in storage, the memorandum said. Based on the available stock and projected demand, Velankar argued that Pune could continue with the existing 13% water cut until August 31, 2027.
Without any water cut, Pune would require an estimated 17.40 TMC between October 2026 and August 2027, according to the figures presented by the organisation. If the city’s water supply is shut every Thursday, the resulting saving would be around 2.40 TMC, reducing the estimated requirement to 15 TMC.
The memorandum further stated that even after reserving water for Pune, adequate storage would remain available for irrigation and drinking-water reservoirs in Daund and Indapur. These calculations form the basis of the group’s opposition to a further reduction in municipal supply, although the final decision will be taken through the institutional process involving the Water Resources Department and other stakeholders.
The dispute places Pune’s water management system under scrutiny at two levels: the quantity available in the reservoirs and the way that water is distributed within the city. A higher water cut would directly affect household supply schedules and municipal operations, while continuing the existing cut would require authorities to rely on the projected savings from the weekly shutdown.
Velankar also asked the Pune Municipal Corporation to publish a white paper on the equal water supply scheme. The organisation said around Rs 2,000 crore had been spent on the scheme over five years and sought publicly available information on how much the expenditure had reduced leakage and how far the objective of equitable water distribution had been achieved.
The October 28 meeting is expected to consider the available storage, Pune’s projected requirement and the proposed 20% water cut. The civic group’s memorandum has added demands for disclosure of the scheme’s outcomes to the immediate question of how much water should be supplied to the city.
