People in Latur are facing a water crisis despite a healthy monsoon in 2019 with officials admitting that supply to home taps is now once in 15 days, with the situation worsening because of disconnection of the civic body’s power supply due to non-payment of bills.
Latur is part of the perennially parched Marathwada region and is Maharashtra’s 16th largest city, often in the news for crippling shortage which require the running of ‘jaldoot’ or water wagon trains for its five lakh residents.
A Latur Municipal Corporation (LMC) official said there has been no supply of municipal water for the last six days. He said the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) on February 20 disconnected power supply of the LMC due to non-payment of bills running to several crores of rupees. Due to disconnection of power supply, the LMC could not operate the supply mechanism from Harangul, Nagzari, Sai and Varvanti water purification facilities, an official said.
The Latur civic body pays around ₹70 lakh for power supply every month. “The electricity dues now stand at ₹4.19 crore. We were supplying water to five lakh Latur residents once in six days but this frequency has now worsened to 15 days. Efforts are on to restore power supply and arrangements (to pay the MSEDCL dues) are under way,” LMC executive engineer Vijay Cholkhane told PTI on Monday.
Mayor Vikrant Gojamgunde, later in the evening, said power bills of one month would be paid to the MSEDCL on Tuesday and water supply would normalise in the days to come.
“We had a meeting with MSEDCL officials. They too have not paid some of our bills raised for various civic works. We will pay the MSEDCL ₹70 lakh on Tuesday. Water supply to areas under the LMC will become routine soon,” Mr. Gojamgunde said.
The BJP is the largest party in the 70-member LMC though the Mayor belongs to the Congress. Later in the evening, BJP workers held a protest in front of the LMC headquarters against the erratic water supply and clanged empty pots.
