Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will send teams to request residents to not use water supplied by the civic body to wash multiple cars and driveways every day and to “conservatively” water plants, officials said.
The civic body has 41 wards. Of them, the 10 wards in the planned township of Salt Lake have the maximum number of privately owned vehicles per household, a senior official of the civic body said.
Salt Lake needs around 15 million gallons of water every day. Earlier, the Tallah-Palta network used to supply around 8 million gallons (MGD). Now, the township gets around 10-12 MGD from the New Town water treatment plant and the deficit is bridged with underground water.
However, with summer at its peak, the demand for water has gone up by at least 1.5-2 MGD, a BMC official said.
According to the official, although water supply across all three sectors has remained constant on average, the soaring temperatures have resulted in an increased demand for water because of various factors such as watering gardens multiple times and washing multiple cars daily.
Many Salt Lake residents park their cars on roads and the vehicles get heated up during the day.
The civic body is going to send teams to request residents to refrain from washing multiple vehicles or driveways every day as several blocks have been complaining of a dip in supply, officials said.
“We have observed that residents across all sectors of the township have been using filtered water supplied by the civic body to wash multiple vehicles. In several places, we have observed that a vehicle is washed nearly every time someone boards it. This results in wastage of water,” said the official.
“If someone has more than one car, don’t wash all of them every day.” As for gardens, the residents will be requested to prevent wastage while watering plants and to not water plants multiple times a day.
“We are not going to fine anybody. This is a general advisory and residents will be requested to act sensibly and not waste water,” the official said.
On Wednesday, a number of Salt Lake residents told The Telegraph that they were sourcing water from bowsers operated by NGOs and other organisations as the supply from the civic body was far from enough.
“We are often having to purchase water from private tankers that operate in Salt Lake,” said Kanaklata Choudhury, a resident of CF Block in Salt Lake’s Sector I.
Several blocks in the township are witnessing a construction boom as single and two-storeyed houses are being razed to make way for structures with three or more floors. Many such buildings have rooftop swimming pools and gardens.
“The demand for water in those buildings is much higher than single or double-storeyed buildings,” the official said.
