KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has taken up a comprehensive water augmentation scheme to supply filtered water to every corner of the city. While presenting the KMC Budget 2019-20, mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday announced that Rs 406 crore will be spent to produce filtered water and laying of pipelines to every household that depend on ground water at present.The KMC authorities were asked to make a blueprint for providing filtered water to residents living in ‘ground water’ zones after chief minister Mamata Banerjee had asked Hakim to adopt extensive projects to provide safe drinking water to Kolkatans. Banerjee had particularly pointed out the plight of those living in the Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt and the areas off EM Bypass. Dependence on ground water in these parts of the city has often led to an outbreak of enteric diseases. Besides, extensive withdrawal of ground water has, in many places, led to the possibility of arsenic contamination.The first major project that the civic body conceived was the construction of a reservoir with a capacity to store 3 million gallon filtered water every day. Currently, the Jai Hind water treatment plant at Dhapa has the capacity to produce 30 million filtered water daily. However, KMC could not tap the optimum capacity of the treatment plant for want of booster pumping stations and laying of pipelines to areas off EM Bypass. According to a water management plan, the KMC water supply department will set up several booster pumping stations and underground reservoirs at Kasba, Anandapur, Patuli and Pachannagram along EM Bypass to enable residents of these areas get filtered water from the Dhapa plant. The civic body will also need to lay water pipelines in some south Kolkata areas so that residents of Jadavpur, Ganguly Bagan and Baghajatin get treated water.Similarly, the KMC has decided to set up a booster pumping station at Garia and augment the capacity of an existing booster pumping stations at Bansdroni to supply uniterrupted filtered water to large areas of the Garia-Bansdroni belt.With an objective to provide filtered water to Metiabruz, Garden Reach, Kidderpore and Ekbalpore, the civic body has planned to augment capacity of the Wattgung water treatment plant and construct two booster pumping stations, one each at Kidderpore and Metiabruz. For residents of Joka and Behala, KMC has planned construction of two booster pumping stations. The KMC water supply department has good news for some residents of Bhowanipore, Lake Gardens and Dhakuria as well. The civic body has planned construction of three booster pumping stations to offer them filtered water.

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