Politics to policy shifts, how Mumbai’s 640 MLD water security plans dried up

With Mumbai grappling under severe water shortage owing to the depleting levels in the lakes and reservoirs that supply water to Mumbai, the city is feeling the pinch of the delay in executing two major water supply projects with additional strain on water supply sources due to a delayed monsoon and rising heat levels.

Being an island city, Mumbai is dependent on seven lakes — Tulsi, Vihar, Tansa, Bhatsa, Modak Sagar, Upper Vaitarna and Middle Vaitarna for its daily water supply. The catchment areas of these lakes get filled during the monsoon and throughout the year, water is supplied to households and establishments from these lakes through pipelines and water supply tunnels.

However, this dependence on monsoon-fed reservoirs could have been substantially reduced had two major water supply projects, the Gargai Dam Project and the proposed Desalination Plant progressed on schedule. Instead, repeated changes in political leadership at the state and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and technical complexities pertaining to these projects led to shifting priorities, reviews, and delays in these projects, preventing the city from achieving greater water self-sufficiency despite rapidly growing demand.

The Gargai Dam project meant to have a capacity of 440 million liters daily (MLD), while the desalination plant was supposed to have a capacity of supplying 200 MLD of water.

Overall, the delay of these two projects resulted in Mumbai missing out on 640 MLD of additional water supply.

Gargai Dam project stalls

The Gargai dam project was proposed in 2015 by the Devendra Fadnavis led Mahayuti Government. This project was meant to add 400 MLD to Mumbai’s current water supply, which at present stands at around 3,900 MLD. The project involved construction of a 69-metre high dam at Gargai River in the Palghar district of Maharashtra. The project was also meant to have increased storage capacity and provided an additional reservoir within the existing water-supply network. Civic officials said that this project was also proposed keeping in mind climate induced risks like delayed rainfall and drought conditions. The civic documents showed that this dam would be operational by 2025.

Later, after forming the government in 2019, the Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government stalled this proposal citing environmental concerns. The project was located in an environmentally sensitive area and would have required diversion of about 845 hectares of forest land, and impacted more than 3 lakh trees.

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This led to the project losing its momentum and delaying the process of acquiring environmental clearances from various government agencies. While the MVA government stayed in power for three years in the state, this project didn’t witness any movement. However, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena-led Mahayuti alliance formed its majority in the BMC earlier this year, this project was again brought to the table.

Desalination plant project delayed

After stalling the progress of the Gargai dam project, the then MVA government and Shiv Sena (undivided) majority regime in BMC proposed a desalination plant, taking queues from countries like Israel that are surrounded by sea. The proposed plant would be coming up at Manori at the western suburbs of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). This plant would be treating 200 MLD of saline sea water scientifically making it fit for potable usage.

In 2021, the BMC had signed an MoU with an Israeli water specialist firm to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) which was submitted the following year to the administration. However, after the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti alliance formed the government in 2022, the project lost its momentum and the studies were reviewed.

In 2020, BJP leader — Ashish Shelar had written to the civic administration asking them to find an alternative to the desalination plant. Later, after forming a government in the state Shelar had maintained that projects like the Desalination plant are expensive in nature and conventional dam projects like the Gargai plant should be prioritised over this project.

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Initially, the desalination plant was supposed to be completed by late 2025. In a recent social media post, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray criticised the current government for allegedly stalling this project.

“Had the BJP regime not scrapped our desalination project in 2022, it would have been operating by 2025 and no shortfall would have occurred,” the post read.

Current status

The desalination plant however was pushed ahead by the civic administration and in March 2024, the first tender was floated. Despite extending the tender deadline multiple times the tender failed to get any response from bidders and the next year a new tender was floated. Following which two bidders were shortlisted and civic officials said that the project will see its completion by 2029 and the overall cost escalated to Rs 3,200 crore.

Meanwhile, the Gargai dam project was cleared by the civic standing committee in April this year and the construction works are to begin by October. Pegged at Rs 3,000 crore the dam is supposed to become operational by 2030.

“For the Gargai dam project there was a direct political opposition since the MVA government opposed it officially citing environmental hazards, however for the desalination plant, there was more of a technical complexities that lead to the slowing down of progress for the project,” an official privy to both the projects told the Indian Express.

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“The desalination plant that we have proposed is one of the firsts in India and there are very few executing agencies that are available to construct it. Therefore, it took us more than a year to finalise the bidder. At present, the project is on track and set to be operational by 2030,” the official added.