Nagpur will not face an immediate water cut despite the Maharashtra government’s directive to reduce supply by 10%, with the Nagpur Municipal Corporation choosing to target leakages and illegal connections across its distribution network instead.
The civic body said it would continue pumping 740 million litres per day (MLD) from the Totladoh reservoir and the Kanhan river for now. Mayor Neeta Thakre told the Times of India that the corporation would review reservoir conditions before deciding whether to reduce supply or continue with the current arrangement.
“We will analyse the status of the reservoirs in the coming days and take a decision on whether to reduce supply or continue with the current arrangement,” Thakre said.
The immediate conservation strategy is centred on reducing non-revenue water (NRW), which refers to treated water that does not generate revenue because it is lost through leakages, unauthorised connections and other distribution failures. Of the 740 MLD supplied to Nagpur, around 259 MLD—nearly 35%—is classified as NRW, according to the civic body’s figures cited in the report.
A 10% reduction in the city’s present supply would amount to 74 MLD every day. NMC is seeking to meet that conservation objective without imposing an immediate reduction on household supply. The approach places the short-term responsibility for compliance on the civic administration rather than on consumers.
NMC superintending engineer Shweta Banerjee said the civic body had saved 300 million litres over the previous six days through measures that included repairing leaks and converting illegal connections into legal ones. That reported saving works out to an average of 50 MLD per day during the period.
Banerjee said the corporation would continue repairing leakages and taking action against illegal connections. The scale of the reported losses, however, means that maintaining the strategy will depend on whether the savings can be sustained across the city’s network.
The decision comes as reservoir levels remain a concern. The civic body has not announced an immediate reduction in pumping, but the mayor’s statement indicates that supply arrangements will be reviewed as the status of the reservoirs becomes clearer.
NMC has also appealed to residents not to waste treated drinking water on activities such as washing cars and cleaning roads. For households, the immediate outcome is continued supply at existing levels. The next decision will follow the corporation’s assessment of reservoir conditions and the progress of its leakage-control and illegal-connection measures.
