He was speaking at the inaugural function of the two-day seminar on `Drinking water supply pipelines lifelines, challenges and opportunities', organised by the Indian Water Works Association (IWWA). Mayor Devendra Phadnavis inaugurated the seminar while former member secretary of Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran S S Patwardhan chaired the function.

Rangnathan said the topic was all more important in the background of depleting water sources and ever increasing demand of drinking water in proportion to increasing population. He said since the sources were limited, huge investments were required to meet the demands.

The State Government has already constituted a committee to study the subject from the point of view of reviewing standards and technological upgradation and hoped thatthe seminar would help participants in formulating recommendations through discussions and deliberations. He said the seminar would particularly help field engineers.

Mayor Phadnavis stressed the State Government's resolve to make all the villages in the state `tanker-free' before the end of the century.