To set things right, damaged sections of mainline pipes (the cause of various kinds of organic and chemical contamination) in a 3000-kilometre network will first have to be located before they can be repaired or replaced. (Connecting pipes which carry water from the mains to consumers are also not in the best repair and will need attention before too long). Finding damaged mains appears to be the hardest part because, disgracefully, Water Works engineers do not have comprehensive maps of the water and sewage network. Furthermore, the only direct access to the mains is from above; that meansdigging down to the pipeline. A civic engineer talks of building a tunnel from Parel through Mahalaxmi to Malabar Hill. This kind of approach sounds quite hare-brained. First, it would reveal only part of the entrails of the city and second, though some contractors might love digging up the whole city, there are better ways of zeroing in on damaged pipes.

Exactly what that way is the BMC has not discovered yet. Civic officials say they are trying to figure out something. Trial and error methods and random digs will not do. Nor should the BMC go about it in piecemeal fashion, waiting for complaints from consumers before doing an emergency fix on a part of the pipeline. Alarm bells are ringing. What is required is a systematic job of locating, replacing, repairing, mapping, cleaning and reinforcing the mains. Civic engineers might throw up some workable ideas on how best to do it but the BMC should also waste no time consulting outside scientists and engineers. There is more than one available technologywhich can be used to test the fitness of pipes efficiently, at low cost and without turning Mumbai into a lunar landscape. After that it is a matter of setting priorities and getting on with repairs.