Since it was built in 2006, the society had been resorting to tankers to augment its weak supply of water that the civic body has failed to address despite repeated representations. Last Friday, the PMC snapped its remaining link - its drinking water supply. Now it is forced to compete with a surging demand from other parts of the city as well for their mainline supplier - the private tanker operator. Adding to their woes, the tanker operator has also jacked up its rates.

“On June 24 , the tanker operator increased the fee from Rs 225 to Rs 350. On Wednesday, he was charging Rs 400 per tanker. But despite the increased rates, he has told us that the water supply cannot be assured because of increased demand from other societies,” said Ashfaque Omer, chairman of the society. Supreme Green Woods was shelling out around Rs 45,000 a month as its water tanker bill; the residents expect it to climb to Rs 60,000 this month.

Even though the society needs around 10 tankers a day, it manages to get only two-three tankers. “We had to ask our members to buy their own drinking water as the PMC supply has as good as stopped,” said Satish Nair, treasurer of the society.

Tanker operators say they cannot promise water supply as the bore wells are also drying up. “We have to wait for two hours to fill one tanker. If we made 10 trips earlier, it has come down to four. Now the demand for water has doubled, but we are not able to supply water to all of them,” said Nitin Nanaware, a tanker operator who supplies water to around 15 housing societies . At Sarvodaya Cooperative Housing Society, members were used to 24 hours water supply till recently; now they have to make do with a one-hour supply. “We get water supply for 20 minutes to half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon,” said a member from the society.

The situation is quite bleak at Koregaon Park where many housing societies have put locks on the motor so that members cannot switch it on at will.

Municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade said the corporation was meeting on Thursday to finalise a comprehensive plan to tackle the water scarcity. “I have asked for detailed information on the number of water connections in the city and how many societies are illegally tapping into the city water,” he said. Clearly, the one segment that is benefiting from the ongoing water shortage are the bottled water manufacturers. “We have recorded an increase of 15-20 per cent in revenue since June 15. Normally, the monsoon is an off-season, but this time we are doing good business,” said Shekhar Mundada, president of the Maharashtra Bottled Water Association.

Several shops in the city have already begun selling the branded one-litre bottles at Rs 15 up from Rs 13 only a few days ago. The branded five-litre bottles are still going at Rs 45 and the local 20-litre pack brands at Rs 60 . Meanwhile, the aggregate water storage in the dams touched 0.5 TMC, enough to last another 10 days.