City water supply disrupted for 24 hours by one mouse!

Aurangabad, Feb 19:

Believe it or not. The water supply made by the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to the city was disrupted for 24 long hours by one mouse.

It so happened that a technical snag (short circuit) took place in the panel board supplying power to motor pumps of the main pump house lifting water from the Jayakwadi Dam on Thursday early morning. The AMC team launched a search to detect the cause and found a dead mouse lying stuck in the panel board. The short circuit had also damaged the area transformer. It is learnt that the mouse entered the electric panel board and then bite the cable. In this attempt, it sustained electric shock got dead inside the panel.

The deputy engineer B D Ghule and his team replaced the defunct transformer and completed the testing process by 4 pm. Accordingly, the lifting of water through the main pump house was resumed, and the water arrived at the Pharola's treatment plant at 6 pm. After three hours, the water got treated, and the supply started to the ESRs after 9.30 pm. The overhead tanks got filled with water till Friday at 4 am. The AMC then started supplying water to Cidco-Hudco areas which had deprived of water from Wednesday. The AMC supplied water to most of the city areas during the whole day today, said the executive engineer (water supply) Kiran Dhande.

It took almost 24 hours for the technical team to replace the damaged cable, complete other repair works and restored the water supply from Friday morning. Meanwhile, the public representatives were consistently in touch with the water supply officials to know the status of the water supply to convince the public at their offices, it is learnt.