"The city will be getting an additional 300 MLD water from the Bhatsa reservoir and within five years Mumbai can get 24x7 water supply after the Middle Vaitarna project's completion," Additional Municipal Commissioner Manukumar Srivastav said.

He, however, maintained that the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai's claim is based after considering the approximate increase in the metropolis' population.

Srivastav, while talking to the media, stressed that the MCGM will have to enhance the distribution network and reduce wastage of water during transportation in order to achieve the goal.

"We are presently conducting a three-side evaluation of increasing water supply to the city through source augmentation, demand side management and supply side management," he said.

The MCGM plans to replace several old pipelines -- some of which are a 100 years old -- with new ones and also plans to replace the water tax system with the universal water meter system wherein the consumers are charged according to their usage.

"If the consumers are charged according to their usage, they become very conscious and hence we can save water," he said. Many senior municipal officers, including municipal commissioner Johnny Joseph were present at the interaction with the media.

Senior municipal corporation officials, however, said the uninterrupted water supply announcement must not be confused with the privatisation experiment, which they have undertaken. Under its Water Distribution Improvement Project, the civic body had chosen a private French consulting firm, Castalia, based in New Zealand, for advising on privatisation of water supply in K-Ward.

If the pilot project is a success, then it will be replicated in all the other wards of the city.