If the repeated complaints regarding the plugging of water pipeline leakages and contamination crop up in your area are not being adressed effectively, you can blame it on shortage of civic labourers.

Of the 6,000 labourers in the hydraulic department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), 3,000 belong to the construction department, which handles are responsible for works like plugging pipelines leakages and fixing contamination problems across 24 administrative ward offices.

While 1,200 labourers are responsible for city and western suburbs each, over 800 men carry out repair work in the eastern suburbs. But, with around 1,000 of the 3,000-plus posts being vacant, plugging leaks is getting to be cumbersome for the civic agency.

“Some administrative wards are tackling public grievances armed with only 50-60% labour force. The problem is graver in bigger admininstrative wards (which have over 10 electoral wards), given that fewer labourers must work for extended periods to attend to the massive number of complaints arising from a bigger population,” sources said.

While additional BMC commissioner Rajiv Jalota said the paucity of men was not a big issue as seven contractors are being employed for additional workload, citizens’ groups said the contractors’ men were no match for the trained BMC labourers.

James John, one of the zonal heads of NGO Agni, said, “Unskilled labourers unaware of the pipeline layout end up doing an inferior job, thus losing water and revenue, even as contamination poses threat to public health.”