India, April 2 -- Housing societies in the rapidly growing suburb of Kharghar have urged the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) to stop issuing commencement and occupation certificates to new projects as the area is already reeling under acute water shortage.

On March 28, the Kharghar Cooperative Housing Societies Federation, which has 505 housing societies as members, wrote to CIDCO, saying all societies were facing water shortage and providing details of 125 housing societies that were facing a 30-50% water cut. Residents were managing somehow using water supplied by tankers and feared the situation would become far worse if new projects were sanctioned without any alternative source of water, the federation stated in ...