Mandalay City Development Committee officials inspect a test run of the booster pump station.

MANDALAY City Development Committee has increased the water supply in the city by 1.5 million gallons, to 25.5 million gallons.

The increase was made possible by the completion last week of two booster pumps and two tube wells which each produce 50,000 gallons an hour, said MCDC officials.

An MCDC member, Lieutenant-Colonel Kyaw Win, said 25,000 residents within a one mile radius of the booster pump station were benefiting from the increase.

“Residents living between 56th and 62nd streets and those living between 32nd and Theikpan streets are getting one and a half million gallons of potable water every day,” he told Myanmar Times.

Lieutenant-Colonel Kyaw Win said the number of tube wells operated by the MCDC stood at 32 and more than 18,000 were run by the private sector.

However, he said the increase in the pipeline network was yet to meet the daily requirement of 37 million gallons for Mandalay’s 850,000 residents.

The balance of more than 10 million gallons a day is being met from the moat around the old royal palace, which is supplied by the Se-Daw Gyi Dam in Mandalay Division, he said.

Apart from the pipeline network, there are more than 1500 households in Mandalay linked to supplies from the moat. The MCDC has also built 68 storage tanks throughout the city for bathing and washing.

Lieutenant-Colonel Kyaw Win said another four tube wells would be built by the end of the year and provide an extra 7.5 million gallons a day.