Monday, September 6, 2010

City is the second highest water waster in country

City is the second highest water waster in country

Bangalore is the second highest water waster in country
Ajith Athrady, New Delhi, March 12, DH News Service:

This is one issue Bangalore cannot wash its hands of. The City has earned itself the dubious distinction of being the worst waster of precious drinking water after Delhi.


A stinging scenario.Although in the midst of a severe water crisis, 50.9 per cent of the City’s drinking water is allowed to go waste, and it is second only to Delhi which tops in the country among mega cities in wasting of water. The national capital wastes 52.4 per cent supplied to it.
A study by the Union Ministry of Urban Development on sanitation as well as urban water supply situation in 28 cities across the country has revealed that only 50.8 per cent of Bangalore’s population has access to piped water supply. The rest depend on unorganised water supply sources like open wells and bore wells.

Of the urban areas surveyed, seven mega cities – Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad – are the major culprits from where there were reports of the highest quantity of water wastage – ranging from 13 per cent to 52 per cent. However, among the same cities, Mumbai has been credited with wasting the least quantity of water – 13 per cent – followed by Chennai with 17 per cent.

Wasted water, or non-revenue water, is fed into the system but does not reach the consumer either due to pilferage, including leak in pipes, theft, illegal diversion or non-metering.

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), the body which manages the City’s water supply, has proved its effectiveness in revenue collection as well as metering which has reached up to 97 per cent households.

However, when it comes to addressing public grievances, it is attending to just 86 per cent complaints, the survey discovered.

The survey also involved finding out the deficiencies of civic agencies in providing quality water to consumers as well as set right their problems, a senior Urban Development Ministry official told Deccan Herald.

Bangalore is getting 900 million litres of water per day (MLD) against a demand of 1,125 MLD. In addition to this, the BWSSB’s on-going scheme to provide nearly 45,000 new water connections is indication that the demand for water is growing with every passing year.

Apart from the core areas in the City’s old 100 wards, BWSSB is also supplying water to 74 newly added wards.

While the supply in the core areas is once in two days, it is almost once in five days in the newly included wards.

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