Private agency to test Citys borewells Deccan Herald

Deccan Herald - Private agency to test Citys borewells: "The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) will outsource the testing of borewells in the City to a private agency.

Tenders have been called for the work, which is expected to begin in a fortnight, BWSSB chairperson G Latha Krishna Rao told Deccan Herald. “We have a laboratory, but it is impossible to test all the parameters because of the huge number of borewells involved. Staff shortage is also an issue,” she said.

Testing the potability of water is one parameter the BWSSB accords great importance to, she added.

There are around 6,400 borewells maintained by the BWSSB and the BBMP, an official source said. Those in the core areas are maintained by the BWSSB and the ones in the newly added zones are looked after by the BBMP. Of these borewells, 2,400 are energised and around 4,000 are hand-pump borewells, the ones mostly seen at parks, slums or by the roadside.

The decision to hand over the BBMP-maintained borewells to the BWSSB — after legal formalities with contractors are completed — was taken at a high-level meeting of both the bodies.

“The advantage of handing this task over to a private party would be the accountability factor. It would ensure that regular testing is done,” the source added.

Numbering

The board has also decided to physically number all the borewells, the BWSSB chairperson said. People can lodge complaints by mentioning the number of a specific borewell. The borewell number will be fed into the Geographic Information System — a computerised database on water supply lines all over the City — to find its location, age and other particulars. This way, the time taken by the BWSSB staff to locate a particular borewell for repair work can be reduced.


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