E-Paper
Chandigarh: Water wastage a routine, summer ban notwithstanding
Five days from now, on April 1, the MC will start its drive to stop wastage of water. For the three months ending June 30, there will be a ban on washing cars, watering of courtyards and lawns banned during morning hours, checking wastage of water due to overflow from overhead or underground water tanks, leakage in pipeline and leakage or overflow from desert coolers.
Five days from now, on April 1, the MC will start its drive to stop wastage of water. For the three months ending June 30, there will be a ban on washing cars, watering of courtyards and lawns banned during morning hours, checking wastage of water due to overflow from overhead or underground water tanks, leakage in pipeline and leakage or overflow from desert coolers.
Any violation of this invites a fine of Rs 2,000 from any of the 16 teams of three members each that the MC has formed to implement the ban.
However, the drive has rarely failed to a difference to the colossal water that the city wastes, around 20 MGD, enough to cater to daily demand of 48,000 houses. One MGD is equal to 4.5 lakh litres. This wastage is also 75% of the demand-supply shortage that the city has of 29 MGD.
500 CHALLANS DURING SUMMER MONTHS OVER PAST TWO YEARS
The water wastage causes a loss of Rs10 crore a day to the MC. Against this, the MC’s collection from fines over these two years has been a meagre Rs 10 lakh. This is calculated as the civic body has fined around 500 people all this time Rs 2,000 each. Records show that 248 people were fined in 2015 and 252 in 2016.
So, the summer ban drive is more or less a cosmetic exercise with no real difference expected to be made to the water wastage scenario. However, there are other methods/policy steps that the MC could take to really tackle the issue.
The first is the installation of water gauges to check water pressure so that it is distributed equitably.
The second step could be to keep a check on internal (underground) water supply distribution system and the leakages around it.
During summers, if MC officials learn to adjust the distribution across pipes, a lot of water could be saved. However, sources claimed that it is rarely done.
Another project that has not been implemented is the Tertiary Treated Water Supply project.
The Rs 15-crore TT project was commissioned to cater to houses of one kanal and above (nearly 5,000) in the city, but only 700 connections have been allotted till date.
OFFICIAL TAKE
Underground leakage will be tackled under the Smart City project when the system will be overhauled. We also plan to give 24x7 supply to residents. NP Sharma, MC chief engineer
