A faulty mechanical water meter at the Jnana Bharati campus of
Bangalore University (BU) caused a monthly revenue loss of at least Rs
36,000 to BWSSB for over 10 years.

Though BU consumes
approximately 2 million litres of water every month, the old meter
reportedly recorded less than half the used amount. The BWSSB charges
`36 for every kilolitre of water after consumption crosses a certain
slab. Ironically, as BWSSB does not have any scientific means to
substantiate its findings of loss of revenue at BU, it cannot charge the
University for the ‘unrecorded’ usage.

BWSSB engineer in-chief T
Venkatraju said, “The defect in the meter came to light only after we
replaced it with an advanced digital meter as part of our automated
meter-reading project.” He said mechanical meters are inefficient and
become defective, and it is difficult to ascertain if they are defective
and malfunctioning. “We are planning to replace the existing mechanical
meters at the premises of bulk consumers with digital meters to ensure
that readings are accurate,” he said. According to BWSSB sources, the
Board is likely to ask commercial and bulk users to bear the cost of
replacing the existing meters with digital ones.

The BWSSB is
implementing a pilot project to make the meter-reading process automatic
by installing digital meters programmed to transmit usage data to a
centralised server. The data from the meter will be updated on the BWSSB
website and can be accessed by consumers.

The project is expected
to help BWSSB minimise losses from use of unaccounted-for water, which
currently stands at over 40 per cent. Moreover, it will help regulate
the flow of water to ensure equitable distribution.