The Indian Express 14.03.2013
After power tariff hike, MC proposes hiking water bills
After the proposed electricity hike, city residents should ready
themselves for another shock as the Municipal Corporation made a
presentation to UT Advisor K K Sharma, on Wednesday, for hiking water
tariff.
The hike could be especially substantial in the higher slabs where water consumption is more.
The municipal corporation spends Rs 80 crore on water
distribution and maintenance, while the revenue collected is around Rs
55 crore. While the tariff was increased three years back, the hike had
not been sufficient.
While the quantum of hike is yet to be decided, it is proposed
that the hike should be more in the higher slabs. Interestingly, even
though the southern sectors are more thickly populated, the consumption
of water is higher in the northern sectors. The northern sectors that
house 30 per cent of the population consume around 70 per cent of the
water.
In these sectors, the consumption is as high as 1000 litres per
person per day, while in the southern sectors it is 150 litres per
person per day.
The gap is attributed to the use of water for the purpose of
watering lawns. Officials state that some northern sector houses have
swimming pools that are filled with potable water.
It is also proposed that these houses have connections for
tertiary treated water for watering lawns. Meters will also be installed
with these connections to ensure residents make use of the tertiary
treated water.
Another issue on which discussion was held was that of having
24×7 water supply in the city. Officials opine that this would reduce
the wastage of water. In fact the experiment has proven to be successful
in several places where this was started.
An issue of concern for the summers is that there is no additional water
supply. The Administration had wanted that canal water be supplied to
the 13 villages under its purview as well as the IT Park. The officials
informed that the city gets 87 mgd of water. Of this 6 mgd would have to
be given to Panchkula and 3 mgd to Chandimandir once the pipeline is
laid.
