BWSSB to seek government nod to launch sale of water through tankers
The election code of conduct has delayed the Bangalore Water Supply
and Sewerage Board’s ambitious initiative to sell water in tankers at a
reasonable price this summer.
The move is aimed at preventing the private water sellers from charging exorbitant prices.
BWSSB
Engineer-in-Chief T Venkataraju said, “Despite getting the new water
tankers in time, we could not launch our programme to sell water at
affordable prices to the people in the city as the elections were
announced. As the code of conduct will be in force till May 15, we will
have to seek the necessary permission from the new government to launch
this initiative.”
As there is a huge demand for water supplied in
tankers, the BWSSB had procured 30 new tankers for selling the surplus
water that is being pumped to the city from Cauvery IV Stage II Phase
Drinking water project.
It is supposed to allot one tanker each to
its 28 sub-divisions, exclusively for supplying water to the consumers
who buy it directly by the ground level reservoirs in each sub-division.
The
private tanker owners are charging Rs 500 for a tanker that can hold
4,000 litres of water. The BWSSB has also announced that it will charge
Rs 360 for 6,000 litres of water as the tankers procured by it are
bigger in size.
The BWSSB is already supplying water through its
existing fleet of 35 tankers freely to the areas that do not receive
adequate water supply.
Its move to sell water was expected to
minimise the depletion of ground water levels as the private water
suppliers are drawing more than 200 MLD of ground water leading to
severe depletion of ground water levels.
