The Indian Express              28.10.2013 

Mayor back from Israel with ideas on water management

Returning from a trip to Israel after studying water management practices there, Mayor Subhash Chawla has opined that small sewerage treatment plants could be set up at different places in the city, especially near those places that are to be supplied treated water.

A report of the visit would be prepared that would be tabled in the House.

The Mayor, along with Municipal Commissioner Vivek Pratap Singh and an executive engineer of the Public Health department visited Administrative Staff College of India at Hyderabad and then Israel for the conference wherein officials from other states also participated. Chawla says that instead of setting up treatment plants of larger capacity at one place, smaller ones were installed at Israel. Some were also potable in nature.

The civic body has already spent crores on setting up sewerage treatment plants and also laying a network of pipelines for supplying treated water to all parks and greenbelts under JNNURM. Another technology that the team from the city found useful was for plugging leaks in the pipelines. There is wastage of water in the city due to leakages.

However, with the conditions in Israel being different from Chandigarh, there is not much that can be replicated in the city. With water being scarce in Israel, the price charged from the consumers is quite high. A private company is responsible for the water supply. The Mayor said that sophisticated water meters were installed in Israel. These ensured error-free billing. The cost was, however, between Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 per meter against around Rs 1,500 that is charged in Chandigarh.

Chawla says that the technology that was in use in Israel for water management was quite expensive, adding that it needs to be discussed whether this kind of technology can be adopted in India or not.

The drinking water there is not provided for agriculture like what happens here. Also the water is pumped up from 400 metres in order to cater to the needs of the people.