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Water Supply

City’s Rs 1,100 cr plug to check water leaks

Wednesday, 20 October 2010 06:16 administrator
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The Deccan Chronicle  20.10.2010

City’s Rs 1,100 cr plug to check water leaks

Oct. 19: The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has come up with an ambitious plan to plug water leaks in the city. It has proposed a Rs 1,100-crore project with the aim of reducing 200 mld of water loss. The BWSSB has been losing 41 per cent of its water as it is unaccounted for. “We are planning to provide water supply and sewerage connections to 350 slums and have already begun work at 120 slums and have identified three NGOs to help in the process,” P.B. Ramamurthy, chairperson of BWSSB during a conference on infrastructure, sustainable transportation and urban planning said at a conference on infrastructure, sustainable transportation and urban planning on Tuesday.

“We also plan for raw water conduting at the cost of Rs 100 crore to prevent breaching and a standby line, in case of shut down of the regular line, to maintain uninterrupted supply of water to the city is also in pipeline. The project to lay water pipelines to 110 villages, which were left out in BBMP areas, has been approved by the Cabinet and we will soon take up the work,” Mr Ramamurthy said. Encouraged by the success of the Computerised Revenue Management System adopted by the BWSSB, the Water Board is now all set to take up the E-governance Vision 2010-13. Under the system, BWSSB plans to set up a Centralised Data Processing Unit where databases of all 26 sub-divisions will be merged, enabling one to make Web and cell phone-based payments soon, Mr Ramamurthy said. He added the data centre was expected to be commissioned in three to four months as part of the project and automatic meter readers would be installed at individual connections.

During supply hours, the technical staff of BWSSB will measure water pressure using portable pressure gauge equipment in the specified area. The data will be captured and transferred to the central server for analysis and monitoring, Mr Ramamurthy said.

With the new data centre, daily ward-wise, area-wise, street-wise and distribution point-wise logs will be captured centrally and the distribution details will be made available to the public to make the service more transparent. The contact details of the concerned service stations will also be made available, he said. Mr Ramamurthy added that this would not just help the process of analysing data but would also turn out to be a very effective tool for tariff revision analysis and consumption analysis of various categories.

BWSSB currently has 6.23 lakh water connections. With the introduction of e-governance, there are 92 automated 24X7 kiosks and all the connections are metered with faulty meters accounting for only 1.34 per cent.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 October 2010 06:18
 

Protesters lock up Water Board staff

Wednesday, 20 October 2010 05:59 administrator
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The Deccan Chronicle  20.10.2010

Protesters lock up Water Board staff

Hyderabad, Oct. 19: Protesting against not receiving drinking water even once a week, residents of the Housing Board quarters and 14 other colonies in Mallapur division of Kapra municipality locked up the office of Water Board in Sainikpuri on Tuesday.

The protest was led by the Mallapur corporator, Mr Srinivas Reddy. He, along with local residents thronged the Water Board Sainikpuri division office and demanded that the officials explain the reasons for the lack of water supply.

When the officials failed to come up with a plausible explanation, the irate residents locked up the officials. “Earlier, Housing Board and other surrounding colonies used to get water on alternate days. For the last four months, water is supplied only twice in 10 days. Every time we approached officials, they said that the problem would be solved. After waiting for four months, we were compelled to take this action,” Mr Reddy said.

Senior officials assured that the water supply problem would be solved by the month end.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 October 2010 06:10
 

Water crisis in Vignananagar

Tuesday, 19 October 2010 11:27 administrator
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The New Indian Express  19.10.2010

Water crisis in Vignananagar

BANGALORE: The residents of Vignananagar ward want the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities to dig up as many borewells as possible to ensure regular water supply.

It is quite surprising that many areas of Vignananagar ward have been reeling under  acute shortage of water for many years. With the authorities concerned failing to ensure water supply on a regular basis, private water suppliers are earning a lot of money by supplying water at premium prices.

“There a few vacant sites with overgrown weeds. These sites have become a nuisance for us. We expect the BBMP authorities to take measures to clear the weed from these sites,’’ said H Mahadevi, a housewife.

Many cross roads are yet to be asphalted. These roads become slushy during monsoon. “There is no change in the condition of these cross roads. The authorities have been promising to asphalt these roads for the last five years but nothing has been done till now,’’ says Mahadevi.

Heaps of garbage and open drains choked with silt and debris are a common sight at Akash Nagar, A Narayanapura and other areas. The drains with stagnant water have become a breeding place for mosquitoes. “The BBMP authorities are not doing anything to remove the silt from open drains and clear weeds from vacant sites. I expect them to do something for the benefit of people. We are finding it tough to cope with mosquito menace,’’ says G Gopi, a resident.

There are a few areas where water table has reached rock bottom. The water table has depleted considerably in Shastri Nagar, Kallappa Layout. “Many borewells have failed due to depletion of water table. We have no underground drainage facility too,’’ said a resident.

Geeta Vivekananda, Corproator, says that many areas are reeling under acute shortage of water. “Many borewells were dug up recently. Efforts are being made to improve the water supply with the available resources. We have to wait till 2012 to get Cauvery water supply to these areas,’’ says Geeta.

The corporator said that the work of under ground drainage has commenced at three areas of Vignananagar ward recently. On the garbage issue, she said: “We need 50 more pourakarmikas to clear the garbage. As of now, there are only 150 pourakarmikas. We expect these problems to be solved as soon as the new garbage contractor is appointed.”

Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 October 2010 11:33
 
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