Urban News

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
Water Supply

40% water lost due to leakages

Tuesday, 23 February 2010 05:07 administrator
Print PDF

Deccan Chronicle 23.02.2010

40% water lost due to leakages

February 23rd, 2010
By DC Correspondent , DC Correspondent

Hyderabad, Feb. 22: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, which supplies drinking water to the city, is a “leaking bucket”. Experts say that 30 to 40 per cent of the total 330 MGD of water that is supplied in Greater Hyderabad is wasted due to leakages in the old and outdated distribution network

Unless these leaks are plugged, no amount of water will be sufficient to quench the thirst of the city, experts warn. Also, these leakages have resulted in contamination of water, causing illness and deaths. In all, 15 people died in Bholakpur when drainage water got mixed with drinking water. Officials themselves admit that both water and sewer pipelines have to be replaced at several places in the city.

The Water Board director (Projects), Mr M. Satyanarayana, said Rs 10,000 crore was required to replace old water and sewer lines, improve the distribution network and implement a sewerage master plan for Greater Hyderabad besides constructing additional storage reservoirs.

The state Budget for 2010-2011 has allocated over Rs 400 crore to the Water Board of which Rs 250 crore has been earmarked to bring Godavari water to the city and remaining for improvement of water supply lines and sewerage pipelines. Also, the Board has submitted project reports to JNNURM and has received nearly Rs 2,000 crore to improve sewerage and water lines in Serilingampally (Hitec city) and Rajendernagar municipalities.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 February 2010 05:11
 

Implementation of drinking water project gets delayed

Sunday, 21 February 2010 05:51 administrator
Print PDF

The Hindu 21.02.2010

Implementation of drinking water project gets delayed

Staff Reporter

Alappuzha and nearby areas facing drinking water shortage

— Photo: Dennis Marcus Mathew

WATER WOES: A man carrying water in cans in Alappuzha. With the Alappuzha Drinking Water Project facing delays and water shortage getting severe, the people of Alappuzha are forced to live on limited quantities of water, even for drinking.

ALAPPUZHA: The much-awaited Alappuzha Drinking Water Project is still suffering from teething troubles, which have led to the preparation of an entirely new Detailed Project Report (DPR) after nearly 30 per cent of the work was over.

The project, originally estimated to cost Rs.151.94 crore and to be implemented with Central assistance under the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT), envisaged to distribute water from Kadapra in Pathanamthitta, after treating at a plant at Karumadi near Ambalapuzha, to Alappuzha municipality and eight surrounding panchayats of Purakkad, Alappuzha South, Alappuzha North, Punnapra South, Punnapra North, Aryad, Mararikulam South and Mannancherry.

With 10 per cent of the cost coming from the State government, over 2.15 lakh people were expected to benefit from the project at a daily supply rate of 135 litres per person. However, according to the latest information from reliable sources, the original DPR of March 2006 was re-written recently following several bottlenecks in various places.

The actual plan was to have a pipeline from Thottappally to Kalavoor alongside the National Highway-47. But with the National Highway Authority refusing to allow this, the pipeline route had to be shifted to the coastal State highway. Just as new estimates and tenders were being prepared in accordance with this change, the revision of scheduled rates, the additional 12-kilometres of pipeline, increase in cost of pipe materials and cost of digging up the coastal highway have forced the authorities to redraw the DPR from scratch. This escalated the project cost from Rs.151.94 crore to Rs.247.65 crore. Though officials said the municipal council had announced that the State government would bear the extra cost, there has been no word from the government on the same.

A.A. Shukoor, MLA, and K.C. Venugopal, MP, have said that the empowered committee for the project, of which they too are members, never informed them about the changes or about the new decisions. “In fact, we have never been informed about the meetings of the committee,” Mr. Shukoor told The Hindu, adding that at this rate, the project would take at least another four to five years to be completed.

Meanwhile, the shortage of drinking water is getting severe across the municipal area, with people heavily relying on the 13 treated water supply centres in the town, which in turn, have been unable to meet the demand. The situation in the nearby water-logged Kuttanad is not different.

Last Updated on Sunday, 21 February 2010 05:56
 

Government urged to amend Ground Water Act

Saturday, 20 February 2010 11:15 administrator
Print PDF

The New Indian Express 20.02.2010

Government urged to amend Ground Water Act

Express News Service


KOCHI: In the wake of over-exploitation of ground water and sand mining in the state, the Ground Water Scientist’s Association of Kerala (GWSAK) has urged the government to amend the Kerala Ground Water (Control and Regulation) Act-2002.“Given the large number of borewell- digging companies functioning in the state, the present rules are ineffective as the Kerala Ground Water Authority has no powers to monitor the indiscriminate tapping of ground water,” said GWSAK secretary Babu N Joseph.

Presently, more than 100 borewell digging companies are functioning in the state.“The prevailing rules allow the companies to utilise ground water to the maximum without submitting any details regarding this to the government. The government does not have any data regarding the ground water table,” said Babu.

The association also urged the government to impose royalty for tapping ground water for industrial purposes as it was a natural resource.

The mineral water-bottling companies are making huge profit by exploiting ground water. Scientists had demanded that royalty should be charged from these companies as is done in the case of granite quarries, he said.

The association expressed concern over the depletion of the water table in many parts of the state owing to excessive mining of sand from rivers. The present method adopted for sand mining need to be modified and the sand budgeting should be done according to proper scientific studies, he added.

Last Updated on Saturday, 20 February 2010 11:17
 
More Articles...


Page 331 of 414