Bengaluru: Soon, you will not have to worry about dry taps in your area as consumers will be informed in advance about any disruption in water supply. Consumers registered for the SMS facility will get alerts on water supply schedules and delays and disruptions, if any.
The BWSSB is joining hands with Next Drop Smart Water System Pvt Ltd to alert consumers about its service. The SMS alerts will be delivered whenever there is an update in a particular division. For instance, if water supply is slow due to low pressure, a registered consumer will get an SMS alert explaining the reason for the poor supply.
Following the success of the pilot project in Bhoopasandra (North East-3 division) and Bandappa Garden (North East-1 division), the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board is planning to expand the service to other divisions. Bindu Susheel of Next Drop says the messaging service is not an app, but a facility to bridge the gap between BWSSB and consumers.
“Most often, consumers worry when they would or would not get the supply. We are working with the BWSSB to ease these worries. Consumers can sign up for the service and our team will contact them. Based on their residential details, they will be included under a valve ID. Depending on the developments in a division, the consumers will get timely updates,” she says.
A team from Next Drop has been working on the project for the last nine months. It signed a memorandum of understanding with the BWSSB two months ago. So far, 1,500 of 38,000 consumers in the North-East division have registered for the service. The team hopes to cover at least 19,000 connections in the next one month.
Valve men in these divisions were trained for nearly five months on what they were supposed to do once their work begins and gets over.
“It was not an easy task,” explains Bindu, “Most of them have not even gone to school. These valve men had to use the IVR service to update us. We rigorously trained 83 valve men both on and off site, and now, 50 per cent of them are well versed in using the facility.”
The valve men, who have been given a toll-free number, alert the Next Drop team about water availability and problems. Consumers will also be able to communicate with BWSSB officials. The team is working towards creating a two-way communication.The facility will now be introduced in five other divisions – South, South East, South West, North East and Central. By the end of November, half the city might be covered under this facility.
