BWSSB and the art of water mismanagement

Bengaluru: “What makes the BWSSB think increasing the tariff will lead to better service?” asks a visibly irritated Mythili K.S, a homemaker. “We only find open drains and broken sanitary pipelines and get water supply throughout the year. On what grounds can the BWSSB justify a 50 per cent hike in tariff?” she demands, reflecting the grouses of many consumers, who are worried about the BWSSB’s proposal to revise the tariff.

Reports that BWSSB chairman, M.S Ravishankar has suggested a 50 per cent hike has angered them as they are already having to pay a lot more than before for many other services thanks to government agencies like the BMTC, KSRTC and KERC.

The water board, which increased its tariff last in 2002, met last week to discuss ways to meet its escalating costs and recover its losses. While a decision on the tariff hike will be taken at the next meeting, consumers are on tenterhooks, wondering why they must pay a higher tariff to the BWSSB when  they are already paying a neat sum to private tankers.
Point outs Ms Mythili. “Depending on private tankers during summer is inevitable. We pay around Rs 450 per tanker. When we don’t even get water regularly why should we pay more for the supply?”

But the homemaker is more civic conscious than others and believes consumers too are not doing enough to help the  situation. “People don’t reuse water or store rain water. We must all understand that if we have to sustain our resources in the long run we must help save nature.”

Water expert, Dr Kshithij Urs, feels the government should take the lead in conserving water. “It’s natural for citizens to think why they should install rain water harvesting units when the government is doing nothing to conserve lakes despite the falling groundwater. It is the BWSSB’s lack of effective water management which has led to the present crisis. They can’t treat water like a commodity and expect people to pay more,” he says.

‘Cannot treat water like an economic product’

Nearly 70 per cent of its revenue goes to paying its electricity bills, but the BWSSB still owes Bescom around Rs 200 crore. And while it draws water from long distances to pump 1,350 MLD to meet the city’s water demand, it has done little to check 45 per cent of this water being wasted through leaks in its network and illegal consumption.

Plagued by mismanagement, the BWSSB doesn’t even meet the requirements of the people it is supposed to serve, but has now suggested an irrational hike, says water expert Kshithij Urs, also a member of the People’s Campaign for Right to Water.

“The BWSSB treats water like an economic product, which is a self-defeating policy. The board has become an undemocratic institution and is going ahead with policies that overlook the welfare of the common man,” he charges,  deploring that the drying up of local sources of water has forced the BWSSB to depend on distant water bodies, running up exorbitant power bills in the process.

“Cities can develop only when water sources are close to them. But the government has destroyed all local sources and announces new projects, persuading people to pay more for them. For instance, if the government goes ahead and  pumps water from the Linganamakki Reservoir we will be forced to pay more because of the distance involved. But what has it done to evict encroachments from near water bodies?” he asks.

The solution lies in providing a cross subsidy to the BWSSB, according to Dr Urs. “The BWSSB has to become an integral part of the state and can’t function as a standalone entity if it has to sustain financially. It has to get funds from the government too,” he adds.