Audit picks holes in Kochi Corporation's water supply

KOCHI: Anomalies in the drinking water supply system are draining the civic body’s weak exchequer and this is borne out by the audit report.

The Local Fund Audit Department in its recent report (for the year 2012- 2013) slammed the Corporation for the faulty system causing a huge revenue loss.

The local body was losing over '10 lakh annually on water supply alone and the water bills had been shooting up every year due to chinks in the supply system.

While the civic body spent Rs 2.41 crore for water supply through tankers during 2010-2011, it increased to Rs 2.47 crore the following year and during 2012-2013, the annual bill was Rs 3.70 crore.

The amount paid to private contractors for water supply is in addition to the annual charges being paid to the Kerala Water Authority for maintaining public water taps and drawing water from its pump houses.

Though lapses in potable water supply hit the exchequer badly, the civic body is not keen on initiating new water projects to enhance supply, it was observed. Audit officials identified that the private contractor had supplied water violating tender norms.

The Corporation has been doling out a handsome amount for even non- functional and damaged public water taps as no data on the exact number of water taps is available with either KWA or the local body.

As per earlier statistics of KWA, there are 5,928 public taps and the authority charges Rs 5,256 on each tap annually. But, the actual number is around 4000, according to civic authorities.

As the city has more than enough public water taps, the civic body needs to provide tanker water only to parched areas, according to the Audit Department.

Meanwhile, the Opposition in the council is planning to launch a strong protest against the anomalies identified by the Audit Department during the tenure of the previous UDF council. The council meeting scheduled for Friday will discuss the Audit report in detail before getting it passed.