Water woes: 127 out of 714 bulk consumers request for treated water supply

Among 714 consumers who use more than 10 lakh litres of water in a month, 127 bulk consumers have requested the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to supply treated water.

V. Ram Prasath Manohar, Chairman, BWSSB, directed the officials to make arrangements to supply treated water to these consumers from the nearest Water Board and private Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) at a meeting held on Friday.

BWSSB also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF) to be the facilitator between apartment communities and those who want to buy treated water from apartments. BWSSB had recently issued an order allowing apartment communities to sell 50% of the treated water they generate from the in situ STPs, for the first time. Now, BWSSB will supply treated water from apartments to customers in tankers within a 5 km radius and in the next stage, will even consider dedicated pipelines up to 500 metres if the demand is high and consistent.

With an aim to reduce the pressure on the Cauvery water supply system, the BWSSB has been encouraging consumers to use treated water. The chairman said that the Board is mulling providing a rebate on treated water to industries and construction companies who request for higher amounts of treated water, to encourage further usage.

“Every day, around 1,200 MLD treated water is produced by the board’s STPs. We are organising various programmes to utilise most of this water in Bengaluru. There is a need to organise awareness programmes to bust misconceptions about treated water and encourage its usage in industries and other commercial purposes,” Mr. Manohar said.

The BWSSB is mulling providing a rebate on treated water to industries and construction companies who request for higher amounts of treated water, to encourage further usage. | Photo Credit: File Photo

Aerators in more than 2 lakh taps

After aerators were made mandatory by BWSSB, they have been installed on around 2,86,114 taps, Mr. Manohar said. Even among the 714 bulk consumers, 481 of them have installed aerators on their premises.

He also told the officials to expedite the process of installing aerators in places like government offices, religious institutions and other public places where there is a lot of floating population.

More borewells in East zone

The chairman also directed officials to drill more borewells in the eastern part of the city, (which is also the worst affected in the water crisis and has seen the most depletion in ground water levels) after a phone-in programme on Friday.

While 30 borewells have already been drilled, he gave the go-ahead for 20 more borewells on Friday.

After receiving many complaints about existing borewells failing, he told the officials to expedite the work of rejuvenating borewells. He also said that he will conduct an inspection of the work next week and there will be a third party inspection of the project’s progress.