[1]It’s been almost a year since Kerala Water Authority (KWA) bought more than a dozen tanker-lorries as part of Japan drinking water scheme and distributed the vehicles to various divisions. Water, however, continues to be an elusive commodity for residents of Ernakulam as well as many other areas.
With the Authority yet to employ drivers at many centres, including Ernakulam, the vehicles are gathering rust. “The Ernakulam division has four vehicles, including a new tanker lorry and another small vehicle.
But the tanker lorry might have run (with load of) `50,000 at the most in this last one year, while the maintenance vehicle is lying idle for this whole period,” a KWA employee said on conditions of anonymity.
KWA’s apathy in appointing drivers is more of a shocker because the city is facing a shortage of clean drinking water and people have started buying water from private parties.
When contacted, a senior official at the executive engineer’s office in Pallimukku concurred that drivers have not been posted for the tankers, and that one man operates the KWA jeeps and tankers “on an adjustment basis”.
According to the official, private parties have been given the contract to supply water for municipalities and panchayats. “We operate the new tanker twice a day, at Rs 1,200 per load,” the official added.
Sources said the demand for water is increasing with each passing day as the mercury heads upward. “But why did the division accept the vehicles in the first place if there is not enough demand?” an official wondered.
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