The city continues to reel under water crisis, but the BWSSB blames unauthorised water connections for the shortage. The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board said it has been supplying normal amounts of water regularly to all the areas. But some areas do not get the required amount as water is stolen on the way by illegal connections.
“We procure 950 million litres of water every day and there is no dip in the supply. Anyway, the city has a shortage of over 400 MLD of water. We have been trying to maintain equal supply and all areas are being provided their usual amount of water,” said T.Venkataraju, Engineer-in-Chief, BWSSB.
“But some areas do not receive water supplied by the BWSSB because it gets stolen by unauthorised users en route. The areas that have been complaining of water shortage are surrounded by pockets that have a high number of unauthorised connections. We lose a large amount of water due to illegal connections and this has definitely impacted genuine consumers,” he tried to reason.
On the steps being taken by the BWSSB to resolve the problem, a senior board official said: “Unaccounted for water is as high as 48 percent and causes a major revenue loss to the board. Disconnecting all unauthorised connections at one go will have huge political and social implications. Also, the BWSSB does not have a Global Information System or GIS mapping of all water and sewerage lines and connections. The BWSSB is now thinking of providing a unique property identification number (PIN) for each water and sewerage connection. We have also launched a drive to cut all illegal connections.”
The BWSSB has prepared a detailed report to improve distribution of water by reducing the illegal connections and replacing old, corroded pipelines in the five divisions. The project is being taken up with the assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency.