Is the PPP model going to work in the field of drinking water services? Mana-ging director Patrick Rous-seau of the French MNC giant Veolia India who has been providing 24x7 drinking water to the municipalities of Belgaum, Gulbarga and Hubli-Dharwad in Karnataka feels it is imminently possible.
“We joined hands with the World Bank between 2005-10 to demonstrate the feasibility of 24x7 water through five pilot project covering an overall population of over two lakhs,” said Rousseau. “The slum dwellers who were given 2,300 connections are more forthcoming in making payments because they now get uninterrupted water whereas earlier they were forced to buy water from tankers at exorbitant prices,” he explained.
Veolia has recently bagged a major contract to build a wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 91 million litres a day in Nilothi in Delhi and will be supplying drinking water to several Delhi colonies also. “Our job will be to improve the distribution network in terms of replacement of pipes, stopping leakages and decreasing water wastage,” he said.
The major challenge for Veolia was to supply uninterrupted, WHO standard water to the rapidly urbanising city of Nagpur for which they have entered into a joint venture agreement with Vishvaraj Environment Ltd under a 25-year PPP model with Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission providing 70 per cent of the funding and Veolia forking out the rest.
But the key point of contention is that MNCs are known to hike the cost of utilities making it unaffordable for the common man. “The fixing of the tariff is a political decision. In Nagpur, the tariff was fixed by the municipal corporation. The consumer is currently paying an average price of `15-16 per cubic metre while Veolia is getting `9 per cubic metre with the rest of the money going to the corporation,” he replied contending continuous water supply results in a reduction of water-borne diseases associated with poor water quality.