Pipelines everywhere, but not a drop of water to drink

Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) laid the pipelines, albeit in a haphazard manner, where the feeder lines (six-inch diameter for 0.5 km, and house connection lines of four-inch diameter) were fixed along nearly 1.5 km stretch, but the Board did not instal individual water meters.

Bangalore Expresshope Development Forum and Maria Community Welfare Association, functioning under the aegis of World Vision, were entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the work. But their repeated pleas to the Board to complete the project fell on deaf ears.

Hostile

Vijayalakshmi, one of the volunteers of the Forum, said the BWSSB officials were “very hostile” whenever they were approached over the unfinished project.

“It has been eight years and many officials have been transferred from this sub-division office. We applied for information on details about the work, but we got nothing. A few officials even told us that our area does not exist in their maps, so they cannot supply water to these areas,” she said.

“There is severe water scarcity here. Women walk three-four kilometres to fetch drinking water. My father died during a trip to get water when he suffered a heart attack while pushing a bicycle carrying pots of water,” she added.

Passing buck

The Water Board officials are only passing the buck. “They provide us details of the project funded by us,” said Mathew M, programme manager, World Vision.

“We just have the Board’s acknowledgement and a letter appreciating the World Vision’s initiative in funding the project. The pipelines laid eight years ago are rusting. Whenever we tried to question the Board, they manage to dodge the issue,” he said.

On enquiring, T Venkataraju, engineer-in-chief, BWSSB, said he had sent a reply stating that nearly 1,600 families had been provided water supply.

 “There is more demand and very less supply at present. We are aware of the World Vision initiative and we have supplied water to a few families. However, we were not able to supply water to all the families as assured by us,” he added.