JOIN USDespite Bengaluru’s acute water scarcity that reaches boiling point every summer, a whopping 46% of the precious resource gets wasted. Attempts to minimise this have been dragging for years.
Bengaluru’s unrelenting pursuit of a sustainable water source has come to nought. The city’s unregulated growth has hit a huge roadblock as its water table dips below the reach of any borewell. But even as its only dependable river water source remains Cauvery, a shocking 46% literally goes down the drain. Is there no end to this criminal waste of the precious resource?
The signs are everywhere. Leaking pipes on roads, houses and commercial complexes paint a grim picture of absolute apathy, a wanton abuse of a distribution system gone wrong. Thousands of litres spill out in a jiffy as century-old pipes lie underneath. But in its struggle to plug this leak, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) finds another mounting challenge: Unauthorised connections fetching zero revenue.
Over 30% of the wastage is physical, a challenge BWSSB has been trying hard to tackle with little success. Fifteen per cent is commercial loss, while unbilled usage of water amounts to about five per cent. “BWSSB could have been the country’s top water board if it had succeeded in minimising these losses,” notes former chief engineer Thippeswamy.
UFW project progress
To reduce the share of unaccounted water to 16 per cent or less, the Board had launched a Rs 700-crore Unaccounted for Water (UFW) project in three out of its seven divisions during 2012-13.
Larsen and Toubro (L&T) was awarded the contract for the South and West divisions while the Suez-SPML Infra Joint Venture took up the work in the Central division. The project was to be executed within 36 months. The loss reduction to 16 per cent had to be showcased over the next three years.
But the first project, awarded for South Division in July 2012 has already overshot its deadline by a year. Despite an extended deadline, the progress has been slow. The mandate for L&T was clear: To conduct a survey and replace the old corroded pipes and household water connections and meters in an area of 55 sq km. The division covers the constituencies of Basavanagudi, Chamarajpet, Padmanabhanagar, Jayanagar, BTM Layout and Bengaluru South.
Checking leaks
Here’s how the project unfolds: The division is sorted into 85 district metering areas (DMAs). Each DMA has about 3,000 water connections. Pressure tests are then conducted to test every consumer meter to identify the faulty ones.
Leaks are detected by analsying the inflow and outflow pressures in a DMA. This method is also used to detect unauthorised connections.
The total volume of water supplied to every DMA and the revenue collected each month is monitored to deduce the non-revenue water. If the revenue is not in sync with the total supply, it is attributed to leakage in the pipeline infrastructure, non-metering or faulty metering. The trick is to isolate the DMA, use sophisticated meters to analyse the consumption and tally the loss in the system.
Funding troubles
Two more BWSSB divisions are to be brought under the system. But due to lack of funding avenues, these projects have been put on the backburner. Meanwhile, the efforts to reduce the losses to the 16% mark remains a pipe dream, at least for now.
Even if the unaccounted for water reduces in the three divisions where the projects are currently under way, a big challenge remains: Who will maintain and monitor the system once the upgraded infrastructure is handed over? This is a grey area, but Venkataswamy draws attention to a pilot project that should offer some lessons.
Failed Frazer Town pilot
L&T and Thames Water had undertaken the pilot during 2003-06 in Frazer Town. The project, which cost Rs. 43 crore, did bring down the unaccounted water share to 15%. But once it was handed over to BWSSB, the whole system collapsed. The water loss was back to 45%.
To avoid a repeat of this fiasco, the former chief engineer has a suggestion: Either entrust the entire job to a private agency or create a special wing of highly motivated technicians within BWSSB.
“Otherwise, the entire Rs-700 crore project will be wasted. Money should be spent in a sustainable way. You need well- trained, motivated people to keep the system ready.”
Leakages are a city-wide problem, but in the old areas the problem is acute. BWSSB officials admit that the distribution lines from the 90-mm ones to the big 1,200 feeder lines are prone to corrosion. The ones with cement joints are highly corroded. At some places, there are even pipelines laid more than 50 years ago.