BWSSB to swap mechanical water meters with digital variants in Bengaluru

Officials say digital meters will put an end to claims of exorbitant bills and improve transparency

In an effort to reduce Non-Revenue Water (NRW), BWSSB plans to embark on a grand scheme to swap mechanical meters with digital ones that would accurately capture water use.

NRW, also called Unaccounted-for Water (UfW), has dropped from 42 per cent in 2017 to 30 per cent, thanks to efforts by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) officials.

Senior board officials felt it would be difficult to further whittle it down without installing digital meters and changing water pipes.

“We have plugged leakages in many places. But to further improve (measurement of water usage), we must make sure water supply to all connections is assessed accurately,” BWSSB chairperson N Jayaram said.

“We have seen that mechanical meters under-assess utilisation, which increases the UfW,” Jayaram added.

Advantages

Another official said mechanical meters tend to stop when water flows at high pressure.

“We have observed this close to the pumping stations. Better readings are recorded at acceptable levels when the water flows normally owing to the gravitational force,” the official explained.

Officials believe they could bring down NRW by replacing all the meters.

Bills are exorbitant, say consumers

Consumers, however, refute claims of under-assessment of water usage saying water bills are exorbitant and the meters record values higher than usage.

“We are a family of four and the house was vacant for nearly 20 days a few months ago. We hardly used the water supply for five to six days that month. Still, the water bill came up to Rs 1,000, which is unacceptable. We had to then raise the issue with the BWSSB,” said a resident of East Bengaluru.

Officials say digital meters will put an end to such claims and improve transparency.

“If we integrate it with the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system, we will also get the real-time and day-to-day readings, which will improve transparency,” an official said.

The project is still at its infancy given the heavy investment required.