Summer: Windfall for pvt parties

For a tanker of 12,000 lts customers are charged Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500 per trip

Every summer demand for water reaches its peak and private parties make a killing with ready tankers to cater to the needy.

Thanks to the depleting water level at KRS reservoir, which on Tuesday stood at 102.84 feet against the actual capacity of 124.80 feet. It was 109.40 feet on the corresponding day previous year. Following which there has been irregular supply of drinking water forcing the angry residents to take to streets and it has become order of the day.

Though Vani Vilas Water Works (VVWW) supplies water in 20 tankers at its disposal according to the demand, it’s still less when compared to the growing demand. It’s here, private parties make a windfall.

Sources told Deccan Herald, VVWW has only three tankers of its own, while the remaining 17 are being run on contract basis. 

For every trip, the contractor charges Rs 400 as quoted in the tender for a tanker of 7,000 litres capacity.

On an average, water is supplied in six to seven trips by every tanker. The chunk of customers here are domestic, for whom daily chore comes to a standstill without water.

In the case of private parties, water supplied in a tanker having a capacity of 7,000 to 8,000 litres costs Rs 650 to the customer, and for 12,000 litres, they charge between Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,500.

Apart from the domestic, they also have commercial sectors, especially housing contractors for whom too work comes to a standstill without water.

You may be wondering, when the taps aren’t receiving water, from which source could they get? For VVWW tankers, there are two points- one near Yaraganahalli and another in Devanur. For private parties, they have drilled borewells on their own premises.

With severe crisis expected in the coming days, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say private parties are sure to mint money.

According to sources, water will be released to Visvesvaraya Canal in a day or two from KRS for irrigating large tracts of agricultural lands. The water will be let into the canal for 20 days and water level is expected to come down to 92 feet, 20 feet short of 70 feet construed as ‘dead storage’.

Pumping water from the dead storage becomes further difficult owing to fall in pressure, causing cry for water.