Bad pipelines blamed for water shortage in cities

Manual man-hole cleaning to stop by March 2011

Addressing the media after conducting a video conference with commissioners of corporations and Deputy Commissioners, the minister said cities have sufficient water resources, but the citizens get drinking water once in three or four days because poor pipeline network.

Gulbarga Deputy Commissioner R Vishal complained to the minister that the administration had not been able to supply water daily although it had more than sufficient water available (120 MLD) for the city because of poor network. Similar was the problem with Davangere, pockets of Belgaum Mangalore and Mysore.

In Davangere, the major reason for poor drinking water supply is disruption in power supply. Deputy Commissioner K Amaranarayan told the minister, “We have sufficient water to supply on a daily basis. It has been difficult to ensure it because of erratic power supply. Soon we are going for an express feeder exclusively for water supply”, he said.  The minister said the government had taken up pipeline improvement work in Hubli and Belgaum cities.

Man-hole cleaning

Suresh Kumar said the city corporations will stop manual man-hole cleaning by March 2011. The corporations would purchase jetting machines to clear the drains. The Davangere City Municipal Corporation (CMC) had already purchased one machine and Belgaum had invited tenders for the purchase.

Each machine would cost between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 1.25 crore. The initial investment in each corporation would be around Rs five to 6 crore, with an annual maintenance cost of Rs 70 lakh. “But nothing is costlier than value of human life”, the minister said. The Directorate of Municipal Administration has issued a circular to all urban local bodies to adopt power saving measures.