Water woes: BWSSB officials meet members of housing society

Bengaluru: Officials of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) on Monday met representatives of the Royal Lakefront housing society, the residents of which had threatened to boycott the elections owing to the lack of water supply.

BWSSB Chairman Ramprasat Manohar V said the board was open to providing the residents with water connections, provided they pay the Establishment of Tools and Plants (ETP) charges to the board. 

While the representatives pointed out that the BWSSB had not collected such charges from many layouts in the vicinity, Manohar said that every case was different. 

“It is the responsibility of the developers to create pipelines and water supply facilities when the layout is being constructed. In your case, the developer has not made any such facility and hence, we will have to collect ETP charges to make up for the financial burden of laying the water supply infrastructure,” he explained. 

He added that some layouts in the vicinity had already paid the ETP charges and few others fall into the 110 villages’ jurisdiction where the process for water supply is different.

Though the representatives were convinced with the BWSSB’s explanation, they expressed concerns that not all the residents of the layout were ready to pay.

“We will send an individual demand notice to every resident of the society. If at least 60% of them pay, we will start with the water supply works,” Manohar said.