Date:15/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/15/stories/2008031551930300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Water tariff slabs may be revised

Staff Reporter

BWSSB likely to adopt ‘full-cost recovery model’

BWSSB said to be losing Rs. 25 crore every year
Cost of supply put at Rs. 19 for 1,000 litres

BANGALORE: Water tariffs in the city are in for an overhaul as the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is undertaking a study to “rationalise” the various slabs and make the consumers pay in full.

“The board has been running under loss of about Rs. 25 crore each year for the last three years. Our Finance Committee is working on rationalising the tariffs. It will be applicable for all categories of consumers,” R. Vasudevan, Chief Engineer (Cauvery), told presspersons on the sidelines of an event organised by Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Thursday.

The board is undertaking a study of consumption patterns across various segments of the population in the city.

Sources in the board told The Hindu that the aim was to implement a “full-cost recovery model”, which meant that consumers might have to shell out more in proportion to their water usage. Incidentally, water tariffs were last revised in 2005.

One of the aspects being looked at in the study was how much it costs to provide a certain quantity of water and relate it to the subsidy.

For instance, the first slab is between 0-8,000 litres. This could be brought down to 6,000 litres.

Anyone consuming between 6,000 and 8,000 litres will move into the second slab which means higher tariffs.

It is to implement more rigorously the water policy of the board — pay more if you consume more — that the rationalisation process was being undertaken.

The move towards water tariff rationalisation comes at a time when the BWSSB was incurring losses on account of its huge power bills and the loss of revenue because of unaccounted for water.

It incurred a cost of Rs. 18 to 19 a kilolitre and provides water at Rs. 6 a kilolitre.

With the city likely to face a shortfall of 220 million litres a day (mld) by 2015 and with no other water augmentation projects on the anvil after Cauvery IV stage, the BWSSB is looking at water sources further away from the city.

While a proposal was made earlier to draw water from Netravati, the magnitude of the project meant that the BWSSB could not take it up, said Mr. Vasudevan.

“We hope that the State Government would initiate the project. The river source is nearly 400 km away and the project if implemented will have to pass through four districts,” he said.

About 900 mld of water could be drawn from Netravati (the same quantity drawn from Cauvery and T.G. Halli now) if the project comes through. An added incentive for drawing water from the river is that it had no inter-State disputes like the Cauvery.