Mir Iqbal
Srinagar, Jan 28: Two years on, the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department has failed to install water meters, aimed to prevent misuse of drinking water, in the Kashmir valley and the project still continues to be on the back burner due to the casual attitude of the department.
Under this initiative, the PHE was supposed to install by June 2013 water meters in the commercial establishments in first- phase, but the department has only installed some 1300 water meters in tourist resort Gulmarg, Pahalgam and City’s Boulevard area.
Sources said that after the installation of 1300 meters, the project was later delayed as the firm engaged in the production of meters has failed to meet the required demand on time.
Sources said the proposal for installation of water meters was to bring an end to the imprudent use of drinking water and yield revenue to the Government as a significant portion of the daily consumption of water is used for non-potable purposes like gardening and car washing.
Chief Engineer, PHE, Muzzaffar Ahmad Lankar told Excelsior that the installation process would start again from April-May this year in residential areas as the work was affected by the last year floods which hit most parts of the Kashmir.
“We were installing meters in the commercial areas but the project was delayed due to the floods,” Lankar said, adding the State Assembly elections were also one of the reasons for delay in installation of meters.
He said now the work could not be resumed due to the bad weather in Kashmir.
Lankar said that the revenue generation has increased in last three years upto 350 percent. “Our revenue generation has increased in 3 years from Rs 4.5 crore to 18 crore,” he said. “Till 2012 it used to be around Rs 4.5 crore and now our department generates revenue of about 18 crores from last three years.”
Lanker added that after completing the first phase of this project, the department would start installing meters in residential areas.
“Hopefully we will start meter installation in the residential areas by next year so that wastage of water could be prevented,” he said.
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