R K Handa
There was news in the press on the 24th of August 2021 that J&K UT water regulatory authority has recommended metering of potable water and upward revision of water tax. It is a welcome step. Way back in the year 2005 while taking up the project of boring 27 new tubewells,a commitment was given by the state that water meters shall be installed up to house hold point and the water tariff shall be revised upward so that money is generated to maintain the assets so created. This was the condition for sanction of loan by Asian Development Bank.
Since then there has been some revision in the water tax but metering was not done. The author has been given to understand that a few water meters were installed about four years back but no one from Jal Shakti Deptt ever visited and took the meter reading. What is the use?
Resentment from public has started pouring in about this move of the J&K UT but unless the Water Regulatory Authority comes up with a paper in the press to be published again and again the citizens will not welcome this move of water metering and upward revision of water tax. The UT Govt has to satisfy the citizens highlighting what improvements the Govt is going to bring in distribution and availability of water.
There are serious discrepancies in the system and no improvement in water supply has been done since 2005 when the ADB loan was sanctioned. Some of the discrepancies are as follows:
* The filtration plants are inefficient as dirty water is being received in both capitals of J&K UT.That is why people have installed water purifiers at their houses by spending money on purchase of water purifiers besides consuming electricity.
* The tap water pressure is so low that water does not enter even in the kitchens and washrooms on the ground floor not to talk of 1st and 2nd floor whereas the Jammu master plan allows construction of houses for ground plus two storey’s. So there is mismatch. The Jal Shakti Deptt is not in line with the Master Plan of Jammu city. There is no coordination between the local body ,JDA , Jal Shakti deptt ,PDD, and R&B deptt. Due to low water pressure in the lines people constructed underground tanks to store water from where they pump water to overhead tanks. What a wastage of resources? We are spending money on construction of underground tanks, purchase of electric motor pump set, and consumption of electricity.
This means the design of over head tanks of Jal Shakti Deptt is defective and the water distribution system is lacking with respect to design and water distribution. Pipes are worn out and are leaking. The height of overhead tanks is mismatching the building heights as allowed in Jammu master plan. The water should reach the top of the residential houses at least. The water distribution system is like branches of a tree resulting in, tail enders not receiving water. The water distribution system should be such that every household receives water at the same pressure. This was suggested by consultants of ADB and design of this was also done by the consultants M/s Stup Engineers. Perhaps this was not followed when the replacement of leaking worn out pipes was done in the year 2008.Even the people have installed pump sets on the main lines depriving others from getting water besides sucking dirt from the water lines. What a tragedy in the system.!
* Illegal water connections are in vogue. Even some have been given connections from the main distribution lines who receive water with sufficient pressure up to top of houses and water keeps on overflowing. This is very much there with the politicians, influential senior officers and bulk consumers like hotels, restaurants, laundries.
* GIS System: You cannot manage which you cannot measure. The local authorities are supposed to have updated inventory of their assets. But alas this is missing in all the deptts. In the year 2007 or 2008,a project was taken up by ERA where inventory was prepared for water lines, electric lines, distribution power transformers, roads, streets, street lights etc in GIS maps .Lab was also created in ERA with interface in PHE, R&B, Municipal corporation, PDD. This was done to monitor the day to day changes and revise the GIS maps on regular basis. It is unfortunate this exercise has become futile. Had this project been taken seriously there would have been no illegal water and electricity connections.
* Coordination between Jal Shakti Deptt , and PDD is lacking. Jal Shakti Deptt blames PDD for not providing electricity to their pumping stations and PDD blames the water supply deptt that they have not been paid water tax by the deptt and money for repair of the transformers at pumping stations. What a mockery?
* There is no system of collection of water tax .Perhaps the deptt is not interested in realizing tax. A foolproof system needs to be put in place.
* All illegal bore wells and tube wells should be dismantled as they are depleting surface water and ground water.
Hope UT Water Regulatory Authority has taken note of all such issues while making recommendations for upward revision of water tax and metering of water at house hold levels. If not the authority should revisit these issues and draw out a road map to address these vital issues and the Govt should give a commitment to citizens for time lines of addressing these issues.
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