Citizens to monitor water project

Citizens to monitor water project

Deccan Herald


Residents of eight City Municipal Corporations in Bangalore can now see that the water supply and sanitation projects in their area are implemented under their supervision within the stipulated time.

With the signing of a MoU between the State government and Janaagraha, a citizen’s forum, on Saturday, the government has allowed structured participation of citizens in the capital infrastructure project of Greater Bangalore Water Supply and Sanitation Project (GBWASP).

Residents of Yelahanka, Byatarayananpura, Krishnarajapuram, Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Dasarahalli and Kengeri will have a say in the implementation of Rs 345 crore proposed project of Greater Bangalore Water Supply Sanitation Project to supply Cauvery water.


The citizens forum is called Jalamitra. Explaining the features of project, member of Janaagraha K K Nayar said that the Jalamitra project involves designing and setting up of a three tier structure of citizen committees to engage with the government and various agencies and service providers involved in the project. Members of the citizen committees will be from a cross-section of people, based on intensive meetings held in each ward of the eight municipalities, he said.

At the ward level in each municipality, every such citizens’ committee will be chaired by the councillor, strengthening the links between the local government and citizens, Mr Nayar said.

Cauvery water is proposed to be distributed using existing pipelines, installed as part of Cauvery Phase II state IV project. The GBWASP project covers an area of 240 sq km.

Minister for Municipal Administration S R Morey said that this was the first such initiative in which citizens were given a forum not only to participate directly during the implementation of the project, but to remain during the subsequent service delivery of water and sanitation service.