Private water suppliers fleece residents in city

Private water suppliers fleece residents in city

The Hindu

Drinking water shortage forces people to depend on tanker supply

# Residents of the CMC areas depend on the private suppliers
# Many suppliers sell 50 to 60 tanker-loads of water every day

BANGALORE: Kanta Bagri Laxminarayan, a resident of 3rd Stage, AECS Layout in Sanjaynagar, spends nothing less than Rs. 3,000 a month on water supplied by eight to 10 tankers she needs. This whopping amount is apart from her regular Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) bill of Rs. 300.

Usha Gururaj, president of Sapphire Nest Owners' Association in Thippasandra, who is entirely dependent on private tanker supply, spends Rs. 600 a month. "There are 28 flats in our apartment complex and we buy two to three tankers every day. The supplier charges us Rs. 200 a tanker because we have been his customers for years," she said.

Similar is the case with Sapna K., a resident of Lal Bahadur Shastri Nagar near HAL in K.R. Puram. Her family has an arrangement with a friend to whose house they go once a week to stock up drinking water.

Residents of the erstwhile City Municipal Council (CMC) areas, who are yet to get Cauvery water supply, are the worst affected and completely depend on the private suppliers.

With the drinking water shortage reaching an all-time high this summer, people are forced to depend on private suppliers. In the absence of any law to check borewell drilling and exploitation of natural resources, these suppliers are laughing all the way to the bank. Their rates vary between Rs. 200 and Rs. 400 per tanker load, depending on the area and customers' pockets. While regular customers, who are charged Rs. 200 a tanker, are privileged to get water within two hours of a phone call, others' wait can stretch for days.

When this reporter contacted the offices of a few suppliers in Rajajinagar, Thippasandra and Sanjaynagar posing as a customer, she was promised water only a day later. "We are full of orders. Though we charge Rs. 350 per load, we can give it to you for Rs. 300," a spokesperson for a supplier in Sanjaynagar said. It is learnt that this supplier, as well as several others, sell 50 to 60 tanker-loads of water every day. Moreover, people are so desperate for water nobody really takes the trouble to monitor the water quality and source.

Though authorities at the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and BWSSB have promised several times in the past to regulate private drinking water supply and the indiscriminate drilling of borewells, nothing has been done. "This exploitation of natural resources can be checked only if the State Government enacts legislation. This is a crime and people involved in it should be punished," V. Satyamurthy, president of Sanjaynagar Residents' Welfare Association, said.

Proposal

Expressing helplessness, a top BWSSB official told The Hindu that a proposal to enact a law to check private water supply would be placed before the Board soon.