The Local Fund Audit’s recently published performance report on the conservation of water sources in the city Corporation area and the civic body’s water supply schemes has found that the lack of monitoring of these schemes is causing recurring losses to the civic body. The audit was carried out over a two-month period, ending January 31.
The water distribution projects of the Corporation, including line extension, allocation of new connections, and installation of public taps using funds from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), were affected by delays which resulted in huge losses for the local body, the report said.
Poor coordinationThe lack of coordination between the implementing agencies had been cited as the reason for the non-completion of most of the water supply projects which the civic body formulated with Kerala Water Authority (KWA) in the eleventh and twelfth Plan.
The report said the Corporation failed to chalk out a master plan for water distribution, by mapping all water sources in the city. It also does not maintain a register of the public taps and their efficiency, as stipulated by the State government.
PaymentsIt transferred the payment according to the bill provided by the KWA and hence ended up paying the charge for even non-functioning taps. From 2007-08 to 2012-13, the Corporation paid Rs.95.9 lakh in water charges, the audit report said.
The civic body’s project for providing water connections to the economically and socially backward sections, spread over 86 wards, had also not been able to achieve the targets. In 2009-10, the Corporation handed over Rs.33.43 lakh to the KWA, as per the recommendations of the drinking water working group, to provide connections to 1,486 families, at the rate of Rs.2,250 per connection. As much as Rs.25 lakh was also given to the KWA in 2010-11 as part of extension of pipelines. But, only 641 connections were allocated till the end of 2013, the report said. As per the agreement, KWA should have completed the work within six months of the receipt of the amount.
DelayThe report further said the delay in the work on the extension of pipelines in the city and suburbs, as part of projects to meet the ever-increasing demand of drinking water, had also caused increase in project costs.
Out of a total of 1,103 km of new pipeline to be added, 413 km was part of the JICA project and rest, part of the JNNURM project, costing Rs.87.16 crore.
Though the work was expected to be completed in December 2012, it got delayed leading to an increase in cost by 30 per cent, of Rs.26.59 crore, the audit said.
The report said no-objection certificates were not procured either from the Public Works Department or the National Highways Authority of India, before cutting the roads for these projects. Funds had not been earmarked for reconstruction of these roads, in the estimate. The delay in land acquisition for the project also led to the delay in the project execution.
