1.5 lakh houses in city get water supply sans meters

At least 1.5 lakh houses in the city’s new areas get their daily supply of Cauvery water although they have no water meters. There are also instances of people getting their water meters stopped for 15 days to scale down their bills. All such cases of water theft and illegal connections are now under focus. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah rapped Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) on Thursday and directed it to plug leakages as 46 per cent of the city’s daily supply of 1,350 million litres per day was going unaccounted.

According to an estimate, besides nearly 1.5 lakh unauthorised connections, there are nearly 80,000 connections in 375 slums, where the water supplied is not billed. There are also numerous instances of water being drawn illegally from the main pipelines and 15,281 public taps.

“All this is happening in collusion with our valve men and some jurisdictional staff and local plumbers,” BWSSB chairperson Anjum Parvez told

The Hindu . A massive disconnection drive, apart from mapping of water meters, will be taken up. The task of detecting illegal connections will be entrusted to the jurisdictional valve men and meter readers, Mr. Parvez added.

Meanwhile, the BWSSB has set December 31 deadline for people to get illegal water connections regularised. To check such connections, BWSSB will take up mapping of all metered connections. BWSSB chairperson Anjum Parvez told

The Hindu that the water meters in each area will be tallied with the BBMP property map. Besides, physical verification of all the houses that do not have meters will be taken up. “This will give us a clear picture of how many houses do not have meters.” — Special Correspondent