A special vigilance system will be put in place in the BWSSB to prevent water theft and pilferage in the city, said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in the Legislative Council on Thursday.
Responding to BJP member Bharati Shetty, who sought to know the quantum of financial loss that the board is incurring due to water theft, pilferage and unaccounted for water, the Chief Minister said that the percentage of water pilferage and unaccounted for water has been reduced from 37% to 29%.
Pointing out that 1,450 million liters of drinking water is being supplied to Bengaluru city from all the four stages of Cauvery Water Supply scheme, the Chief Minister said currently the board’s daily revenue is ₹3.83 crore collected from 10.64 lakh consumers. “However, there is a huge gap between the cost incurred and revenue generated. We will soon put in place a strong vigilance system to check pilferage and unaccounted for water and increase revenue,” he said.
He said the BWSSB has been facing many problems from the beginning. Pipelines laid around 50 years ago have worn out. The corroded pipelines are only adding to water pilferage and 6% of the 29% unaccounted for water is due to the worn out pipelines. The board is working on further reducing the unaccounted for water and bringing it down to 0%, the Chief Minister said.
Summer demand
Meanwhile, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy assured the House that the water storage has been good this year in the State. “There is no shortage and hence 40,000 acres of land in the Cauvery river basin will be supplied with water.”
Replying to Congress member G. Made Gowda, the Minister who replied on behalf of Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol, said up to February 14, the live storage in KR Sagar, Hemavathi and Kabini reservoirs is 29.086 tmcft, 20.726 tmcft, and 8.109 tmcft, respectively. The available water is sufficient to meet the summer demand, the Minister added.
