Total Contribution Would Be Close To 150 Crore

Pune: The state cooperation department has decided to raise funds for people in the water scarcity-hit areas from cooperative banks and credit societies. The total contribution would be close to Rs 150 crore, said officials from the state cooperation department. Last week, state cooperation minister Harshvardhan Patil had made an announcement that funds will be raised for the scarcity hit areas. In the backdrop of the announcement, the cooperative department has come up with a fund raising plan.

Residents to get 20-litre cans at Rs. 12; novel project to boost local body’s income

Amidst the growing popularity of packaged drinking water, Mudichur panchayat near Tambaram has ventured into a novel project of supplying purified water in 20-litre cans at a subsidised price to its residents. The panchayat will soon begin distributing water that has been purified in a reverse osmosis plant and packaged in 20-litre cans. The cans will be supplied at Rs. 12 against the retail price of a maximum of Rs. 30.

Hyderabad: Irrespective of the quantity of water they get, residents of the Secunderabad Cantonment will have to pay Rs 315 per month towards water bills from the month of May, as against Rs 145 they are paying now.

The Board, comprising elected representatives of the people, has approved the more than 100 per cent hike and Board’s president Brigadier Sunil S. Bodhe signed it into law on March 5.

Ahmedabad: The state government has admitted that the water crisis looms large over Saurashtra region. Even in January, a total of 74 villages in three talukas of Junagadh faced severe crisis. The government said that atotal of 216 dams in Rajkot and Kutch have gone dry.

In written reply to a question from Somnath MLA Jasa Barad, the state government said that Junagadh city was being given an additional 50 lakh litres of water every day. In far off villages in Sutrapada, Junagadh and Veraval, the water was being supplied through water tankers. In Junagadh, the number of villages where water was supplied with tankers was 42, followed by 26 in Sutrapada and six in Veraval taluka.

Slums account for a quarter of the urban population, but get only one twentieth of the total water supply, said Vice-President Hamid Ansari on Monday, referring to the sharp inequity in water supply in the country.

Expressing concern over the quality of water and the declining water table, he said: “Even the lucky one’s who are connected to the regular water supply system, get water of dubious quality, in an erratic manner. The solution being pursued is to bore wells, which is in turn is leading to an alarming decline in the water table, engendering a possible national groundwater crisis.”

The Delhi Jal Board has advocated a rating system for water-using appliances similar to the one that is used to denote energy efficiency for an electrical appliance.

The ambitious Cauvery IV Stage II project has found no takers. Five months after its launch in October 2012, the board has managed only 43,513 connections against 1,04,272 applications, a far cry from the estimated two lakh connections.

The lukewarm response has put the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) in a fix, which is unable to raise enough money to pay its energy bill.Besides the newly added areas, the project was also intended to stabilise water supply in core areas.

Jaipur: The state government is mulling to impose fresh charges on developers for laying water pipelines in new residential colonies, housing societies and highrise buildings. The idea was proposed during a meeting of the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) and the Urban Development and Housing (UDH) on Wednesday.

Keeping in view the depleting groundwater level, the government is close to revising the guidelines for water distribution. “To resolve the water supply problem in new colonies and high-rise buildings, the UDH) and PHED will prepare a preliminarily report,” said N K Khare, chief town planner of Jaipur. Revising guidelines for water distribution are also on the cards.