BENGALURU : With its bid to crack down on water wastage or exploitation by public, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) registered a total of 2,806 FIRs against illegal usage of Cauvery water, with the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force. These refer to cases registered over nearly 2.5 years, starting January 2020.
BWSSB Public Relations Officer S Sudhir told TNIE that 70 per cent of them have regularised their illegal connections by paying a penalty amount. BWSSB also unearthed 56,000 unauthorised water connections across the city. “In addition, there were 5,156 bypass connections. This refers to taking a legal water connection and subsequently taking a water connection from it which is not connected to any meter. Hence, water used in this manner goes unbilled,” he said.
This crackdown on illegal activities have played a significant role in bringing down the huge percentage of Unaccounted For Water from 37 per cent to 31 per cent. This has helped the Board generate an additional 197 Million Litres Per Day (MLD) for the city,” he explained. BWSSB pumps 1450 million litres of water to the City from TK Halli daily, but one-third of it goes waste due to illegality by public, leakage and other reasons.
Revenue has improved due to the clampdown on illegal connections. “While we used to collect Rs 100 lakh (Rs 1 crore) as monthly revenue towards water and sanitation charges, it is now Rs 110 lakh (Rs 1.1 crore),” Sudhir explained. However, the PRO was unable to provide any data on areas where such illegality is rampant, or details on leading violators, despite repeatedly requesting for the same. At present, BWSSB supplies water to 10.5 lakh house service connections through its 89 ground level reservoirs.