Chennai Metro Water Board is on the process of fixing water meters to commercial establishments in the city and once this practice comes into play, all consumers will have to pay water charges based on the amount of water they consume.
The practice of metering water is the need of the hour for a city like Chennai which is repeatedly weighed down by droughts and water scarcity.
While rainwater harvesting and desilting water bodies are undoubtedly important steps for water conservation, metering water will make people responsible, more cautious in usage and bring down wastage to a large extent.
This bold move of the board is welcomed by experts, activists and residents alike as they view this as a timely intervention.
Here are four reasons why metering of water is an
important step for Chennai:
Illegal tapping of water can be curbed
Other than conservation, residents pointed out that with the metering system leakages and cases of illegal tapping can be found out easily."Some residential houses in Adyar are used as paying guest and hostel accommodations where more than seven people stay in a house. But such setups do not pay water charges under commercial tariff. With metering, officials can spot out such anomalies," said V C Kannan, a resident of Kasturbai Nagar.
Such cases are not restricted to Adyar alone. During the recent crisis, the board had to terminate 230 connections in the last six months as they were illegally tapping excess water. "Many people residing in flats in Ambattur were tapping from the main Metro Water connection. If a meter is installed, they will be held accountable. Moreover, as long as water is provided for free, people will continue to waste. We want to avoid another drought in the future and this is the only way," said S Suresh, a resident of Ambattur.
Because of this, people staying in the tail end supply area of one locality do not receive water. In Anna Nagar, as many as 75 cases of illegal tappings came to light after residents in tail end area did not get any supply.
Such incidents will come down and will easier to detect by officials as meter readings will show how many litre people in a household consume.
Pay for exactly how much you consume
In today's scenario, residents end up paying both water tax and charges even if there is no supply. This will not happen any more as people will only have to pay when there is supply. This was another
major plus point agreed residents. "In my apartment each person has to pay individual water charges. Even if we don't get supply we still have to pay. This was very unfair on the government part. But with
meters installed, we will only have to pay for how much we use. People will start using water more judiciously too," said Jayaraman V S, member of T Nagar residents' welfare association.
Advanced meters cause less errors
While Metro Water's previous attempt to install manual meters failed, advancement of technology is largely helping them to overcome the technical problems they faced a decade ago.
A former Metro Water official said for a city like Chennai which has no perennial source of water, metering is a tricky process as there is only intermittent supply. "When supply is not there only air will pass through the meter. Many errors happened because of this and eventually readings were wrong too. But this was with a manual meter. Today's digital meters are more sophisticated in nature and can give accurate readings even with intermittent supply," added the former official.
The 600-odd meters that will be fitted in commercial establishments are being manufactured by a French company. The meters are first tested at Fluid Control Research Institute at Palakkad before
installation. Officials said as these meters are radio frequency-based AMR devices, there is little scope for error.
Lessons from other cities:
Other cities like Mumbai, Surat and Bengaluru have already absorbed the idea of metering from countries like Israel and Singapore which are pioneers in water distribution. "The main problem Chennai faces is that there is no data available on exactly how much water is consumed and how much is discharged as sewage. Lack of concrete data makes finding solutions harder for experts and the government. Once metering comes into play, water which is an utility just like electricity, can be measured precisely," S Mohan, Professor of Environmental and Water Resources at IIT Madras.