KOCHI: The Kochi Corporation’s ambitious water audit, which was scheduled to be completed by May 25, hit a roadblock with the Kudumbashree workers seeking additional time to complete the procedures.
According to sources in the Corporation, the Kudumbashree workers have demanded around 15 more days to complete the audit. “Apart from the water audit, they have been entrusted to conduct field work in connection with the upcoming election. In addition, they have to complete the works of the Kudumbashree. The increased workload might have forced them to demand more time to complete the audit, as it is a qualitative work,” said the sources.
As part of the audit, the Kudumbashree workers have to collect data on water usage through a questionnaire, and collect water samples from over 30,000 units, including households, hotels, educational institutions and commercial institutions, spread across the 74 wards of the Corporation.
The audit, which has been launched for formulating a ‘water policy’ for the city, also aims at putting an end to the water scarcity and to prepare a water quality atlas of the Corporation wards.
The project was kicked off last week with the support of the Water Institute of SCMS School of Engineering and Technology, which has been roped in to provide technical support for drafting the water policy.
When contacted, Water Institute director Sunny George said the agency had sought additional time to complete the project.
“Often, the time taken for conducting water audit at institutions is more than what is required for conducting audit at households. So, there is no need to hold the workers at gunpoint for getting the work done,” said Sunny.
However, he claimed that the audit work would not take more than the originally fixed time period of ten days.
“We will start scrutinising the data after receiving the report, and the final draft report will be prepared in early June,” he added.
Agency seeks more time
Water Institute director Sunny George said the agency had sought additional time to complete the project. “Often, the time taken for conducting water audit at households is more. So, there is no need to hold the workers at gunpoint for getting the work done,” he said.