CMWSSB - drinking water charges to be up by 4 times
Posted on: 12/Jan/2018 5:06:26 PM
CMWSSB (Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewage Board) has provided with drinking water supply connection to 8 Lakh houses in the Chennai Metro City.
The charges for the consumption of the drinking water supplied is collected once in 6 months every year.
The charges are – Rs. 50 for residential houses, Rs. 150 for the partial commercial connections, and Rs. 200 for full commercial connections.
The charges are collected through the offices set up in each locality.
In order to reduce wastage of drinking water and also a decision to increase the rates for full commercial connections, it has been decided to install digital meters for the connections.
In the 1st phase of implementation, digital meters will be provided for the commercial drinking water connections. 12000 digital meters are to be installed.
There is an increase of 10000 new connections every year. The charges will be on the basis of the quantity of drinking water consumed.
The tender for the procurement of the latest digital meters is to be finalised by the end of February. In case the scheme works out to be successful, this will be extended to all buildings. It is suggested that this activity will require a period of 1 year.
For the residences, the charges are Rs. 20 per 1000 litres of water consumed. This scheme will be extended gradually to all connections. When this is implemented, there are prospects of the charges going up 4 times.
It has been estimated that 340 litres of drinking water is required every day for a family of 5 members. As per this, the consumption will be 10000 litres per month.
Once digital meter scheme is implemented, the charges will be Rs. 200 for 1000 litres of drinking water.
CMWSSB officials explained that this scheme is being implemented in the first phase of all commercial connections. 12000 digital meters will be installed and the consumption of each drop of drinking water will be calculated.
This digital meter system is implemented in order to appreciate the necessity and requirement of drinking water and also reduce its wastage. At the same time, another situation has also arisen – the need to increase the revenues of CMWSSB.
With digital meters, the quality of service will improve. In case drinking water is not supplied, no charges will be levied. Apart from this, digital meters will facilitate mal operations like unauthorized tapping can be prevented and also, any leakage in the piping system can be detected easily.
There is a provision of valve facility in case the concerned consumer family sets off for vacations during the holiday period. Once the valve is switched off, the meter will not run.
The officials also informed that there is a plan to collect the charges for the installation of the meters from the owners of the buildings.
