Coimbatore: Providing drinking clean water for an affordable cost to the people of the city is the basic duty of the district administration. The Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) is leaving no stone unturned in order to achieve this goal.
In a couple of years the citizens of 60 wards in Coimbatore will have access to uninterrupted, clean and affordable drinking water 24*7 on one hand and on the other hand, the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation will incur no loss, as far as supplying drinking water is concerned
Coimbatore: Providing drinking clean water for an affordable cost to the people of the city is the basic duty of the district administration. The Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) is leaving no stone unturned in order to achieve this goal. It is just in a matter of a few years from now that as many as 60 wards of the Coimbatore city which fall under the old corporation area will have access to clean, affordable and uninterrupted supply of drinking water 24 hours a day and 7 days of the week, according to CCMC.
Under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme and the Smart Cities Mission (SCM), the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) launched the Coimbatore 24×7 Water Supply Scheme to ensure continuous drinking water access to its 1.6 million households. The project to manage and operate the water distribution system within Coimbatore was awarded to SUEZ India on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis. Currently, the project is under construction.
Throwing light on the ambitious project, P. Gopalakrishnan, Team Leader, IE cum PMC for Coimbatore 24*7 water supply project and former engineer of the TWAD Board, in a virtual interaction organised as part of the 13th edition of the Coimbatore Vizha on Saturday clarified on the myths around the 24*7 drinking water supply and how it would be beneficial for the people and the CCMC.
How Suez was selected?
“After a request for qualification (RFQ) was approved by the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board (TNIDB) in September 2015. The due date for the submission of request for proposal (RFP) was fixed as January 4, 2017."
He added that however, due to poor response the date for re-tendering was set as April 7, 2017. Finally, a letter of award (LoA) was issued to SUEZ on November 24, 2017 and an agreement was signed on January 8, 2018.”
As SUEZ company satisfied all the parameters that were being considered for the implementation of the project, it was awarded contract.
Clearing the air about the various myths that surround the project, Gopalakrishnan reassured that the 24*7 drinking water supply project will benefit the CCMC and residents of the old corporation area, comprising 60 wards in the 5 zone of the Coimbatore corporation.
Benefits of 24/7 drinking water project
As part of the project residents will be provided with clean drinking water, over a metered connection 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with a saving of over Rs 17 billion for the CCMC over the 21-year maintenance period. Throughout the maintenance period and the five years of project implementation period preceding it, the CCMC would retain control over fixing water charges, providing new connections and disconnecting existing lines.
Commenting on the quality of drinking water that will be supplied, the former Chief Engineer of the TWAD Board said “The quality of water to be supplied to consumers will be measured through automatic meters and water bills would be system generated. This means consumers will pay for the amount of water, they use. Water wastage would be drastically reduced.
Swiftly attending to pipeline leaks
Explaining the concept in detail, he said that in the current system when drinking water is supplied according to a schedule, leakages in pipelines cannot be attended to promptly. By the time a leakage is identified and brought to the notice of the concerned officials and it is fixed, precious amount of drinking water is lost. However, in the 24*7 drinking water supply scheme, the former Chief Engineer assured that leakages in drinking water pipelines will be fixed at the earliest.
According to the agreement, the SEUZ company is responsible for ensuring that 80% of the complaints are rectified within the stipulated time frame. It is also the responsibility of SUEZ to make sure that water is transported from the reservoir to the end consumer.
Panic amid People
Commenting on the panic created amongst the public with regards to SUEZ taking over the drinking water supply responsibility from the civic body, Gopalakrishnan reassured that SUEZ will act under the direct supervision of the CCMC. He also assured that the water tariff will remain the same and the public taps through which drinking water are being supplied will continue to function as normal, but going ahead they will be armed with a water reading meter.
Authority to fix the tariff for water charge will remain with the CCMC.
Pay for usage
Throwing light on numbers, Gopalakrishnan said “The revenue of the CCMC will increase with the implementation of the 24*7 drinking water supply project. Currently, of the total amount of drinking water that is supplied, only 60 to 70 per cent is billed, causing a loss to the CCMC. However, under the SUEZ 24*7 drinking water supply project, there will be no room for error, as water meters will be functional and will be monitored. End consumers will pay for the amount of the water they use as per the water meter reading, just like we pay our electricity bills, we will pay our drinking water bills.” he said.
The positive side of this is the fact that end consumers will on one hand use water cautiously and will be careful enough not to waste water and on the other hand, the CCMC will receive its due revenue.
Another observation that was made in the session is the fact that currently water is being supplied as per a schedule across the wards of the Coimbatore Corporation. This pushes the end consumers to store the water for consumption which involves a cost in storing the water. Also, by default, a majority of users tend to store more than the required amount of water, just to be on the safer side.
He noted that when it is time for the next round of drinking water to be supplied, the consumers discard the stored water to fill fresh supply of drinking water. The 24*7 drinking water supply project will do away with this practise.
In a couple of years from now, the residents of the 60 wards of the old Coimbatore Corporation can take advantage of 24*7 drinking water facility which is one of the basic needs. Depending on the success of the project, the scheme could be implemented in the remaining 40 wards of the city, he informed.