Sundaramma’s is one of 13,000 households in Hubli-Dharwad that need not wake up at an unearthly hour to store water, leaving hundreds of men and women, earning daily wages, free to spend more time earning a bit more.
Jagadish Sawant, who drives a water tanker in Hubli’s Gandhi Nagar, is not worried about storing water for his family any more. Instead, he worries about supplying water to areas that are deprived of daily supply. Hanumanth Kamble does not need to wake up at midnight; he has recently shifted house to the Golden Park area, where drinking water is available 24 hours a day.
A World Bank-funded Karnataka Urban Water Sector Improvement Project (KUWASIP), taken up for the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad, which had thirsted for regular water supply for decades, has brought clean water to the doorstep — 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Along with Hubli-Dharwad, select localities of two other cities in North Karnataka, Belgaum and Gulbarga, have also benefited.
Demonstrating continuity
KUWASIP is the first phase of a long-term programme, to be implemented in phases, to reform urban water supply and sanitation. Initiated by the Karnataka government as a pilot at an investment of Rs 237 crore, 75 per cent of which is a loan from the World Bank, the primary objective of this project was to demonstrate the feasibility of continuous water supply in small areas of select cities, called Demonstration Zones.
The focus of the project was to improve water service management, by cutting leaks and losses in the distribution network, to enable continuous water supply with the available water resources.
In 2004, Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC), a state undertaking, was appointed as the nodal agency to carry out a demonstration project. For the first time, a private sector participation initiative with demonstration of continuous water supply was taken up in the identified zones of the three urban local bodies (ULBs).
KUIDFC selected Veolia Eau-Compagnie Generale Des Eaux, a French ¤10 billion company that manages water supply systems in 80 countries, as operation and management consultant through global bidding. The company used its international expertise to design, install and commission water pipelines from the Renukasagar reservoir, about 45 km from Dharwad city. The existing pipelines were replaced with HDPE pipes to supply water in the demo zones.
The company also laid a separate pipeline for Hubli from the water treatment plant at Aminbhavi, which ensured supply of water with decent pressure to the city.
The corporation has completed five demonstration projects in select wards of these three cities and made water available round the clock. KUWASIP has not just enabled households to earn more, it has also lifted their standard of living.
The continuous water supply has enticed people living in rented accommodation to shift to the demo zones. The monthly rentals have nearly doubled in Golden Park to about Rs 4,000 for a two-bedroom house. There is no need any more to spend on building an extra large storage tank, and electricity bills have come down now that there is no need to pump water from an underground tank to an overhead tank.
“The water automatically reaches my overhead tank, which is at a height of 20 feet. I just have to open the tap and water gushes up into the tank on its own. My monthly energy bill has shrunk 40-50 per cent to Rs 120 or Rs 150 a month,” says S N Lakshmeshwar, a retired KSRTC employee.
URL: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/clean-water-todoorstepsparched-throats/364769/