Tertiary treated water connection must for big houses

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 20

Finally, after a gap of four years, the Municipal Corporation has decided to amend the Water Bylaws-2011 keeping the Smart City Mission on mind.

Under the new Water Bylaws-2015, the MC has has decided to make a tertiary treated water connection mandatory for all houses/institutions having an area of 1 kanal and above within three months. In case of failure to do so, a penalty will be imposed.

The new bylaws were discussed at a meeting of MC officials and councillors, chaired by MC Commissioner Bhawna Garg today. The councillors, representing all parties, have given their consensus to all bylaws except for the increase in water tariff.

The agenda for final approval will be placed before the MC General House during a meeting on July 22.

MC Commissioner Bhawna Garg informed the councillors and officials that for Chandigarh to become a smart city, there was need for amending the water bylaws.

The key highlights of the new bylaws are change of faulty domestic meters, automatic meter reading for commercial units, shallow tubewells for vehicle service stations and provisional water/sewerage connections to dhabas/eataries in markets.

The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation treats 30 MGD of waste water and then releases 24 MGD of it into the drain as the demand for tertiary water in the city is only 6 MGD.

The decision to provide tertiary treated water supply to houses having an area of 1 kanal or above in the city is an exercise aimed at saving drinking water and making people habitual in using this water for non-potable purposes such as gardening and washing cars, an MC official said.

At present, sectors which have full availability of tertiary treated water are 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20 and 21.

The partially covered sectors are 2, 3, 10, 11, 14, 17, 23, 25, 33, 34, 37, 41 and 42.

Few takers for tertiary water

Despite spending Rs 15 crore on a project to supply tertiary treated water to houses measuring one kanal and above, the MC has only 650 such connections. The MC uses tertiary treated water for irrigation purposes in 55 green belts, 20 gardens and neighbourhood parks.