Form panel to review water tariff, demand Chandigarh residents

Chandigarh, September 14

The UT Administration’s decision to enhance the water tariff has not gone down well with city residents who feel that it will add to their burden in times of financial crisis.

Voices are already being raised to review the decision. Now, the City Forum of Residents Welfare Organisations (CFORWO) has requested the Administration to constitute a committee for further review of water tariff and suggest measures to the Principal Secretary, UT, to check the wastage of water.

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Among the measures suggested by CFORWO convener Vinod Vashisht are bringing in automation in water distribution, regularising unmetered connection, augmenting water recycling among others.

Representatives of various residents’ welfare associations said the average per capita supply of 252 litres per capita per day (lpcd) against the natural benchmark was 135 lpcd. It shows that the overall water consumption of the city was much higher than the actual need.

“The two prime reasons are the losses due to water leakage and unnecessary use of potable water for irrigation purposes,” said a former MC official.

Water conservation activists also discourage the use of reverse osmosis (RO) water systems in the urban areas as it leads to huge wastage. A common household RO wastes nearly 3 litres of water for every one litre of purified water. It means 75 per cent of water comes out as waste. — TNS