NAGPUR: After engaging private operator — Orange City Water Private Limited (OCW) — and spending around Rs1,100 crore, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has reportedly brought only 20% of city areas under 24x7 water supply scheme in the last one decade.
The original deadline to cover entire city under 24x7 scheme had expired five years ago. Even the extended deadline for completion of the scheme ended on March 31. This extension was approved as part of the controversial one-time settlement (OTS) offered to the OCW.
As per NMC data, city has been divided into 103 command areas — 68 are laced with the network and works in the remaining 35 are on under the AMRUT scheme. The NMC data also reveals that the OCW has declared 34 command areas as 24x7 compliant, which means 33% of total network area including localities to be covered under AMRUT scheme, while 10% areas do not have network yet. The NMC figures also show 22% areas as under 24x7.
Yet, problems like contaminated water supply, low pressure, lack of network etc continue even today.
City MP and Union minister Nitin Gadkari had, at several public platforms, claimed that 70% of city areas were getting 24x7 drinking water supply. He had also claimed that agitations over water crisis had become a thing of the past after the appointment of the OCW.
Former corporator Vedprakash Arya told TOI, “Around 10% of the total localities in the city do not have water network. These are unauthorized areas and most of them are situated on the city’s outskirts. These areas are also not covered under Rs282 crore Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme.”
TOI on April 2 reported how many residents in Pandey Layout, New Ramdaspeth, Lendra, Kachipura etc are getting water supply for only 1-5 hours despite the areas having been declared as 24x7.
Arya said, “Jaripatka locality is also getting water only for five hours despite it was declared as 24x7. I doubt if even 20% areas declared as 24x7 compliant are getting water round-the-clock.”
TOI has also reported many areas from all six assembly constituencies in city getting contaminated water supply. Also, many areas get water at low pressure. In the last one week alone, three delegations from West, South and North Nagpur met NMC officials over water woes, apart from a large number of citizens protesting at the NMC headquarters on Monday.
OCW did not respond to TOI’s messages.
The central and state governments had sanctioned Rs1,100 crore between 2006 and 2009 for improving city water infrastructure, quantum of water, plugging leakages, curbing unequal water distribution, reducing non revenue water (NRW), mitigating contamination, etc. The NMC had set a deadline of March 31, 2017 for the OCW to convert all 68 command areas into 24x7, end contamination, ensure equal water distribution to all areas and bring down NRW to 15%. However, as per NMC data, the NRW is still over 40%.
Once a profit-making civic body, the NMC’s loss has increased to over Rs70 crore related to water supply in the last decade.
NMC officials said, “Saying it 24x7 water supply scheme is a misnomer. The scheme was to provide uninterrupted water round-the-clock. There is improvement on commercial side as billing and revenue has increased after the scheme was introduced. The NRW has come down to 40.24% from over 50%.”
“To ensure uninterrupted water supply to all localities, the scheme requires more funds and time so that old network can be replaced. We can start supplying 24x7 water to network areas. But it will increase NRW and wastage of precious treated water,” they said.
