BENGALURU :
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) which loses 44% of its water to pilferage and leakages, has a lot to learn from Dhaka. For, the Bangladesh capital has reduced losses and achieved exemplary water management by simply replacing old pipes.
Participating in the International Water Loss Summit 2016 being held in the city, Taqsem A Khan, MD and CEO of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) on Monday said: “We replaced 47% of the old pipelines in the network with the first phase of funding from international agencies. With that, we could reduce the water loss to 29% from 53% between 2003 and 2010 and further to 22% by 2015. We have reduced the loss due to pilferage to 15%. By 2021, we have set a target to treat all ground water and surface water as environmentally sustainable.”
The three-day summit is organized by the International Water Association.
Taqsem said the company would be legalizing/authorizing water supply in slums that house about 25% of Dhaka residents by 2016. The city has further computerized the entire water supply network except reading of meters and aims to reduce manual labour on that too shortly. He attributed the achievements to political will and bootstrapping finances.
Here in Bengaluru, the BWSSB loses 44% of water to pilferage and leakages in the system. Besides, the board has yet not been able to cater to the entire city and serve only 95 lakh consumers.
Bengaluru development minister KJ George announced that the BWSSB would reduce its water loss to 30% but fixed no deadline for the board to achieve the target. He rather blamed the city’s population and economic growth. “We could not cope with the pace of the city growth and that is why the water board is still to supply water to all and manage water as is being done in many cities that have water scarcity,” he said.
MN Thippeswamy, member of the scientific community of IWA, said, “Nothing has been done to create awareness on saving water. Imagine if 58 lakh vehicles in the city are wasting 30 MLD of fresh water in a month on an average! There is no mandate from the municipality that a new layout or building will be permitted only if it has treatment plant and uses grey water for non-potable purposes,” he told TOI.
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) which loses 44% of its water to pilferage and leakages, has a lot to learn from Dhaka. For, the Bangladesh capital has reduced losses and achieved exemplary water management by simply replacing old pipes.
Participating in the International Water Loss Summit 2016 being held in the city, Taqsem A Khan, MD and CEO of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) on Monday said: “We replaced 47% of the old pipelines in the network with the first phase of funding from international agencies. With that, we could reduce the water loss to 29% from 53% between 2003 and 2010 and further to 22% by 2015. We have reduced the loss due to pilferage to 15%. By 2021, we have set a target to treat all ground water and surface water as environmentally sustainable.”
The three-day summit is organized by the International Water Association.
Taqsem said the company would be legalizing/authorizing water supply in slums that house about 25% of Dhaka residents by 2016. The city has further computerized the entire water supply network except reading of meters and aims to reduce manual labour on that too shortly. He attributed the achievements to political will and bootstrapping finances.
Here in Bengaluru, the BWSSB loses 44% of water to pilferage and leakages in the system. Besides, the board has yet not been able to cater to the entire city and serve only 95 lakh consumers.
Bengaluru development minister KJ George announced that the BWSSB would reduce its water loss to 30% but fixed no deadline for the board to achieve the target. He rather blamed the city’s population and economic growth. “We could not cope with the pace of the city growth and that is why the water board is still to supply water to all and manage water as is being done in many cities that have water scarcity,” he said.
MN Thippeswamy, member of the scientific community of IWA, said, “Nothing has been done to create awareness on saving water. Imagine if 58 lakh vehicles in the city are wasting 30 MLD of fresh water in a month on an average! There is no mandate from the municipality that a new layout or building will be permitted only if it has treatment plant and uses grey water for non-potable purposes,” he told TOI.
