S Lalitha By Express News Service BENGALURU: The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has decided to put an end to the permission given all along for builders to dig bore wells near sites where construction activity is going on in the city. This has been done to check the ongoing rampant exploitation of groundwater. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Chairman Tushar Girinath said that permission to dig these borewells had been given only so that the contractor can meet the water requirements of their labourers who stay near the site and carry out construction work at a site. “It has been found that many of them exploit these borewells fully and carry out construction activity using the water from it instead of procuring it from other sources,” he said. “The Board will instead make arrangements to sell treated water to them if they require it,” Girinath said. BC Gangadhar, Chief Engineer, Maintenance, BWSSB, said four water tankers would be earmarked only for purpose of providing water to cater to construction requirements. “The finalising of rates for the treated water to be supplied for the purpose of construction was presently on,” he said. Secondary treated water can be obtained from the recycling plants at Koramangala and Challaghatta Valley, Vrishabhavati Valley and Hebbal while tertiary treated water (subjected to further treatment) will be available from the recycling units at Yelahanka, Lalbagh, Jakkur and Cubbon Park, Gangadhar added. According to E Nithyananda Kumar, Chief Engineer, Waste Water Management, the BWSSB presently charges Rs 10 for one kilolitre of secondary treated water while the rate for tertiary treated water is Rs 15 per kilolitres of water. This works out much cheaper than Cauvery water which is priced at Rs 90 per kilolitre of water. Treated water has a high demand in the city. “The Bangalore Airport, Vidhana Soudha, Raj Bhavan take water on a daily basis from the BWSSB,” he added. Around 65,000 houses yet to have RWH facilities. The BWSSB gets up to Rs 3.5 crore annually as penalty amount collected from owners of houses and commercial establishments for not installing rainwater harvesting structures on their premises. “Out of the 1,19,000 properties in the city, which need to install rainwater facilities, around 65,000 are yet to put them in place. They keep paying penalty charges every month along with their regular water bills. For domestic consumers, this comes to 25 per cent of the monthly water bill for the first three months and 50 per cent of the bill after that, while it is double of this for commercial consumers,” said BC Gangadhar, Chief Engineer, Maintenance, BWSSB. Over plan to double the penalty for violating norms under the RWH Act, Gangadhar said, “If it gets nod, our penalty earnings will double.”

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