Edited: JibranKolhapur: A study has revealed that more than 70% of the water supplied by the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) doesn't return any revenues.The civic body has hired an independent agency, Sgi (Studio Galli Ingegneria), to carry out the water audit, GIS mapping and hydraulic modelling of the existing system. The work costing Rs 3.6 crore began in October last year. After the year-long concluded, the firm handed over the study report to the civic authorities last week.The study has mainly focussed on three aspects; the status of the existing system, mapping of the pipeline network and redesigning the system that could be used for next 30 years."The revenue water (water on which the bills are issued) is around 30% and 70% is non-revenue water (charges are not recovered from users). The transmission losses from water treatment plants (WTP) to high rise tanks are 23% and the distribution losses are 30%. The losses due to illegal connections are 0.30% and due to faulty meters the losses are 0.6%," reads the report under its water audit section.As per the law, the firm has claimed, 15% of the water supply is permissible as non-revenued. In most of the cities across the state the average non-revenued water is around 25%. The report has further suggested that the KMC should focus on both short term and long term measures."In short term measures the KMC should identify the illegal connections and the consumers using water without meters. In long term, the KMC needs to overhaul the pipeline network and we propose to lay down 350km of underground pipeline both new and to replace the old ones," the report suggests.It further reads, "The KMC should increase the number of high rise tanks by 12 and take the number to 35. It will enable an additional storage capacity of 16.43 million litres over existing 40.55 million litres."The suggestions are made based on the urgent requirements, as well as, keeping in view the need for next 30 years.The Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP), a state government-run body, has estimated that the KMC will require around Rs 114 crore to carry out the tasks suggested by the study report. "This is to ensure that each and every household gets adequate water supply," said an official.The study report, a copy of which has been accessed by TOI, further suggests that there is an urgent need to increase the number of high rise tanks. While the lifting capacity of the pumping stations is 120 million litres per day, the storage capacity is just 30 per cent of it.The study has also found that in addition to existing six pumping stations, two more stations and a WTP needs to be set up. At present, the length of underground pipeline network for distribution of water from WTPs to the households is 527km while as the length of transmission pipelines (water supplied from river source to the WTPs) is 44km."The KMC requires an additional 18km of the transmission pipelines in order to effectively utilise the potential of the pumping stations," reads the report.The firm has also submitted a software design of the existing water supply network. In order to ensure 100 per cent coverage of the water supply in the city for next thirty years, it has mapped the areas for laying new pipelines, as well as, the areas where parallel pipelines are needed.However, the civic authorities do not seem satisfied with the study. The KMC has decided to carry out a third party audit of the findings.Municipal commissioner KMC, Abhijeet Chaudhari, said, "We are going to check the scope of the task given to the private firm. We will look into the findings once again and if the third party audit validates the findings, we will proceed to undertake them measures it has suggested.

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