PANJIM: Public Works Department (PWD) engineers on Monday appeared clueless on Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant’s announcement to provide 16,000 litres of water free to domestic consumers every month from September 1, while PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar said that nearly three lakh houses across the State would benefit.
During his Independence Day speech, Sawant announced that 16,000 litres of water would be provided free to the consumers from September 1. He said that main reason to provide free water up to 16 cubic metres is to stop wastage as people would then use water judiciously. By doing this the government will be able to provide surplus water to others.
Sawant said that it costs the government a whopping Rs 15 per cubic metre to provide treated water to the consumers, who receive it at much lower rates.
Pauskar said that approval in principle has been granted to the proposal and that it will be approved at the next Cabinet meeting. According to him, normally a family of four members consumes about 16,000 litres of water every month. On an average, a person requires 100 litres of water a day.
To a question, he said that the PWD engineers will work out the new tariffs and that nearly three lakh households will receive zero water bills every month from September. The government will lose revenue of Rs 11.50 crore annually.
Pauskar said that the government had revised water tariffs for some
categories of consumers last year wherein consumer consuming up to 15 cubic metres of water pay Rs 3.50 per cubic metre as against Rs 2.50 and those consuming water between 15 cubic metres and 25 cubic metres pay Rs 9 per cubic metre and for those consuming more than 50 cubic metres pay Rs 25 per cubic metre.
The Minister said that only the tariff slabs would be revised now and those consuming up to 16,000 litres of water will have to pay only the meter rent.
PWD principal chief engineer Uttam Parsekar said that up to 16,000 litres of water will be provided free to consumers and added that tariffs were revised to the minimum ie by Re 1 last year.
Former Deputy Chief Minister and MLA Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar claimed that the proposal to provide free water to domestic consumers was mooted by him during his stint as PWD Minister.
“When I was PWD Minister in 2016, I had suggested that up to 14,000 litres free water every month be provided to domestic consumers. But it could not materialise as I was dropped from the Cabinet,” he said, adding that after he became the Minister in 2017, he suggested to provide free water to those consuming up to 15 cubic metres per month.
According to Dhavalikar, the main reason to provide free water to consumers was that they use water judiciously and do not waste treated water.
He also said that a family of four members use up to 16,000 litres of water every month and cautioned that a family of eight will have to shell out more money.