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QUESTION: Has continuous water supply (also generally called 24x7) ever been attempted in Karnataka?

ANSWER: No. This is the first structured attempt to introduce continuous water supply.

QUESTION: Is continuous water supplies possible?

ANSWER: It has been shown in many places that by adopting good engineering & management practices & by reducing losses, continuous water supplies will be possible.

QUESTION: What is the basis for concluding that continuous water supply is required?

ANSWER: Worldwide, it is recognized that the best way of distributing safe water is to keep the distribution network under constant pressure, and thus distribute water on a continuous basis. Under intermittent supply conditions, contamination can occur every time distribution pipes are empty, according to Central Public Health Engineering & Environment Organization (CPHEEO).

QUESTION: Is continuous water supply cost effective?

ANSWER: Continuous water distribution is the most cost effective way of distributing water, both for the ULB and the customers. If the ULB has to pump the same quantity of water in 4 hours rather than in 24, it would require larger pipes. It also requires higher pumping and storage capacities. This results in higher pumping & electricity costs. If continuous water supply is not available, customers have to build their own storage. Some customers will go in for alternative supplies like bore wells. It is advantageous for them to have water all the time from taps than to store. They will also save the trouble of collecting water at odd hours, if ULB supplies water at odd hours.

QUESTION: Is there sufficient water available to supply 24 x 7?

ANSWER: Yes. Sufficient water is available.

QUESTION: If continuous water is supplied to Demonstration Zone citizens, will it reduce supplies to citizens in remaining parts of the city?

ANSWER: No. Under the project, action is being taken to ensure that while continuous supply is provided to demonstration zones, the water supply to the rest of the city is not affected. This is achieved by undertaking rehabilitation of transmission mains & improving pumping through priority investments.

QUESTION: Why does the plan cover only Demo Zones? What about the rest of city?

ANSWER: The existing water supply system is not adequate to provide continuous water supply. For having a system which can deliver continuous water supply, the condition of the distribution network should be clearly known. It also requires experience to manage a continuous supply system. This may also require huge capital expenditure. The project which has been now been taken up is only a pilot project. It will help us in understanding the various issues concerning the maintenance of a system for providing continuous water supply. Based on the experience of providing continuous water supply in these demo zones, the project will be extended to the rest of the city. For expediting the continuous water supply to the remaining parts the preparatory work will be taken up while the works in Demo zones are under implementation.


QUESTION: On what basis were the demo zones selected?

ANSWER: Demo zones were selected based on technical considerations. The technical requirement includes the possibility of isolating a portion of the net work from the rest of the current distribution system. Water is also required to be fed from a dedicated reservoir to this distribution system, so that continuous water supply could be implemented. Moreover, the zone which is selected for demonstration purposes should have an ideal socio-economic mix of households. It should represent the household pattern across the city and cover an optimum size of around 10% of the households.

QUESTION: Why does one need to involve the private sector in the provision of a basic public service?

ANSWER: In recent years, large sums of money have been spent in urban areas of the state to develop Water Supply infrastructure, but this has failed to translate into improved Water Supply service provided to customers. Therefore, an innovation of asking the person executing the project to also maintain these assets for a certain period so that benefits are obtained to the public in terms of better service. As against the carrying out of only the civil works, the present contractor also has to maintain the system for two years there by ensuring better service to the public.

QUESTION: Will Water Supply service improve with private sector participation?

ANSWER: Yes. The private Operator will be responsible under contract obligations, for delivering water under continuous supply conditions to all connected properties within the Demonstration Zones. The Operator will also have to comply with the performance targets set in their contract for minimum pressure at premises as well as continuity of supply. The Operator will be paid a bonus if they exceed minimum contractual performance or charged a penalty in case they do not. Reduction of losses in distribution system will make additional water available. These measures will result in significant improvement in service.

QUESTION: Will there be facilities for customers for redress of grievances?

ANSWER: Yes. There will be an arrangement to improve customer interface and grievance redressal mechanism. Measures will be put in place to ensure that customer grievances are handled timely and effectively. Under the contract te Operator is obliged to attend to the complaints in a time bound manner.

QUESTION: Will the usage of water increase with introduction of continuous water supplies? What is the extent?

ANSWER: Preliminary studies show that usage of water will not go up on the introduction of continuous water supplies. There are instances of countries practicing continuous water supplies even with 80 lpcd consumption, contrary to normal 135 lpcd adopted in designing water supply. Metered, continuous water supply brings in a sense of conservation rather than of wastage in users.

QUESTION: What will be the policy on Public Stand posts?

ANSWER: It is proposed that public stand posts will be replaced by individual house connections. Individual connections will be provided to even poor and vulnerable sections. Both access & water usage rates for them are proposed to be subsidized. The details will be worked out after the detailed tariff design study report (which will be undertaken as part of this project) is submitted & government takes a decision on its recommendations.

QUESTION: What will be the effect on the poor households?

ANSWER: At present those households, who do not have individual connection (specially the poor), get lesser quantity of water. Large amount of time is wasted in collection of water. They also end up buying low quality water at high cost from private sources. The cost of collection of water is high. Therefore, it is in principle planned, to charge less from the poor households them compared to the normal charges. The exact rate of charges from poor household will be decided after completion of the study in consultation with the public and the stake holders.

QUESTION: Will the poor get due attention in the proposed plan? Will they be left out?

ANSWER: Yes. It is proposed to provide individual house connection to poor households; it is expected that they will be charged subsidized connection as well as water use charges.

QUESTION: Do you propose to meter the connections? Do you propose to read these meters for billing?

ANSWER: Yes. All connections will be metered. Billing will be as per meter readings.

QUESTION: How do you propose to deal with unauthorized connections? Will you legitimize them?

ANSWER: An opportunity will be given to citizens to get illegal connections regularized. The Corporation will legitimize such connections on receiving applications, by collecting applicable fee.

QUESTION: What about water use charges? How will it be determined?

ANSWER: In order to maintain the water supply system in a good condition, the water use charges will try to cover these costs. However, these decisions will be taken only after doing a detailed study taking into consideration the concerns of the stake holders. The Govt. will then take final decision in the matter.

As for the demonstration zone consumers, volumetric charges based on tariffs set according to cost recovery principle will be applicable after the service level improvements become clearly visible. This may happen by the last quarter of 2006. The increase is expected to be in phases, to avoid inconvenience to citizens. Poor citizens will have a subsidized tariff for a lower consumption block. In case volumetric tariff is introduced in a city before that, the demonstration zones will also switch over to such a system.

QUESTION: Who will collect Tariff? Will the revenue be used for water supply purposes?

ANSWER: The tariff will be collected by or on behalf of the corporations. The accounting reforms currently initiated by government will help separate accounting of Water Supply transactions. The corporations would be encouraged to spend revenues from Water Supply accounts on improving O & M and expansion of coverage, water supply infrastructure etc.

QUESTION: It is said that even house service connections will be upgraded along with installation of meters. Who pays for these?

ANSWER: Initially, these will be done using project funds. After the implementation of continuous water service, the invested amount will be recovered by charging Rs. 50 in the monthly water bills of customers.

QUESTION: Is there a blue print prepared for bulk water supply and the distribution improvement?

ANSWER: Yes. Works planned to increase the bulk supply to three City Corporations called Priority Investments. These works include reducing leakage from transmission mains by rehabilitation / replacement of pipes and laying of new transmission mains. Demonstration Projects is meant to show that continuous water supply is achievable. For this purpose, distribution network will be redesigned and all household connections will be metered and upgraded with uniform standard material. The design will be for a prospective population for the year 2031.

Q What is the time line of the project?

ANSWER: It is proposed to implement the project in phases. Phase I which will cover cities of Hubli – Dharwad, Belgaum & Gulbarga, is expected to be completed by 2009.

QUESTION: What is the status of the project?

ANSWER: The work on priority investments related to bulk water improvements are already contracted & are in progress. An Operator is already contracted in April 2005 for Demonstration Zones. Work has already commenced.

QUESTION: Is this continuous water supply for a short period? Will it continue?

ANSWER: It will be the government’s endeavor to scale up the project to cover the remaining areas of the three cities. Efforts will also be made to scale it up to other cities. The success of this phase will be a key factor for this.

QUESTION: What are the benefits of this project to the public?

ANSWER: There would be increase in the quantity of water available for distribution to the public. Also, due to improved water quality, there will be improvements in the health of citizens as the incidence of water borne and water related diseases would come down. The customers need not store water and pump it to their storage tanks. Hence, there will not be any storage, pumping and maintenance costs, ultimately resulting in savings in storage construction and electricity charges for the customers.




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