At a time when pockets in the extended southern tips of the city are struggling to get adequate water supply for their daily chores, controlling wastage by sections of citizens has become a challenging task for Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

The civic body provides a total of 515 million gallon of water every day from various stations. During summer, the daily consumption by the citizens triples. According to sources in the civic body, despite higher requirements, the KMC is able to provide the increased water supply during summer. The pockets in the added areas are also to have adequate water supply soon as the KMC is working on setting up of two crucial stations, one at Dhapa and the other at Garia.

Presently, water wastage has become a headache for the civic body. According to the mayor of KMC, Firhad Hakim, it has been observed after installation of water meters that households are consuming water in much more volume than they are supposed to. “Each person is supposed to get 150 litres of water for his or her daily needs. However, it was found that a family of five members are consuming around 1,500 litres daily,” rued the mayor.

Interestingly, the civic body, along with the KEIIP has undertaken a project of installing water meters. According to official sources in the KMC, the municipal corporation has installed water meters in about 11 wards, including five in Cossipore and 6 in Patuli areas. The installation of water meters has shown new rays of hope to the KMC in terms of curbing wastage of water. As per the information available from official sources, the KMC is hoping to save around 15 per cent of the wasted water through the mechanism of water meters.

The initiative however, is shadowed by instances of theft. According to an official source, the KMC is faced with a peculiar problem of water meters getting stolen or even damaged in some cases. “While the theft of the water meters is fewer in Cossipore, it is more rampant in Patuli. So far, more than 700 water meters have been stolen from the six wards of Patuli. We have also taken the help of police and every theft is reported to the cops,” informed an official. This is said to have helped the municipal corporation to some extent as the number of thefts reported have been reduced but it has not been stopped.

While continuing to instal the meters, the civic body is now asserting on creating awareness among people about the consequences of wastage of water. “In most of the cases, the response from people when informed about how they are consuming excess water which is adversely affecting the others has been good,” claimed an official. The KMC is therefore, emphasizing on making the citizens aware of the issue through various mediums to address the problem.