Water board deputes ex-army men to collect over Rs 1,000 crore dues

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB), which failed to recover nearly Rs 1,000 crores from defaulters, has now roped in ex-servicemen to collect the arrears. 

According to water board records, 3.27 lakh defaulters have been identified and 'red notices' served on 2.72 lakh to collect nearly Rs 1,000 crore dues. However, so far, less than10,000 defaulters have come forward to clear their dues after water board officials threatened to register cases and seize assets. Though the water board has a separate 'vigilance team' headed by a former army officer, they were unable to cover the entire city and peripheral municipal circles. 

"It has become a tough task to collect dues worth Rs 1,000 crore from chronic defaulters. We have constituted 'vigilance task force' (VTF) teams in each operation and maintenance (O&M) division to collect dues. The water board had deputed VTF teams in divisions IX (KPHB Colony, Hasmathpet) and X (Saroornagar, Dilsukhnagar, Sahebnagar) last month and successfully collected dues worth Rs 13 lakh from defaulters," HMWS&SB director-revenue, P Suryanarayana told TOI.

Read more here - TOI - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Water-board-deputes-ex-army-men-to-collect-over-Rs-1000-crore-dues/articleshow/41145383.cms

Water tariff agenda too on the cards

CHANDIGARH: Deferred in the last house meeting owing to time crunch, water tariff agenda is coming up for detailed discussion on Friday.

According to the new plan, the civic body has revised the plan by enhancing the tariff to curtail the misuse of water in northern area of the city. If MC passes the revised tariff plan, then the authority will be able to earn a revenue of Rs 36.30 crore more.

The MC has analyzed last one year's data of all consumers under MC and concluded: "There are 1,50,000 water meter connections across categories such as domestic, lawn, commercial, semi-commercial, institutional, government, industrial, etc. in the city. It has been found that out of 1.2 lacs consumers of domestic category, about 13,760 consumers are having water consumption more than 60 kl per month, which is much higher than the normal water consumption. Further, the analysis shows that consumption is more in northern sectors as compared to the other sectors and some sectors?2, 3, 4, 5 and 9?are drawing more than 1,000 litres of water per day as against the average domestic demand of the city, 252 litres. This is due to the fact that the houses are of size one kanal or more in these sectors and drinking water is used for irrigation of lawns causing wastage/misuse of water."

Read more here - TOI - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Water-tariff-agenda-too-on-the-cards/articleshow/41133510.cms

13 illegal water connections discontinued in Rajkot city

RAJKOT: In order to maintain the water distribution smooth in the city, Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) has launched a drive to find out illegal water connections and electric motors which are being used to pump waters in different parts of the city. According RMC officials, on Thursday, 13 such illegal residential water connections in Kasturi residency in ward number 13 were disconnected by RMC's water works department. 

Earlier, over 100 illegal water connections have been disconnected by RMC in last two months. "We were receiving complaints of irregular water supply from some parts of the city. So we launched a drive to check smooth water distribution. Electric motors are not allowed to draw water. So, we also seize electric motors if we found them in water drawing in our drive'' said an official from Water works department.

Read more here - TOI - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/13-illegal-water-connections-discontinued-in-Rajkot-city/articleshow/41116133.cms

Plastic waste may trigger water bombs in Himalayas

Unfortunately, this is the ugly truth of the Himalayas. The heap, which includes biodegradable plastic, can be found just four kilometres from Shimla in the reserved forest of Lalpani. And this is not an isolated pocket either. The amount of plastic and other bio-degradable waste in the Himalayas is growing at an alarming rate and wreaking havoc with this fragile ecosystem. Trekkers and tourists have become litterbugs, who don't think before tossing a juice can or wafer wrapper by the mountainside. 

To save the fragile ecology of Himalayas, the Himachal Pradesh government on October 2, 2009, banned the use, storage, sale and distribution of all types of polythene bags. On October 2, 2011, the government imposed blanket ban on the use and storage of nonbiodegradable disposable plastic cups, plates and glasses and warned that violators would be fined up to Rs 5,000. Himachal Pradesh was the first to ban plastic and polythene bags. This photograph is, however, proof that the law is totally ineffective.

Read more here - TOI - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollution/Plastic-waste-may-trigger-water-bombs-in-Himalayas/articleshow/41053304.cms

New water system empowers tribal women across villages

VISAKHAPATNAM: Till about a year ago, 12-year-old B Madhavi, V Bharathi and Anjali Kumari had to trudge along the hilly terrain to fetch drinking water in metal pots from a stream nearly two to three kilometres away from their homes, not once but three to four times a day instead of attending school.

Of course, the mucky water they collected for drinking purposes required no lab test to tell how contaminated it was considering that washing, cleaning and morning ablutions were all done in the same spring water, leading to various health and sanitation problems.

But today, thanks to the efforts of a non-governmental organization, Visakha Jilla Nava Nirmana Samithi (VJNNS) they are back at school. VJNNS with support from NGO Arghyam, which was founded by IT tsar Nandan Nilekani's wife Rohini Nilekani, has provided 3,798 households in 62 remote villages across four tribal mandals of Vizag -- Chintapalli, GK Veedhi, Koyyuru and G Madugula ? access to 24X7 safe and sustainable water supply at their doorstep, 365 days a year, through the Neeru-Aaroghyam project.

Incidentally, availability of potable water has been a perpetual problem in the tribal areas of Vizag. And though successive governments have announced water projects but they failed to materialize as these require uninterrupted power supply. The beauty of the seven-step VJNNS water supply system is that the gravity-fed water supply system (GFWSS) requires no power or electricity.

Read more here - TOI - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/New-water-system-empowers-tribal-women-across-villages/articleshow/41049165.cms