The Chairman of the Karnataka Water Supply and Sewerage Board has announced that the entire city of Mysore will be supplied round the clock potable water by 2012 by spending nearly 200 crore rupees under JNNURM to upgrade the water supply system. But even with this huge expenditure, it is unlikely that the Chairman's promise will be realized.
The reason for this pessimism is that more than 30 crore rupees were spent in 1998 under ADB loan to meet all the water requirements of the city upto the year 2011. It is crystal clear that this goal has not even been approached. We are in 2008 and we are constantly facing serious water shortage and epidemics caused by inadequate water treatment. The pipes were to cater to the projected population of 2026. Now, 18 years before this deadline, we are again spending a huge amount to replace pipes.
It will not be surprising if we still face water shortage (both of quality and quantity) in 2012 (contradicting the Chairman's assurance) and the people in charge will come up with a thousand crore project to solve it.
We need a paradigm shift to put an end to this ever-escalating expenditure to chase a mirage. The most important ingredient of this shift is the fact that only about 5% of the water supply is used for drinking and cooking purposes. Only this water needs to be treated to bring it up to drinking water standards. The other 95% which is used for uses such as bathing, washing, flushing and gardening needs minimum treatment. Appreciation of this fact will alone lead to savings of crores of rupees.
Identification of good drinking water sources will further reduce processing costs. Rain water should be harvested at suitable places. Such harvested rain water needs only minimum processing.