Lately, I have heard a lot of buzz around campaigns being started to oppose privatisation of water. So I wanted to do a quick poll of how many people actually run their lives without any commercial/private water.

When I was bangalore I did not know of anyone who was using only BWSSB water. Even in Delhi, along with the Delhi Jal board water, we also depend on groundwater for a substantial percentage of our requirement.

This poll is a way for me to find out whether we are being hypocritical when we say we are against privatisation of water or I am wrong in thinking so.

-Shekhar

 Good poll, just last week I stood with my non borewell neighbours who rely on BWSSB water for all their needs and found that it was going to be a very difficult summer. Supply is down to 11K liters in our part of town and all had a feeling that there is unfair distribution during tough times. THe valve operations & connections favour some over the others and this puts some people at a disadvantage over others especially in our area. I believe it has become difficult to live purely on BWSSB supplied water.

So is your indication that people who rely on non BWSSB water in this poll cant be against privatizing O&M of the services? 

Shekhar,  not sure what the connection is between privatization and this poll.  I depend on a variety of sources for water.  Does that mean that I should automatically support privitization? BWSSB supply is non existent and we all think that some gol maal is going on.  No way to prove if this is a fact or not, but based on some monetary demands that have been sent our way, I would not be surprised.

With a commodity like water, I am never sure if privatization is a solution.  Water is essential, precious and finite.  The true cost of water production for Bangalore is said to be of the order of Rs 30 a liter.  Most average domestic consumers pay Rs 8 a liter.  How do you privatize this broken model?  Even if you come up with a model, is there enough scope to squeeze efficiencies that a private player can make enough money without impacting the average consumer, or at least, the really poor ones?  When commercial water rates are much higher, how are the incentives of private player and the average consumer going to align?  As a private player in my area, I would supply ITPL and not worry about the residents!

Are there incentives in the new model for consrvation, watrshed management, sewage treatment and disposal.  It is just not clear that a private player will solve all our ills.  The more important thing is the need for a major policy level change in how we manage our water and the institutions that manage our resources.  There are plenty of well researched ideas and concepts out there that can be tried, no have to be tried to forestall disaster.  Our current political framework and skill level of governmental bodies lacks the capacity to solve these issues, sadly.

 FIrst thing is to pay the true cost of water. Beyond the first x liters the rates must increase per unit in slabs as consumption goes up. The people who consume more should pay more.