Water supply through private water tankers- Bangalore

There is a spurt of gastro-enteritis in the city today. Residents think that it is the mains supply from the BWSSB that is contaminated. The Bangalore water supply and sewerage board thinks it is from the private water tankers that contaminated water is coming in to households.
Here is a private water tanker on the 28th of January 2008. A tanker load of 4000 litres costs Rs 150/- (approx US 4 $).The leaking tanker comes and delivers water untested for quality as an expectant family looks on.The family has to buy water because there is a function in the house and the water has run out. A sump tank built to receive the mains water which comes once in 2 days for 2 hours is all set to receive the tanker water now.
A bore well about 525 feet deep is the source of the water. It takes a 7.5 H.P pump 15 minutes to fill the tanker.The tankers operate in a zone of 2 km.. The firm has 3 tankers and altogether on an average day they supply 30 loads in a day making for 120,000 litres daily.The first borewell that the firm dug went dry and so the second new one -deeper of course- supplies the water.
Why should not the BWSSB supply enough water for the citizens of Bangalore? Why should not the water come 24/7? Why don't citizens demand better service from their service providers? Even when we have gastro-enteritis in the city we do not look for structural improvements in water supply and sanitation? Bangalore wake up and smell the coffee :):)?

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• water
• supply
• 24/7
• gastro
• enteritis
• urban
• waters
• ground
• private
• tankers

[zenrainman]

Almost all private water tankers source their water from bore wells.

My estimate is that around 600 million litres pe r day is pumped out with no recharge structurally put into place.

Virtually ALL private water is untreated though over 75% of bore wells tested in Bangalore report high Nitrate.

Caveat emptor - but buyer beware does not work in an ignorance is bliss situation.

The big battle is to bring in an institution like an Urban water management instituion to manage ALL waters in a city

[aklnj]

With the Himalayan source drying up due to global warming and the coming back to back failures of the monsoon, its not hard to imagine the tragedy that is to come.

[savitashiv]

Zen,

From this video do we conclude that private tankers are from borewells.If Yes is'nt it scary on these 2 notes

a) 1.25 lac litres everyday pumped out, with no mechanism to recharge.

b) untreated water distributed for usage