A high-level meeting of senior State government officials will be held in Thiruvananthapuram, on April 29 (Monday), on a new water supply regime in Kochi under an Asian Development Bank-assisted programme. The Chief Secretary has called the meeting reportedly to give finishing touches to the deal between the government and a Paris-based company.
Unions representing employees of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) have repeatedly expressed apprehension about water becoming a costly commodity accessible only to those with high paying capacity. Kerala Water Authority Employees’ Union State working president M.M. George said the KWA operated at two levels. At the social level, it has been supplying substantial quantity of water for free to people with limited paying capacity. However, he felt that the new regime would operate purely on business principles.
Though the objectives of the project are defined to provide equitable and continuous pressurised water supply to all customers, including the urban poor and vulnerable communities, to reduce non-revenue water losses to less than 20% in accordance with the national service level bench mark and progressively achieve financial and service sustainability, Mr. George said the first visible effect would be a rise in water charges.
KWA employees are also worried about their future. What will happen to the employees in Kochi, spread out in more than 13 offices, including two divisional offices. There are around 150 employees on the rolls, while there are those who are engaged on contract basis for tasks like metre reading, he added.
KWA trade unions have also raised questions regarding the role of the authority in the new scheme of things. While there is an assurance about the employees, the role of the KWA is still not defined. At the ground level, those opposed to the new regime also highlighted a possible lack of remedial measures in case of emergency situations like water line breaches and supply disruptions.
