DAYA SAGAR
In the earlier years the drinking water was supplied to the people in J&K State through the Water Works wing of Public Works Department which was later named as Public Health Engineering Department and has been in April 2020 renamed as J&K Jal Shakti (PHE) Department.
Governments every next day make public declarations and spend lakhs of rupees from the state exchequer through media advertisements patting “self” for having brought revolutionary changes in the status of water supply ( what to talk of rural areas ) whereas position in even main cities like that of Srinagar and Jammu too is not fair.
Ofcourse the demands, infrastructure have largely grown over the years could be seen from the fact that in 1954 Jammu city had hardly about 3,450 water connections and today in 2002 the domestic connections may be around 1,50,000 ( as per some reports appearing in media in 2014 PHE Jammu had a total of 1,21,814 water connections in Jammu city, 78,970 water connections in City-I Division (Old city) and 42,844 in City-II division. There were 13,549 commercial water connections in Jammu city, comprising of 12,092 connections in City I division and 1,457 in City-II division. May if needed the department correct data and provide the exact number of domestic and commercial water connections in Jammu and Srinagar cities at present.
The only function that the J&K Public Health Engineering Department has been performing and is performing on date is supply of clean potable drinking water. The PHE Department has to meet two basic requirements First : Supply of adequate and timely water in the taps, Second : Supply of pure and clean drinking water.
In case UT of J&K cannot do as UT of Delhi ( Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi ) is doing even then surely there is fair case for reducing water charges till J&K Jal Shakti (PHE) Department is able to supply water regularly in adequate quantity at adequate pressure and of course drinking water that will not need further purification by the consumer.
The undependable position as regards the adequate and timely supply of tap water is not unknown even for the cities or Jammu and Srinagar what to talk of towns/ villages. Supply in even ‘crown’ cities often eludes the consumers atleast one to two times a week and even the duration is not assured. Ofcourse the field officers at Sub Division level will have to provided field staff of adequate numbers and status for maintaining a dependable system since presently they are very inadequately staffed and have to mostly depend upon the casual/ daily wage staff who too at their level are economically & socially always hard pressed. Water charges even for ½ inch domestic connection in J&K have increased substantially over the years (Table-A).
The modern urban standard norms provide for supply of water to the household @ 135 to 165 Lt per capita / per day, the water supply to the domestic connections in Jammu city may be physically much lesser. To quote Delhi Jal Board supplies water to consumers @20000 Ltr per month free of cost as per the 01-02-2018 notification (i.e 666 Lt per day per connection free which comes to @133 Lt/ head/ per day for a family of 5 souls.
As regards the palatability / fitness of drinking water is concerned we can hardly find a family which can afford to buy a water purifier and has not installed a water purifier to purify the water supplied by PHE Department of J&K for which the addition annual depreciation and service maintenance costs “adding” to water bill would be ranging from Rs. 4000 to Rs.6000 per year ( say Rs. 5000 average ) to make the “drinking water’ supplied by PHE Department fit for human consumption.
Not only that in general the norms for urban water supply to cities like Jammu do provide for min water supply head / pressure that should be available at the feeding point to consumers and should be at least 10 mt / 32 ft and may be in the hydraulic design of water supply system/ network the J&K PHE is also keeping such like provision for supply under gravity / deciding height of overhead tanks. But it is a common complaint that the pressure head available at consumer point is much less. ‘Some’ may reason low pressure / less quantity pleading that it is so since some people use domestic motors on the lines which effects supply/ pressure to other connections but the counter question on the department is that in case people receive water supply with residual head of 30 ft or so nobody will use motor for carrying water atleast to tanks on 1st floor if not 2nd floor and in addition consumer will also save cost on electricity used. This way consumers are suffering on two accounts, first receive less water and second have to incur extra / additional cost on self pumping even upto 1st floor in addition to incurring addition expenditure on purification of water supplied.
The modern urban standard norms suggest for supply of water to the household @ 135 to 165 Lt per capita / per day, the net water supply to the domestic connections in Jammu city may be much lesser even than that .
Delhi Jal Board supplies water to consumers @20000 Ltr per month free of cost as per the 01-02-2018 notification i.e 666 Lt per day per connection free which comes to @133 Lt/ head/ per day for a family of 5 souls. There is first need for J&K Jal Shakti (PHE) Department to meet the standards for minimum water quality and quantity since the consumers are incurring undue extra costs in addition to paying regular water bill which department appears to be raising every year by about 15% ( which should be immediately stopped). Lt Governor Manoj Sinha is out for administrative reforms as well as for extending relief to public and he should also consider supplying at least 20000 Lts water free of charges to domestic consumers like Delhi Government . Otherwise also atleast household water ( must need for survival)should be supplied free of cost in a socialistic order.
Ofcourse water meters must be kept operational in cities to know how much water is reaching and is being consumed
(Daya Sagar Patron Sr Journalist / Analyst Jammu & Kashmir Affairs [email protected])