Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) is planning to take steps to stop wastage of potable water in New Town which is also a major problem in all civic bodies and development agencies in the state.
A meeting in this regard was held between senior officials of HIDCO and the engineers of Public Health Engineering (PHE) department.
It may be mentioned that Indian Green Building Organisation (IGBO) has recently observed that New Town should reduce water use.
PHE will quantify the amount of water available after treatment for Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) in Action Area II B and II C. Along with the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). As per environmental norms, BOD must be less than 30mg/L.
Forest department officials have been requested to send water tankers to the STPs to take treated sewer water to water roadside plant instead of using costly potable water. Similarly, Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company, the PPP company that is responsible for supplying water and sewer treatment in Sector V to make available the output water for watering trees in the new Ring Road and elsewhere.
JUSCO has decided to use treated water which is not fit for the consumption of humans and livestock to water gardens and trees and clean roads.
It may be mentioned that Kolkata Municipal Corporation's biggest aim is to stop wastage of water, which has come up as a major problem in the state. In the city, cars are cleaned and roadside trees are watered with drinking water whose production cost is going up every year.
During the British period till late 1960s, the city streets used to be cleaned by untreated water from river Hooghly. There was a pumping station at Mullickghat in Burrabazar to lift water which was used for cleaning and flushing.
There were separate water tanks to store unfiltered water in every household. However, there was an outbreak of Cholera in the city in 1969 and the World Bank asked the United Front government to stop supply of unfiltered water as people were drinking it.
One of the major sources of huge waste of water has been the roadside water taps. According to a KMC water supply department official, apart from the household water connections, there are as many as 17,000 road side water taps across the city which supply filtered water.
While some of these water taps serve a portion of city's slum population, majority of these have become a source of huge waste, conceded a civic official. An estimated 5 million gallon water gets wasted through these water taps. To make the matter even worse, a large number of such water taps serve the purpose of cleaning up taxis in some areas.