KMC to install stopcocks to check wastage from water stand posts

Kolkata: To put a stop to wastage of water, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is learnt to have decided to launch a survey to determine the number of water stand posts in the city that have no taps, leading to unrestricted flow of water.

It was reportedly learnt that directions for the survey have reached the water supply department from the office of the municipal commissioner. Such a decision is learnt to have also come up in the wake of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressing concern over wastage of water.

The civic body will be conducting surveys in all its wards to determine the number of water stand posts that are functioning without any taps attached to it. Following the survey under the leadership of the director general of the department, plastic taps will be attached to these standposts to restrict flow of water when not in use.

Further, sources said monthly reports also need to be compiled and sent to the municipal commissioner intimating him of the progress made by the civic body in stopping wastage of water from roadside water stand posts.

Last year, Mayor Firhad Hakim had told the media that KMC intends to do away with such water standposts which according to him has lost its relevance in the wake of the civic body now supplying water to doorsteps in

big slums.

“We do not want people to have to travel far from their homes to queue up for water,” he remarked. Hakim had said that in places where standposts are still in use, the people there need to ensure its maintenance. “In several places such stand posts have been damaged by locals,” he said.

The Mayor said that in several places KMC is also installing stop cocks to stop wastage.