Residents wary of SCB's plans of installing water meters

The Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) recently decided to take action against illegal water connections under the Cantonment limits. Installation of water meters has been made compulsory but implementation is far from easy. Convincing the majority of the population in the cantonment, i.e. the residents across the 10 slums and 25 bastis to go in for legal water connections is an ordeal, admit authorities at SCB.

Out of the 4.5 Million Gallons a Day (MGD), 1.9 MGD is supplied to slums free of cost. Arogyanathan, a resident of Sarva Sukhi colony says, “SCB has been lethargic all these years and has not taken serious action against people. In many cases the water metres that were installed are either defunct or damaged.” A senior official at SCB said that once the water metres are installed, we would be able to analyse the exact amount of consumption and help us in making a study on consumption patterns.

At present, SCB requires 60 lakh gallons of water per day, but it is receiving only 40 lakh gallons. While SCB is bent upon weeding out illegal connections, residents are miffed with the board for its lack of governance. Mahesh, a resident of TMC colony says, “On the one hand SCB wants to make it mandatory to install water meters but what about people who have not received bills for months on end?”

He adds, “First, the board needs to get its act together and then start new projects.”