Mumbai may raise water charges from next year

Mumbai has joined a handful of metro cities in India to mull a raise in water charges.

Municipal authorities in India's financial capital recently announced plans to raise water charges from next year. The move is expected to bring in much needed funds that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is undertaking to shore up water supplies to the city.

If the water charges hike indeed comes through, Mumbai would join the likes of Delhi and some other cities that have managed to raise water charges despite stiff opposition.

For BMC, the hike would be necessary to meet growing expenses associated with provision of water to its growing population. The municipal agency has said it would likely charge more for water from 2012-13 financial year due to an increase in operation and maintenance costs of distributing additional water and following a rise in production cost as its completes some of the projects already on the anvil.

water charges were last raised in the city in 2002. Over the past several years, water charges recovered from the city's residents do not cover the expenditure being incurred by the municipal agency.

Now, as the cost of creating new water sources such as the under-construction Middle Vaitarna dam and the Gargai and Pinjal dam projects, is expected to go up, the municipal agency is firming up its view that residents should pay more for it.

The BMC had reportedly run into some rought weather in previous years whenever it thought to raise water charges. But, this time it should find support from the fact that the government in national capital Delhi has carried out its proposal to raise water charges.

It is not Mumbai alone that needs to raise water charges. Several other cities have undertaken projects to enhance coverage of water services and all these are puting tremendous financial burden on their finances.

But, only time will tell how many feel absolutely constrained like BMC and Delhi to enhance present tariff rates in the face of resistance.

BARC to help Mumbai set up desalination plant

Civic authorities in India's financial capital Mumbai have decided to appoint premier state-run atomic agency, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) as consultant in a project that seeks to set up the city's first sea water desalination plant.

BARC, which already desalinates water for its captive consumption, will provide technical expertise to the city for the project that will likely help tackle water crisis in the city.

Mumbai, which is the capital of India's western state of Maharashtra, has been facing severe water scarcity and local authorities have been resorting to a host of measures, including water rationing to curb rising demand for the resource. The city has also been rationing water to bring down its usage.

The city's main civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has also charted plans to go for public-private partnership to set up desalination plants to resolve the city's water woes in the coming years.

BARC has already helped Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu state in setting up a 10 million litres of day (MLD) desalination plant and another at Kalpakkam with an installed capacity of 6.5 MLD.

For Mumbai, BARC plans to consult the civic authorities on the type of technology to be deployed at the plant that would be suitable for desalinating water on large scale. BARC is also expected to guide Mumbai civic authorities on the feasibility and the survey reports.

The proposed project has already attracted the attention of the private sector and even as the BMC has identified areas where it may set up the desalination plants, as many as 18 international and local companies have submitted expressions of interest to carry out a feasibility study. The companies would have the mandate to set up plants with a capacity of 10 MLD at various places near the coastline.