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For several days now, residents across the city have been left with little choice other than to purchase water from private tanker operators who quote exorbitant prices. The reason is a delay in mobile water supply by Chennai Metrowater due to a shortage of vehicles, say lorry owners.

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Though mobile water supply accounts for only 40 million litres a day, including supply to bulk consumers, of the total 822 mld provided to the city, unavailability of Metrowater tankers has spelt problems for residents.

Residents of Thendral Colony, Anna Nagar Western Extension, said that their locality often experiences problems of sewage mixing with water. “We were receiving tanker supply once or twice a week. But, we have not been getting them for the past two weeks,” said M. Priya, a resident of Anna Nagar. Overcome by the shortage, some people are purchasing water for rates varying from Rs.950 to Rs.1,300, for a 12,000 litres load from private tankers. Others have doubled their purchase of packaged water.

Residents of several areas, including West Mambalam and Adyar, express similar woes. Trips by paid tankers, which usually supply water in a day, get delayed by up to one week, they complain.

“We seek mobile water supply whenever there is a shortage in supply through pipes. We pay Rs.600 for 9,000 litres of treated water. As it gets delayed, we buy untreated water from private tankers,” said a resident of West Mambalam.

A total of 300 lorries are being operated in the city, with each tanker doing eight to nine trips every day. There is a shortage in vehicles for the past few weeks, following poor response to a recent tender called for additional vehicles to be operated to merged areas. Due to this, about five to ten per cent of vehicles, being run on contract, are being diverted to the added areas. This has resulted in a shortage of tankers operating in the city, said sources in Metrowater and lorry owners association.

Lorry owners said the rates quoted by Metrowater were low. Though the rate is increased once in a year and the contract renewed every three years, it was not viable. “The prices of vehicles have gone up in the past two years, and take almost 45 days for delivery. We wait for three months for a tender to be settled,” said a lorry owner.

Metrowater officials said measures are being taken to settle the tender for additional lorries. Priority is being given to street supply, and trips to tail-end streets and slum tenements. There was a delay in installing global positioning system equipment in vehicles due to technical hitches, and the problem of unaccounted trips would be resolved once the vehicle monitoring system commenced in a few days. they said.

Source: The Hindu