OMG! Mayor Fumed over Rs 12.64 crore Pending Water Bills! But how about Water Loss through leaky Pipes?
Mangaluru: During the meeting with the media persons on Tuesday 14 November Mangaluru City Corporation Mayor Kavita Sanil slammed at the MCC Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) Naresh Shenoy for his negligence in not collecting pending water bills totalling over Rs 12.64 crore from the citizens of Mangaluru. Mayor even asked the AEE to produce the complete details of the pending water bills, but Shenoy was not ready with it- so the angered Mayor insisted that AEE get the details as quickly as possible. The AEE came back with the files in about 20 minutes, and the Mayor read the details of the pending water bills loudly.
The details revealed citizens (taxpayers) had evaded water bills totalling Rs 12,64,36,759, even though warning had been issued three months ago. But MCC was successful in collecting only Rs 11 lakhs, and Rs 13 lac through site visits, of pending water bills amount. The MCC has a total of 87,773 water connections, out of which 80,612 are residential, 4,869 non-residential, 1,034 are commercial and 1,251 are for construction sites. It is noted that 4,301 consumers water bills amount over Rs 10,000 per bill cycle. Angered at this situation the Mayor directed AEE to collect all the pending dues immediately and those who are reluctant to pay the fines their water connections be disconnected. The Mayor has also urged the citizens to pay their pending water bill dues immediately or face consequences with the disconnection of water supply, could be even legal action against defaulters. A job well done by the Mayor-seems like the AEE was sleeping on the job!
Having well said by the Mayor on the pending water bill issue and also the negligence of AEE not taking action against the defaulters, but through this report I want to bring to Mayor’s notice about the water being lost in various part of the City through leaky/rusty water pipes- so who is responsible for this wastage? This report is for the kind information of MCC Mayor Kavitha Sanil and Area Ward corporator Ashok Kumar DK of Kadri (South), where a loose connection of the water pipe has resulted in losing gallons and gallons of water 24X7. This has been a long time problem, where after complaints the concerned people come and do a incomplete job- and few days later it’s once again, the same problem of water leakage. And one among the many faulty/leaky water pipes in the City, is located opposite to Natural Ice Cream shack on Kadri Road (Kadri Pumpwell), near Karnataka Bank-Kadri.
On 5 October Team Mangalorean had published an report “https://www.mangalorean.com/mcc-negligence-gallons-of-water-lost-due-to-faultyleaky-pipe-near-kadri/” in Mangalorean.com, and by 6th October evening the leaky/faulty water pipe was fixed by the MCC officials along with their workers. But this shoddy work by the workers didn’t last long- within couple of weeks the water is leaking again- and this has been the problem for years. Do we need a engineer from abroad or out of state to fix this problem once for all? seems like it! Even few of our readers had commented about this report on their facebook- like Dr Edmond Fernandes posted his comment saying, “When Karnataka is facing drought, we cannot afford such costly mistakes wasting water. About time the City Corporation is held accountable to the people. I hope Mangaloreans also rise up to participate actively in governance processes”. Shalini Shetty posted her comments saying, ” Hoping this report would awaken our city officials to act quickly, so that no more water is lost, which is precious, when many people don’t have access to clean drinking water. Hope to see positive results soon from the Mayor and her team”.
But to the residents surprise, the fixed leaky pipe has started to leak again- and this is not something new- This has been a long time problem. The workers don’t fix it right- and in few days it’s the same issue. Old water infrastructure has been a problem for MCC with old metal pipes rusting, loose bolts giving way, and clean water gushing onto the street or into drains, costing a fortune in revenue. So how much water does the city actually lose because of this? A LOT! If you examine some of the MCC water connection pipes you will notice some shocking results- most pipesin the distribution system in a bad condition. The pipes are either leaking and the dead ends capped with wooden/metal corks increasing the likelihood of water-borne diseases. Presence of heavy metals like iron and lead corroding from the pipes and joints could far exceed limits of safe drinking water. Sadly, MCC doesn’t care about citizens health safety.
Sadly apart from taxpayers evading MCC in crores of money on pending water bills, added to that we have these faulty/leaky water pipes that lose gallons of water-what a waste? Hope this report will awaken the concerned MCC officials to sprung into action, and fix the leaky joint, so that not a single drop of precious water is lost. Thanking you in anticipation-yours truly on behalf of the citizens of Kadri area and around.
Also, Read Related Articles:
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MCC Negligence! Gallons of Water Lost due to Faulty/Leaky Pipe near Kadri
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Website Impact! MCC Fixes the Faulty/Leaky Water Pipe within 24 Hours