The district administration has put on the back burner the directive that all private water tankers operating in Ernakulam should install Global Positioning System (GPS) before January 31.
The move comes close on the heels of relaxing the norms prescribed by the Assembly Committee on Petitions that had recommended stringent measures against private tankers found drawing water from illegal sources. At present, no action is being taken against tankers collecting water from private wells despite the committee’s directive that water should be taken only from hydrants managed by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA). The Assembly committee had also clarified that water would be provided only to tanker lorries having GPS facility.
Officials of the special committee constituted by the district administration to monitor and check the quality of water being supplied in private tankers said they were not taking any action against tankers not having GPS facility. “With the rules for drawing water getting relaxed, we are not looking at whether the tanker operators have installed GPS in their vehicles,” they said.
According to official estimates, 441 tankers transporting drinking water were certified by the Regional Transport Office based on the directive issued by the Assembly Committee as on Friday. “Except for a few new water tankers, none of the other vehicles have GPS facility. Ninety-two tankers transporting sewage water and 33 collecting raw water had also received certification from the Motor Vehicles Department,” said officials.
With the enforcement of GPS norms being delayed, the special team involved in the monitoring of private water tankers will not be able to locate the spots from where the vehicles were drawing water. Round-the-clock tracking cannot be done through daily surprise checks alone due to the manpower shortage for such a massive operation. Unless the authorities issued a directive stating that tanker lorries without the facility would not be permitted to operate, the Operation Pure Water initiative would not yield desired results, said officials.