Water billing for only 50% of supply, of which half is unpaid

Nagpur: Even after running amnesty schemes and giving over a decade to consumers, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Orange City Water Private Ltd (OCW) have failed to recover Rs194 crore water bill arrears from government, civic establishments and residential and commercial property owners as on January 31, 2020.
As per NMC-OCW data, the civic body is lifting around 740 MLD from Pench reservoirs and Kanhan river but of the total water supplied to meet city’s requirement, billing is done only for 370 MLD (50%).
The city has total 3.61 lakh water consumers. Out of them, 1.7 lakh consumers are defaulters. The arrears indicate that 50% of the billed water has gone unpaid, taking the non-revenue water (NRW) figure to a staggering 75%.
Disconnecting 4,293 consumers led to recovery of Rs14.71 crore so far.
As per the data, the revenue from water supply for the current financial year is Rs116.24 crore against a target of Rs166 crore.
Outgoing NMC water works chairman Pintu (Vijay) Zalke admitted that the civic body has failed to remove the backlog for over a decade now. He, however, said that Rs142 crore arrears were recovered this fiscal,” he told TOI.
Zalke said that under his watch, 33,000 illegal connection were detected and 8,000 of them snapped after following due process. He said after taking over as new standing committee chief on March 5, he will initiate measures for the recovery of Rs194 crore “in a fair manner” along with other works.
Mayor Sandip Joshi attributed the arrears to a couple of reasons, including faulty billing, delay in setting up new connections and ignorance of consumers. “The problem lies in billing pattern of NMC as disputes are not settled fast. At the same time, defaulters too have now become used to not paying dues at all. Therefore, the arrears keep increasing though recovery is an ongoing process,” he said.
Joshi agreed that its high time to take tough decision to fix the problem of non-payment as well as NRW. “OCW will be held responsible for NRW. It could recover only up to 50 to 70 MLD of the unbilled water. These issues would be raised during the meeting of Nagpur Environmental Services Limited (NMC’s special purpose vehicle for water works) this month,” he said.
Zalke too said a new policy is needed as one time settlement (OTS) or amnesty scheme too has failed to make impact. “Immediate disconnection is one solution but due time for filing objections will be given. NRW stands at 52%, and efforts are on to bring it down to minimum. During review meeting of all departments as standing panel chairman, water works will be on priority,” he said.
OCW spokesperson said the agency has been conducting mass disconnection drive against defaulters and illegal consumers. “Every day, stern action is taken against around 300 defaulters and around 200 illegal consumers. NMC is in the process of providing police protection as and when required beside administrative support during the drive,” the spokesperson said.
As on Jan 31, 2020
* Connections | 3,61,683
* Defaulters | Around 1,70,000
* Total arrears | Rs194 crore
* Disconnections | 4,293
* Recovery from disconnections | Rs14.71 cr
* Annual water revenue | Rs116.24 cr*
(Data source NMC-OCW. *Water works chairman claims Rs142cr recovered)
No water on Monday
OCW has planned a 12-hour shutdown of Chinchbhuvan, Pratap Nagar and Khamla ESR for installation of 500 MM diameter valves on inlet of Chinchbhuvan and Khamla ESR on March 2 (Monday). The shutdown will be from 10am to 10pm the same day. Areas receiving supply from Chinchbhuvan, Pratap Nagar and Khamla ESR will be affected due to no water.