BANGALORE: Is the State Government keen on water privatisation in the city's suburbs? It seems so if the Government's recent direction to Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) asking it to reconsider its proposal to run the Greater Bangalore Water Supply and Sanitation Project (GBWASP) is anything to go by.

BWSSB is executing the project at a cost of Rs. 802 crore in six City Municipal Councils (CMCs) and one Town Municipal Council (TMC) around Bangalore. Work on the water supply component taken up at a cost of Rs 410 crore is under progress and is likely to be completed by January 2007.

The former BWSSB Chairman Ashok Kumar Manoli had written to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in February that it could run the Greater Bangalore project at costs much less than those quoted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group that is financing the project. It is learnt that the department has asked BWSSB Chairman N.C. Muniyappa to reconsider this proposal.

Board's stand

Sources in BWSSB told The Hindu on Thursday that Mr. Muniyappa had informed the Government that he agreed with Mr. Manoli's proposal. The Chairman had reportedly conveyed to the department officials that BWSSB could run the project at two-third of the cost quoted by IFC. This proposal is pending with the Government.

Probably it is in this context that Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavaraj Horatti recently announced in the legislature that water privatisation was not on the cards.

But several non-governmental organisations and activists campaigning against water privatisation refused to believe him. "The Government has signed an agreement with the World Bank, wherein it has accepted the condition of privatising operation and maintenance of the project. This is one of the guidelines the Government has to follow to seek World Bank assistance. It is strange that the Government is now saying something different," Issac Arul Selva, coordinator of Campaign Against Water Privatisation (CAWP) said.

Another member of CAWP Clifton D'Rozario pointed out that recently water supply had been privatised in some areas of Belgaum, Hubli - Dharwad and Gulbarga. "Why can't the job be entrusted to the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board?," he asked.

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