HYDERABAD: A long-pending Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) and the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) for improving water supply in SCB areas has once again been put on hold.

The MoU, the dye of which was cast in mid-2004, was about to move on to the signing table in a couple of months after different kinds of interruptions earlier. The latest brake was applied after serious doubts were expressed from within SCB over the financial liability the deal could mean to SCB.

According to the draft MoU, the plan was to outsource operation and maintenance of water supply in SCB to HMWSSB. This meant that a technical team of HMWSSB would operate from SCB, with its salaries totalling Rs.65 lakhs annually to be paid by SCB. The HMWSSB team was to oversee and learn operation and maintenance of water supply for at least two years, before HMWSSB took over the same.

However, strong opposition is being raised within SCB with estimates showing that the burden on its exchequer would shoot up to Rs.1.8 crore per annum if the MoU was signed. This would be apart from the responsibility of collecting water charges to the tune of Rs. 3 crores remaining with SCB. And that responsibility is not something the board has been successful in handling so far. SCB is barely able to collect Rs.1.5 crore currently.

Liabilities

"We are already spending Rs.6 crores to repair pipelines, which was one condition laid down by HMWSSB. After that, their salaries, costs of operation and maintenance, water bills to HMWSSB, water bills from customers, all these liabilities still remain with us. And if a pay revision happens, their salaries will go up. What is the actual benefit for SCB from such an agreement," asks an SCB official.

Others point out that once the pipeline network is repaired, most of the bottlenecks that hampered the water supply system in SCB would be straightened out, which means it could handle the system on its own. Moreover, HMWSSB has not been able to keep its promise of supplying 37 lakh gallons per day to the SCB with the existing supply hovering around 28 to 30 LGPD. This is when the SCB's daily requirement is 50 LGPD.

"If we are to hand it over to HMWSSB, the entire water supply should be entrusted to them, like in MCH or surrounding municipalities like Kukatpally. There is a strong feeling that SCB rushed into this agreement without reading the fine-print of the MoU," an official says.

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