Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Rewarding consumption, fostering wastage

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The hike in water charges, announced by the government on Wednesday, tends to reward consumption by the middle class and foster wastage by the poor.

The highest rate of increase in the lower end of consumption is for consumers using just 10 kilolitres of water a month. While the water charge goes up by 100 per cent for them, those consuming double the quantity (20 kilolitres) will have to bear an increase of only 80 per cent. The increase is even lower (25 to 74 per cent) for non-domestic consumers using up to 50 kilolitres.

Families consuming 10 kilolitres a month are those who consume water within the design parameters of water supply projects in urban areas. (It is estimated that the per capita requirement of an urbanite is about 70 litres a day). The graph of hike would not have peaked for them if the government had kept the hike at Rs.3 a kilolitre for water used in excess of 5 kilolitres a month.

The government proposed to offer lower hike for those consuming 20 kilolitres because they constitute the largest percentage of the consumers of the Kerala Water Authority, though they use water excessively. In the case of non-domestic consumers, the lower rates of increase are “to prevent the impact of higher rates touching the general public” if that argument can be taken at its face value. Populist approach is also visible in its decision to offer 10 kilolitres of water a month free of charge for families living below the poverty line (BPL).

Many of those families would not need that much of water. (Twenty-five per cent of the paying consumers use only less than 5 kilolitres of water a month.) The free supply is likely to encourage misuse and wastage. In monetary terms, the concession amounts to only Rs.40 a family per month. However, the government is spending double the amount to produce the water, not to mention the capital expenditure to build capacity. (The production cost of one kilolitre of water is about Rs.8). If half the water goes waste, the loss to the exchequer would be about Rs.480 lakh a year (assuming that one lakh BPL families would get free water).

The hike in water charges is one of the major proposals of the Water Policy 2008 to be implemented after its announcement in July. The policy proposed that water charges for various uses shall be fixed in such a way that they cover at least the operation and maintenance charges while retaining subsidies for the disadvantaged and poor sections.

Perhaps the biggest drawback in its implementation is that it encourages excessive consumption by those who do not have the means for that. It will not convey scarcity value of water and foster motivation for economy in water usage. The pricing policy may pave way for elimination of public taps, as wanted by the World Bank. But it would not eliminate wastage. One of the advices given to conserve tap water is to use water in cups.

Public taps forced carrying of water for domestic use in pots. Its elimination would improve the quality of life of the poor marginally. However, they will be learning the vices of the richer class, and the wastages could be higher than from the public taps, especially because the limit for free water is fixed at 10 kilolitres a month.

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