Meter, measure and manage your water
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Metering and measuring can provide every individual with the power to manage water in an informed fashion, writes S. Viswanath
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The 11th article in this series brings you notes on how metering your borewell would be a far-sighted approach to scientifically understand the implications of natural recharging with RWH. This is where the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewera
ge Board (BWSSB) should step in to set off the measuring device, says the author.
Bangalore is one of the few cities in India where you pay for water on the basis of what you consume. The technical word used to describe this is ‘volumetric tariff.’ If you take a look at the water bill, it is also an increasing block tariff. This means that more the water you consume the higher the slab you fall into and therefore the more you pay.
Volumetric tariff can send powerful economic signals to the consumer to moderate her consumption and be judicious in water use, if properly designed and applied. It is only metering that makes consumption-based pricing work and therefore the need for good and reliable meters.
Prudent managing
Piped water supply can be metered, so also borewells; and this is important. With groundwater through borewells increasingly being used in apartments, industries and houses, metering the borewell can provide rich assistance to the user to manage water better.
For example, a meter can tell her how much water she has pumped from the aquifer that day or that month.
If a separate electricity meter is kept for the borewell or one calculates the electricity consumption based on the horsepower of the pump used and how long it is switched on to collect a certain known volume of water, the price per kilo-litre of borewell water can be determined.
Say, one pumps for one hour and collects 2,000 litres of water in the overhead tank and two units of power is consumed in the pumping at Rs. 5 per unit. The cost per 1,000 litres or 1 kilo-litre of water is Rs. 5. Now compare this with the cost of water which you are using from other sources. You can then make a rational economic decision as to which one will cost you the least.
Art of recharging
Metering borewells also has another huge advantage. If you have consumed 10,000 litres every month for one year, then your annual consumption has been 120,000 litres of water.
Since this has come from an underground source it is your responsibility to recharge the borewell to the tune of 120,000 litres or more through rainwater harvesting.
This means all the water falling on a 30 x 50 feet plot should be recharged. If every borewell owner recharges as much as she takes out from the underground aquifer, no borewell will ever go dry. Since this water is perhaps cheaper than the mainline water, it will also save you money.
For the city it is much more energy efficient to pump from shallow aquifers rather than from the Cauvery over a head of 500 metres and 95 km. Imagine the energy saving and the reduction in carbon emissions! This is a win-win situation for the individual and the city.
Fair management plan
Since the BWSSB is now levying a Rs. 50 cess on every borewell in a building which also has a BWSSB connection, it would be logical for the BWSSB to initiate the metering of these borewells too. This will enable it to understand the volume of ground water being pumped out and presumably into the sewerage system.
It would also give it a fair understanding of the amount of recharge required through rainwater harvesting. A fair management plan can then emerge since the BWSSB also insists on rainwater harvesting for every new connection it plans to give.
Metering and measuring can provide every individual with the power to manage water in an informed fashion.
If I were you I would rush to the nearest meter shop and get one installed for my borewell, preferably a meter with an ISI mark.
I would also quickly install a recharge well and put as much rainwater as I could into the ground.
www.rainwaterclub.org
www.arghyam.org
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