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WATER WISE

Monitor: Keep an eye on the water meter at home

For the customer, the correct price of water ensures access to clean water and also signals that excess consumption has a penalty and therefore he is dissuaded from over- consumption.

Many cities charge for water and include it as part of the property tax. This is a very indirect way of recovering revenue. Others charge a flat rate based on the dimension of the connecting pipe to the household. This too is an arbitrary . There is increasing consensus however,that an increasing block tariff makes the most sense. This is what cities such as Bangalore and Hyderabad use for their water charges. There is a separate charge for non-domestic consumption on an increasing block tariff too and for industrial consumption on a flat basis.

These utilities try to provide access to basic water requirement at affordable prices but ask heavier consumers to pay more. The non-domestic and industrial connections actually cross-subsidise the domestic consumers, bringing in an element of social justice.

While typically the price of water should depend on the marginal cost i.e. the cost of obtaining the next unit of water for consumption, knowing the production cost is important. On this will depend the pricing.

Apartments and layouts have to manage with multiple sources of water. For one they will have to meter all individual connections so that each flat or each site is charged according to its consumption .

As water gets to be an increasingly scarce resource, better management practice is the only option for continued and sustainable availability.

Getting the price right is one aspect of water wisdom.

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