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Photo: S.S. Kumar

In demand: Mechanical water flow meters of 20 mm size are ideal for multi-storied buildings.

According to Chennai Metrowater officials, of the total 38,459 buildings identified so far in the city 12,660 are multi-storeyed buildings that need to fix meters. Though the Board has insisted that other categories, including individual houses, adhere to the system, it has zeroed in on multi-storeyed buildings as the water consumption is more in such buildings.

Water meters have been installed in about 7,300 multi-storeyed buildings so far. The process of serving notices to the other identified buildings is underway. Though multi-storeyed buildings are being targeted, several individual consumers who haven’t received notice yet and want to fix meters are also being helped with the procedure, the official said.

Residents said the water agency was yet to specify a deadline for the fixing of meters in the identified buildings. They demanded that the deadline be extended to a reasonable period to facilitate the installation of meters.

Discussion on extending the deadline beyond May 31 was still on when this report went to print on Thursday. The Board is yet to confirm its decision about reverting to slab rate ranging from Rs. 2.50 ps. to Rs. 25 according to the consumption of water, following the withdrawal of fixed charges (Rs. 15 a kilo litre), for metered connections.

On the Metrowater’s drive, an official said the Board was taking measures to make available sufficient meters in the city to meet the requirement.

While the Metrowater Board has procured 2,900 meters so far and stocked them in its depot offices, big hardware shops in the city also sell the equipment. A hardware shop owner in Vadapalani said that though shops stocked water meters, sales was comparatively less as most residents opted to purchase the equipment in the wholesale market at George Town.

Traders in Broadway said the market received a steady stream of consumers as the system was already in place for obtaining new water connections. However, there has been a slight increase in the sale of water meters in the past two months. The price of a water meter is less in the wholesale markets at George Town and Broadway compared to other hardware shops, they said.

Some of the products available in the market are from Dashmesh Engineering Works, Amritsar; Aquamet India Private Limited, Schlumberger and Anand Zenner Company. Water meters have to be obtained from north India as there are no local manufacturers.

S. Badusha, proprietor of Kalanjiam Company in Broadway, said, “We sell water meters ranging from 15 mm to 80 mm with ISI mark certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards. At least 100 meters are sold in a month.”

The rates of the equipment range from Rs. 608 to Rs. 12,000 according to their size. Among the mechanical water flow meters, the ones of 20 mm size that are ideal for multi-storied buildings, are in demand, he said.

Digital water-flow meters that display the water consumption reading are also available in the market. However, such meters are not popular because of the high cost and limited production. A digital meter of 15 mm size would cost about Rs. 4,600, Mr. Badusha said.

Traders said mechanical water meters are being manufactured with a guarantee of 6 months to a year. However, the guarantee is applicable only when clean water flows through the meter.

Once the meters are procured, it has to be handed over to the nearest depot office for testing at the Metrowater-owned laboratory in Kilpauk. A Metrowater official said a considerable amount of water is released into the water meters and the accuracy is checked as part of the testing. The charges varied between Rs. 100 to Rs. 200 according to the size of the meter.

Several consumers across the city noted that the reading has been taken, but that the billing process was yet to begin.

V.R. Gopalan of Anna Nagar West said that though the cost of meters ranged between Rs. 800 and Rs.1,000, residents had to bear an additional expenditure of between Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 4,000 for things such as raw materials for building a water meter chamber and labour cost. The chamber has to be built in such a way that the water that flows into the sump does not revert to the water main in case the sump gets filled. Otherwise, consumers would have to pay for the amount of water that reverted to the water main as the equipment would meter it as water consumption, he said.

There are chances of meters becoming faulty in the long run, particularly during the monsoon, as the chamber would get silted up with stagnant water making reading difficult, he said.

Consumers across the city said that the functioning of the new water meters cannot be assessed as it is only about two months since the equipment has been installed in the buildings.

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