murali772 - 23 November, 2010 | Bangalore | BWSSB | Privatization | Citizen Reports | efficiency | outsourcing | water supply

Have a water problem? Just dial 22238888 for ‘immediate’ help. Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is all set to roll out this service shortly — which is currently in a test phase — said the utility’s chairman P B Ramamurthy, who was the chief guest at the first public meeting held under the aegis of Bangalore Patrol on Sunday at the Bethany High school in Koramangala.

That was one of the highlights of the interaction session. For the full report in the ToI, click here.

In fact, this is what a resident posted on the 'savekoramangala Y-group' the very same day:

While coming back from the TOI/Janagraha Bangalore Patrol meeting on Sunday, I saw an over flowing sewage chamber at the junction of 7th Cross and 8th Main. I called the 22238888 helpline and complained. They sent me an SMS back with the complaint number and said that it would be sorted out within the next 24 hours. Maybe it was the freshness of the TOI meeting that triggered immediate response - but the BWSSB sewage cleaning truck is working on the block at the moment!

Well, well, too good to be true! One only hopes it lasts. However, the general experience with such arrangements, set up by government agencies, have been that they fall apart for lack of a comprehensive system being put in place, to begin with. This lack of a system became fairly evident right from the beginning of the session, with complaints galore, largely of the same kind, from citizens representing every corner of the city.

The most refreshing part was citizens complaining of water theft (largely from public taps), obviously in collusion with the officials, resulting in their being deprived of a fair share. Some (including a Corporator) even came forward to appear as witnesses in case the BWSSB chose to lodge cases against the culprits.

Mr Ramamurthy's responses were far from re-assuring. He gave the same old excuses of staff shortage, budgetary constraints, etc, etc. When I finally got an opportunity and suggested that, since BWSSB admittedly has serious capacity and other constraints to be in a position to do a professional job of managing the water supply, why not outsource it to professional companies, like JUSCO, following the Mysore example, he went on to pooh-pooh the deal, saying it was not working.

Actually, since I don't know better, I couldn't press the point either. Well, I would have liked to add - OK, if not JUSCO, get somebody else. Whatever, we can't continue to suffer you through eternity.  

With the relentless volley of questions from the public, Mr Balram (the ToI editor in chief, who was moderating the show) intervened to allow Mr Ramamurthy to respond. He used the opportunity to smother all further discussions by going into a non-stop monologue covering history, geography, climate change, and some future plans for audit, etc,etc. At a certain stage, when Mr Ramesh Ramanathan (of Janaagraha, who was also on the stage) intervened to request him to spell out timelines, Mr Ramamurthy was just not forthcoming.

Between Janaagraha and ToI, they have done a fairly comprehensive exercise, mapping the current scenario in all the 198 wards - check this. This could be a very useful tool to finding solutions if approached professionally. But, that's clearly where the problem lies.

I, for one, would like to believe that the answer may lie somewhere here

Muralidhar Rao

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