If you book a mobile water tanker with the Secund-erabad Cantonment Board today, you will have to wait for two months for the water to be delivered. And the delivery time is only getting longer. Jitender Sareen, resident of Bhavana Colony, booked a mobile tanker with AP Online (Cantonment water tankers have to be booked through AP Online centres) on March 15, 2012. Mr Sar-een was given a receipt with a delivery date of May 7.
When this correspondent went to the AP Online counter in the SCB office at 3 pm on Wednesday, and asked for a tanker booking, the clerk said, “If you book right now, you will get the delivery in the last week of May. Do you still want to book it?” A person who booked a tanker after 4.30 pm on Wednesday was given June 2 as the delivery date.
There are two reasons for people continuing to book cantonment tankers despite the delayed delivery dates. First, the cantonment water is cheaper, and second, people think they can get the water delivered in 48 hours by claiming an emergency or using political influence. The Water Board charges Rs 400 for 5,000 litres of tanker water for the domestic sector and Rs 515 for commercial consumers. The Cantonment charges only Rs 320 for 5,000 litres for both the sectors.
There is only one water filling station with just 11 mobile tankers available with the Cantonment authorities. This is insufficient to cater to the water needs of Cantonment citizens. Over 3,000 bookings are pending as on date. The demand is only going to go up. With the acute water scarcity kicking up a storm in the Cantonment Board meeting on Wednesday, it was unanimously approved to immediately hire two new mobile water tankers and dig 32 new public bore wells in various areas (four in each of the eight wards) and repair existing hand and power bore wells.
SCB president Maj. Gen. C.A. Krishnan and other Board members approved an immediate hike in the price of water supplied by Cantonment Board water tankers from Rs 325 to Rs 400 for domestic users and Rs 525 for commercial users, bringing the price on par with the Water Board tariff. Maj. Gen. Krishnan also instructed Cantonment officials to ensure that all efforts and measures are taken to supply water to citizens. “Drinking water should be top priority this summer as there is scarcity of water,” he said.