Mafia flouts rules, loots public money

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Despite being surrounded by water bodies, uninterrupted water supply remains a distant dream for many of the residents who rely on water of dubious quality supplied by tanker lorries, controlled by the water mafia.

Despite the civic body’s mandatory order that only purified water from the Kerala Water Authority pump house should be supplied, the water mafia flouts all norms and distributes contaminated water, taken from wells and ponds.

Quality of water being served by tankers is not being monitored and vested interests are involved in water supply business, admit the civic authorities.

The corporation spends more than Rs 10 lakhs a month for water supply through tanker lorries. “The civic body pays Rs 300 to the Kerala Water Authority for filling a big tanker and Rs 150 for a small tanker and also need to pay the transportation and contractor charges.

Though it is not the corporation’s responsibility to supply water, we never compromised in distributing water to the scarcity hit areas,” said T.K. Ashraf, chairman of health standing committee.

The corporation authorities will make payment to the tanker contractors only on their submitting proper bill from the KWA. But there are allegations that they submit fake bills after taking water from ponds and wells to loot the corporation.

“As per the norms, the tanker lorries should supply water only from the KWA pumping house at Aluva. However, in absence of mechanism to monitor the tankers, the contractors take water from wells, ponds and even from river Periyar, which is contaminated and untreated,” said K.J. Jacob, opposition leader.

Several large institutions and flats rely on tanker lorry water as the primary source. And a number of families in West Kochi, the worst hit area, also are dependent solely on the water supplied by tanker lorries.