Just like the way electricity bills are generated for the amount of electricity consumed by a building, there should be 100% metering for water usage as well!

Does everyone agree to it? Well, while some may not and some will, there lies a lot of sense in making consumers pay only for the actual consumption. If citizens have the fundamental right to water it is also important for them to pay for the water that they use.

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), has made the installation of water control meters for all buildings mandatory, to ensure judicious use of water.

Owners of houses will be penalised if they don’t follow the rules, attracting a penalty of Rs 1,000 and Rs 100 per day till the system is installed. Action will be taken to cut off water connection until the parameters are satisfied.

Judicious consumption of water –

While water scarcity in India is an on-going crisis that affects 600 million people every year, it is highly important to save the scarce resource to not add more to the suffering number.  This on-going crisis has worsened in the recent years due to climate change and several other factors.  Governments are prompted to take stringent measures to combat the crisis. Judicious use of water is the need of the hour, in order to prevent overconsumption, leakages that waste water down the drain and overflows that result in generating non revenue water.

With advancement in technology and growth in the IoT sector, ‘judicious use of water’ has been made possible by smart water metering solutions that make users aware of the their water consumption levels, alert them about leakages and notify them about overflows on a real-time basis.

Current Scenario in Bangalore –

Many apartments and commercial spaces have already taken initiative to install smart water metering solutions to make their buildings water sustainable. Apartments and buildings that are already metering their water usage are paying only for the amount of water consumed and are able to consume up to 35% less water compared to water consumption prior to installing the meters. Commercial spaces are also seeing a drop in the maintenance costs related to water. Some advantages of water metering experienced by these buildings include –

• Water metering provided an incentive for water conservation along with volumetric pricing.
• Water metering helped the detection of overflows and water leaks in the distribution network which further provided a basis for the reduction of non-revenue water.
• Apartment owners association could keep a track on the water consumed and made the residents aware about the efficient use of water by paying the charges based on the actual consumption of water.
• It ensured 24-hour water supply to all the flats, unlike hourly usage in times of acute water crisis

With water control meters becoming mandatory, there is going to be a huge difference in the way the state combats water crisis.