Water Authority suffers huge loss

KOLLAM: Administrative apathy in issuing consumer numbers for water connections given under the Tsunami Rehabilitation Project, has caused huge revenue loss for the Kerala Water Authority (KWA).KWA sources said that water charges could not be levied from the consumers, as consumer numbers and in certain cases even water meters, were not provided to the consumers, for the free connections in the tsunami- affected regions in the district, which come under the Chavara PH division of the KWA.Ironically, the extent of the loss cannot be ascertained as the authorities have no idea about the number of connections given under the programme in Alappad, Kulasekharapuram and Clappana panchayats. It is estimated that there are around 3,000 to 4,000 connections in the division.“The officials concerned during the period are to be blamed for the loss suffered by the KWA. They seemed to have shown an apathy in the matter due to the hectic paper works involved without any additional benefits,” said a staff of the office, on condition of anonymity.Sources said that KWA officials were now tracking the connections in an attempt to issue consumer numbers and collect dues from April this year. There were around 3,000 houses with authorised connections in the region and many of them had availed of the benefit of the free connection, he said.“The free connections were provided in bulk along with the houses constructed under the Tsunami Rehabilitation Project by local bodies and various voluntary organisations. There are no records available on the number of connections provided,” said Harikumar, Assistant Executive Engineer of the division.He said that the division began issuing the consumer numbers to these connections from November and around 400 connections, three wards of the total 16 wards of Alappad panchayat had been completed.Harikumar said that the KWA had held discussions with the panchayat authorities over the issues that would crop up during the process.Former Water Resource Minister N K Premachandran said that the issue had not come up before the department during his tenure.He said that though the connections were distributed for free, no directive was given to provide free water.