Attendees: Shekhar Mittal, Jim Gowda, Zenrainman Sir, Manjari Vishnoi, Neha Dar

We met Mr Thippeswamy, Retd. Chief Engineer (BWSSB) on Saturday at IISc. Meeting minutes captured below.

• Mr. Thippeswamy reviewed our initial list of parameters and had the following remarks:       

             (1) Coverage - As per the Act, BWSSB must provide water supply to Bangalore Metropolitan Area. Only 50% has been covered.

             (2) Unaccounted for Water: This is really a subset of Non-revenue water. Both physical and commercial. Water is also lost due to cleaning of reservoirs, unexpected pipe bursts, supply to fire hydrants, etc.

             (3) Slum Coverage: It is not the BWSSB 's prerogative to proactively provide coverage to slums. Slum Clearance Boards/BBMP/BDA come to them with proposals, which they then implement.

Participants: Vishwanath Sir, Jenny, Rajesh Shah, Neha Dar, Rithesh, Shekhar, Srivatsva, Swati Dandekar
 

We met today at Alliance Francaise to define the scope of the water index and chalk out our next steps.

The scope of the index has been divided into 5 categories. The following is an initial list of parameters we came up with during the meeting. This list will continue to be built incrementally before we finalise a stable index.

1. Pipe Water

    a. Hours of Supply

    b. Coverage - Percentage of households having a bwssb connection.

    c. Unaccounted for Water- Calculated by measuring the amount of water that BWSSB bills to the amount of water that it supplies.

    d. Slum Coverage - Percentage coverage in slums. BWSSB mandates that every household in a slum must be given a water connection.

What is the Bangalore Water Index?

The Bangalore Water Index project aims to develop a means of quantifying the 'water health' of the city. This published index will track a judiciously selected set of parameters relevant to the water domain, using data released by government bodies like the BWSSB, technical information provided by NGOs and research institutions, information extracted through RTIs, as well as crowdsourced feedback from citizens.

Over a period of time, the index will draw a comparative picture of the quality, quantity, accessibility and reliability of water supply across various demographics and parts of the city, as well the responsiveness and effectiveness of government bodies in charge.


Why do we need a Water Index?

Despite the popularity of traffic and transportation subjects here, water is a rather more serious issue facing our city. Here is an ambitious but interesting project to to pool together the energy of all water enthusiasts, and first design, and then regularly publish a "water index" for Bangalore.