Some newspaper reports (Hindu, ToI) this week mentioned that:
"... water supply to Bangalore is ... 694 million litres a day ... consumption which is actually billed ... around 429 million litres a day. The unaccounted for water comes to an alarming 38.2 per cent"
Wow, 38.2 percent (quoted from Hindu)! This would include two types of losses, 1) distribution loss: damages, leakages etc, and 2) water that is not getting billed. There is no clear mention or estimates of split between the two categories. Assuming distribution loss (leaks) to be 20% (double the 10% developed world aims for, google "Water Management Act US"), 18% of water could be going unbilled. That guesswork tells us that 1 in 6 of us, Bangalore citizens, isn't paying for his/her water.
But wait. The TOI report says that of the 35% of unaccounted water, 8-12% is due to unauthorized connections. I was curious how they arrived at this percentage. Does BWSSB have a good handle on the number of illegal connections? Or is the number derived by assuming a distribution loss of about 25%?
Either way, whether its plugging leakages, or reducing illegal pilferage, BWSSB has its task cut out. All the best to them, and do your bit by reporting things of interest to their hotline: 155313.
PS: Water sources for Bengalooru, image sourced from BWSSB website:
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water leakage