The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has decided to start a helpline exclusively for citizens receiving contaminated water
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to start a helpline exclusively for citizens receiving contaminated water. Moreover, they do not need to worry if the line will be busy, as they can simply send a text message on the number to have their problem redressed.
The helpline will be operational by August. The BMC is presently developing the software for the helpline and is looking for a combination of numbers that will be easy to remember.
“We are developing a software that will receive text messages and directly feed them into the computer system. The complaints will be addressed within 24 hours,” said Rajeev Jalota, additional municipal commissioner (projects).
The civic body has taken up this project on priority basis after a 30-year-old woman died in Bandra (East) last week after consuming contaminated water. In less than two years, three women in the city have died because of dirty water.
So far, citizens could only register complaints about water contamination only at municipal chowkies or ward offices. If the problem persisted, they had the option of calling the disaster management cell on ‘108’. However, the response rate remained poor.
Close to 40% of the complaints lodged on ‘108’ were never attended to. Around 4,000 complaints of poor water supply were registered at municipal chowkies and ward offices in the island cities between April 2010 and February 2011. The figure was about 1,000 for the western suburbs and 160 for the eastern suburbs.
“Complaints brought to the notice of chowkies and ward offices take more time to be redressed. When a helpline is started solely for water contamination, the issue can be tackled swiftly and efficiently. There is a need for special numbers like ‘100’ or ‘101’ that are easy to remember,” said Dinesh Gondaliya, deputy municipal commissioner (special engineering), in charge of water supply.
With the new helpline, the complaints will be examined by the hydraulic chief himself. “A major advantage of this system will be that all details will be readily available to the water department. We can direct our staff to block water pipelines or sewage lines even before workers reach the location, in case a locality is inaccessible,” said a senior civic official.
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