BMC water plan fails to enthuse industry

The civic body’s plan to tackle the issues of wastage of and management of water in the city received little appreciation from the representatives of Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

RA Rajeev, additional municipal commissioner and PK Charankar, deputy municipal commissioner, presented their plan to meet the increasing demand-supply gap in the civic amenities before the representatives on Wednesday.

The representatives, though considering the plan as positive and pioneering, said a more futuristic approach was needed to meet the city’s growth expectations. They added that more corporates were investing in social projects now and that the civic authorities should tap this growing interest through greater public-private participation.

“At present, they are just working to solve an existing problem. They have the resources to plug this one, but a greater problem will arise when these resources fall short,”said M Adithya, executive water technologies at Larsen and Toubro Ltd.

Lars Kjeldsen from the Mumbai-based Advanced - IE (Infrastructure and Environment) Consultancy, said, “The city needs to look for ways to discharge water. They need to develop a strategy where potable and non-potable water will strictly be used for different purposes.”

The representatives suggested having two circuits to reduce the use of potable water in toilets, for watering gardens and cleaning cars. But, Charankar said there was no provision for two circuit lines and that this would entail a policy change.

s_ashutosh@dnaindia.net