Singapore is civic body’s water mark

The city may have endorsed the Shanghai model for development but its water will be receiving the Singapore treatment. Grappling with water shortage and complaints, city’s water department has sought help from experts in Singapore.

Engineers from Singapore’s national water agency, the Public Utilities Board, will be roped in as consultants by the BMC to draw up a long-term plan for overcoming the massive daily water loss due to leakage and pilferage. Mumbai loses almost 700 million litres of water everyday due to this, an amount that could meet the entire water need of Nagpur.

The BMC has decided to outsource the leakage detection in five municipal wards as a pilot project. The PUB engineers will serve as consultants for strategic planning for the project, a senior civic official said, who pointed out that despite lacking natural water resources, PUB engineers have successful implemented a ‘water for all’ strategy in Singapore.

The city’s water department has taken up the work of floating the proposal on a priority, since it is keen to get the pilot projects approved before the election code of conduct comes into play. “We aim to table the proposal before the standing committee next week,” said additional municipal commissioner Anil Diggikar.

Incidentally, the Public Utilities Board was formed 40 years ago as Singapore’s national water agency. The agency successfully devised solution to make Singapore water sufficient, despite this city-nation lacking natural water resources.