Urban water management, a huge opportunity

Urban water management, a huge opportunity

With a recent study showing that there is a $80 billion opportunity in the management of urban water supply and distribution in India, Arun Lakhani, Chairman and Managing Director of Vishvaraj Infrastructure Limited (VIL) is clearly in a buoyant mood. VIL which along with French company Veolia water runs a 50-50 joint venture called ‘Orange City Water’ operate the water distribution system in Nagpur, the largest city in India to privatise water distribution.
But how is the public in Nagpur taking to water privatization, given the protests that have surrounded this prickly topic across India? “We have not actually increased prices for the base supply of water, which according to guidelines is a minimum of 150 litres per person per day. So for a kilolitre we have kept the charge at a nominal five rupees”, Lakhani points out.
The main task of any private operator is to reduce wastage and Orange City Water has  clearly mandated targets. “Nagpur city supplies 640 million litres of treated water daily. However, over 65 per cent of that water is currently unaccounted for. “Our contractually mandated target is to reduce this to 25 per cent within the next few years”, Lakhani points out.
This way, he says, the supply of water that actually goes to the pipes will increase without actually consuming more water. The other task is ensure that effective metering takes place, in Nagpur, a city with a population of 2.5 million people and 500,000 households, only around half are metered properly. In fact, Lakhani points out that it is the poor that suffer the most from water wastage and inefficient metering.
He mentions that in most slum areas, couples ended up wasting a few hours every day queuing up for water. “By providing a tap at their home, even if the water costs them five rupees a day, their income improves because they do not waste a day waiting for water at the handpump or for a tanker.” With the tanker mafia ruling the roost in slum areas across the country, privatization could dramatically change the environment.
With the new Government’s aim of building 100 new ‘Smart Cities’; Lakhani believes that these cities should be planned with proper water and sewage systems from day one. “Many Indian cities have pathetic sewage systems, by not treating effluent water and just dumping it into rivers we not only pollute rivers but waste water. There is immense demand for industrial water in India, these factories can be given treated water.”