Success Story of Malkapur 24×7 Water Supply Scheme, Maharashtra

Background:

Malkapur town piped water supply scheme, commissioned in 1988 was envisaged to supply 40 liters per capita per day (LPCD) on the basis of an estimated population growth of 14,000 by 2010. But the town’s population increased 50% more than the estimated growth. This resulted in poor and unreliable supply of water and untimely service. To overcome this problem, a distribution network was designed using “Water Gems” software ensuring 24×7 water supplies System.

Scheme Overview:

Area of Operation	Malkapur, Dist. Karad, Maharashtra
Establishment	April, 2008
Implementation	2009
Total cost	14.30 crore
Project Name	Priyadarshani Kanyaratna Solar Site Project
Partnering Agencies	Malkapur Nagar Panchayat (MNP) with support from the Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran (MJP)
Pump	150 HP
Capacity	8 MLD (Million Liter per Day)
Coverage Area	9 km2
Population Coverage	35000 (Residents of Malkapur)
Service Time	24 x 7
Award	2011 (Prime Minister Excellency Award)

Objective of the Scheme:

• To make the citizens free from worrying of water supply.
• To provide adequate pressurized water supply 24×7
• To demonstrate the use of hydraulic model, best pipe material, scientific way of house service connections and Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) meters.

Status Before Implementation:

• Old system was designed in 1988 for 14000 populations
• Old system fell inadequate in capacity and coverage
• People started feeling the heat, getting water once in two to three days and unscheduled
• Increase in demand for water tank Reliable, consistent and pressurized water supply

Status After Implementation:

• Cost Reduction: Automated operation of pumps, water treatment plant and head resulted reduction in costs of operation.
• Corruption Reduction: Introduction of Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) for water billing system reduced illegal water connection etc.
• Service Improvement: Increase in the recovery of the costs from 60% to 80%. Water conservation measures taken place such as Telescopic tariff structure, mass awareness, discount for optimal use etc. Reduction in Consumer Complaints from 200 per month to 3 to 7 per month. Due to high and continuous pressure in water,energy bills of consumers were reduced because water reached up to 4th floor without ground level pumping.

Resources Required:

• Physical Infrastructure: High-Density Polyethylene pipes and Water billing Meters.
• Human Resource: Pump operators and man power for computerized billing
• Technology/IT: Water GEMS hydraulic model, Telescopic tariff system, Automatic meter reading & Robust monitoring me

Geographical Location of Malkapur 24×7 Water Supply Scheme, Maharashtra

Water Treatment Process in the Plant:

Aeration:

 It is the process by which air is circulated through the liquid by means of a fountain.

 Addition of TLC and alum:

A coagulant (typically a metallic salt) with the opposite charge is added to the water to overcome the repulsive charge and “destabilize” the suspension to form micro floc.

 Settlement Tank:

The tank helps in sedimentation of solids suspended particles.

Automatic Panel Board:

The panel board helps in the automatic starting and closing of water flow in the treatment tank. It works on remote sensor.

Pipes and Joints:

Specific design high density polyethylene pipes (HDPE) is a leak proof material were used for the entire network has reduced water looses and increased durability of the network. This technology requires less number of joints, thereby, reducing potential water losses.

Strategy Adopted

The Malkapur water supply distribution was planned, designed, constructed and is being operated with following strategy in mind.

1) The consumer shall get the water whenever he opens the tap –

This strategy provides the service availability whenever consumer desires. It leads to missing economic opportunities or any other opportunity during that period. It was, therefore, thought to make available water at the tap of the consumer 24 x 7. The strategy is also aimed at making redundant the concept of storing of water and throwing it away the next day when fresh water is received and to stop the investment requiredin storage vessels/ tanks.

 2) Provide good health to the citizens through good quality potable water –

Every piped water supply system endeavor to provide good quality potable water. The 24 x 7 pressurized systems do not fall pray to this situation, thus the quality of water delivered is assured all the time.

3) Consumer pay as they use –

This principle of consumer paying as per their usage provide the incentive for resource conservation. The metered water supply system provide an opportunity to charge as per the volumes of water consumed, unlike in un-metered flat rates, where quantity consumed is not the criteria. This makes the consumer in metered system try to minimize the usage by closing their taps no sooner their requirement is fulfilled. This helps the pressure in pipes to be maintained and the consumer located at higher elevation do not suffer.

4) Pay at higher rate when using higher per capita water – The telescopic rates adopted requires the higher per capita usage of water to be paid at higher rates. The minimum required water is provided at affordable rates. Thus the poor are taken care, while they also enjoy the benefit of 24 x 7 Water availability. This recycles the wealth from the rich to the poor. This strategy is enforceable through the micro mapping of number of persons in each house and the AMR meters provided in the system.

5) The service to work on no loss basis – The water supply service was advised not to be run in loss. The rates were to be determined accordingly. Great care was also needed to keep operational expenditure to its minimum.

Various difficulties were faced during the implementation difficulties of the project which included following major

• The Gram Panchayat was upgraded to Nagar Panchayat, resulting in dissolution of the elected body. This led to unavailability of people’s representative to co-ordinate.
• There was no goal of fixing the water issues till the election was over. Later on the representatives were requested to fix the meters.
• Consequent to commissioning some zones in 24 x 7 water availability, it was not possible to implement metered tariff for these zones, while keeping flat rates in the ‘still to be commissioned un-metered areas’. The project was therefore accelerated and all the zones were commissioned by 5/09.
• It was experienced that the number of hours of pumping was getting increased when system was operating 24X7 in commissioned zones but still in the flat rate tariff regime.

 Benefits resulting from the project:

The project has not only succeeded in giving benefits to the Malkapur citizens in the below listed aspects but has also provided the state and nation, a success story on 24×7 water supply for whole of the town (unlike the other towns where some wards are 24X7) for the first time in India which can be seen and replicated by other Municipal Councils.

• Improvement in delivery time and services

Pre-Project, the town Malkapur used to depend on bore wells, tankers and meager water supply. The timings of the services were unpredictable and the people had to rush for water at any time. This used to disturb the time management of the citizens. Now the water is available to the taps any time it is opened 24 x 7. This has totally removed the constraints of attending to irregular water services and thus the citizens have been freed of any special time to be allocated for water supply.

• Quality of Water

The quality of water as delivered to the citizens through the tap is now guaranteed as the pipes are pressurized throughout day and night 24 x 7. This does not allow outside dirt to enter in the pipes. People were happy to get assured good quality water as they open the tap.

• Decrease in water borne illnesses in children

The survey carried out by Anganwadi Sevika indicated that the water borne diseases in the children have reduced remarkably to near zero level.

• Reduction in wastage of water

Wasteful use of water is remarkably reduced and the reduction is to the extent of 30%. The demand management by making the people aware of the system and the telescopic tariff structure made this possible. In the initial period when some zones were working 24 x 7 while others were intermittent and therefore flat tariff was retained, led to 19-20 hours of pumping in the system. Consequent to demand management exercise by mass awareness and implementation of telescopic tariff reduced the pumping requirement to 13-14 hours when all the zones are now getting 24 x 7 water supply.

• Simplification of billing procedure

The AMR type water meters installed, can be read remotely by driving through the streets using hand held device & radio frequency and hence the meter reading procedure is simplified. There is no problem even if the door is locked, and of average reading. The data is free from the errors of manual handling. The readings can be downloaded from the handheld i-paq (A hand held device) to the computer and bills can be generated immediately. Thus the earlier annual billing procedure is now monthly billing and thus the cash flow of the Municipal Council is improved. So also for consumer paying a large sum at the end of year used to find it difficult than small sum every month now.

• Saving in Electricity & helping clean development initiatives

Prior to the project, households and people living in 2/3 store buildings used to pump the water from ground floor to the tanks on terrace, some of them also used to operate power pumps on bore wells. All this is now stopped, as the water is available 24 x 7 with a pressure that can fill the terrace tank on the 3rd floor without pumping. This has saved electricity.

• Increased prestige & pride for Citizens leading to increase in revenue recovery

The ideal service made available has increased the prestige of people and they are now experiencing pride that their town is owner of such a good system. At the same time the revenue recovery in the water is improved from 60% earlier to 80% and is improving day by day.

• Reduction in operation cost

The simple system automation like operating the raw water pumps from water treatment plant using GSM technology has reduced the cost of operation as the raw water pumping station is now operated un-manned. This has eliminated the requirement of 2 pump operators there.

• A successful pilot

It has achieved its aim as a pilot project. Many Municipal Councils, MLAs and others aspiring to implement 24 x 7 water supply system are visiting the town and understanding the methodology.

Awards:

This initiative got “Prime Ministers Award for Excellence in Public Administration” for the year 2009-10 on account of successful planning, designing & executing 24×7 Malkapur water supply scheme. This has also earned National Urban Award for year 2010.

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