“The use of municipal water is not justified because it is used for any municipal purposes or because it is paid for. The primary use of municipal water is for public health and for public cleanliness. The inhabitants of a city must have adequate water to drink, of really wholesome quality. They also require water for washing and cleaning. Frequent baths under Indian conditions are indispensable and to certain classes of the population bathing is of even greater importance than drinking”.
APRIL 22, 1912
The Corporation and water supply
IT IS TIME THE CORPORATION MAKES EARNEST ENDEAVOURS TO do its duty to the ratepayers in respect of water-supply. The first thing to do is to stop the visible waste and misuse of Municipal water. There are loud complaints of want of water from everywhere. There is an woeful lack of control over water distribution. The executive is apparently powerful to prevent the waste. While thousands are deprived of the water requisite for their health and cleanliness, municipal water is used freely to irrigate gardens. It is stated that numerous stables, cattle-yards, work-houses, bakeries, mess houses and small factories are taking municipal water free. The bulk of the water that is used for building purposes in the City is taken free. Do all the industries and trades that take in water pay for the same? It is impossible to enumerate all the non-domestic purposes for which water is utilised. At the rate of 12 annas per thousand gallons ordinarily levied, the Corporation collected not less than a lakh and fifteen thousand rupees as fees for water supplied for non-domestic purposes in the past year. This accounts for a fraction, after all, of the entire volume of water, surreptitiously used for non-domestic purposes. The Corporation may know how many garden taps there are in Madras. Is every garden tap fitted with a meter and the quantity of water consumed measured regularly? How many dwelling houses have gardens attached? And how are all these gardens watered? And then there is Municipal road-making and road watering. Is there any regulation of the water spent on this account? There are roads which are watered once a day, roads which are watered twice and also those which are watered thrice a day. There is, we think, no measure kept of the water used for road-watering. It was roughly estimated by a Corporation official at 250,000 gallons per day. We do not know if this represents the average daily consumption, taking a whole year into calculation on the watering months of the year. Over Rs. 25,000 is spent on road watering and cleaning establishment alone, and some idea may be gathered of what they are doing with municipal water.
The use of municipal water is not justified because it is used for any municipal purpose or because it is paid for. The primary use of municipal water is for public health and for public cleanliness. The inhabitants of a city must have adequate water to drink, of really wholesome quality. They require also water for washing and cleaning. Frequent baths under Indian conditions are indispensable, and to certain classes of the population bathing is even of greater importance than drinking. The essential requisite of a good system of water supply is that all consumers obtain an adequate quantity of water continuously throughout the day. It has been calculated for the Corporation that 25 gallons per head of the population, per day will meet reasonable requirements in Madras, and satisfy legitimate wants. It is not known whether, in making the calculation, proper allowance had been made for Indian habits. Even taking the estimate as it is, the present consumption is less than 13 gallons per head per day. We presume this quantity represents the average of all the water that is consumed for domestic, non-domestic and public purposes. We have no means of knowing the exact quantity used for domestic purposes alone. We will not be far wrong in taking the domestic average at less than 5 gallons per head per day. Can this be considered an adequate supply? And is this supply at all regular? Over a considerable area, the supply fails during those hours of the day when water is most wanted. The 250,000 gallons of road-watering is done in the mornings and evenings, when you want water most for your domestic purpose. Large areas are without water for many hours in the day. All the gardens are watered only in the mornings and evenings and all the requirements for the thousand-and-one non-domestic purposes synchronise with this time of the day. The result is that while there is abundant misuse of water, there are thousands for whom neither their house services, nor even the public fountains and stand-pipes do any good. In Bombay, the supply is restricted to certain hours of the morning and evening and yet the average consumption per head of the population is 40 gallons. In Calcutta, it is 47 gallons, and they have a distinction of filtered and unfiltered water, the former being used for domestic purposes and the latter for non-domestic purposes, such as flushing, road-watering and building, etc. The Corporation may not give us the quantity in Bombay and Calcutta, but it is bound to see that there is sufficient water for drinking and domestic purposes before it launches on any trade in water or before gardens are watered, roads drenched and sewers flushed. In any case it is bound to stop waste and the unauthorised lifting of water. It is here that the Corporation shows itself to be lamentably incompetent.
Water in Madras is a valuable commodity. There is a moral and legal obligation to provide water for drinking and bathing. A great deal of the illness of Madras is due to the inefficiency of the Corporation to ensure this provision. While there is waste on the one hand, there is scarcity on the other. Nearly six lakhs of rupees are collected annually as water and drainage tax alone. There are over 25,000 house services laid; and how many of these services can be considered satisfactory?
The Corporation however, obtains its water on the most favourable terms from Government. Perhaps, many are not aware that the Red Hills storage tanks and connected works were constructed at the cost of Government and that their upkeep and maintenance are in the hands of the PWD. For the water that is taken from the lake for the supply of the Madras City, the Corporation pays at the rate of a rupee per 1,000 cubic yards or a little less than one-tenth of one anna per 1,000 gallons. Thus what it purchases for a little over a pie, it sells for 12 annas, i.e. for nearly 150 times the cost price. This is good business no doubt. But it is not merely for the sale of water that the Corporation exists and taxes its inhabitants.
If after public convenience had been amply provided and all legitimate uses had been properly served, the Corporation had shown thrift in the use of its surplus water, its action would be deemed praiseworthy. But what the Madras Corporation does is to keep looking on at an inordinate waste of water in various ways, and to traffic in the remainder while people are starved of their supply for their daily wants. It is this great waste that has to be stopped. If only there had been no waste, there should have been no difficulty in meeting all legitimate requirements.
A question of great interest is being fought out between the Triplicane ratepayers and the Corporation executive. The former claim free water for their tank which the latter refuse. The rate-payers contend that the tank and its water serve the best interests of the local public, that the Corporation has all along recognised such interests and has been feeding the tank with Municipal water these 40 years. The needs of public health and sanitation in the locality require that either the tank should be maintained in a proper condition or be filled up so as not to constitute a menace to the health of the people in the locality.
It is pointed out that one of the legitimate functions of the Corporation is to provide bathing tanks for its ratepayers. If such a tank were needed in the city, it is preeminently required in Triplicane where large numbers of votaries congregate. There can be no doubt however that municipal water can only be had when it could be spared. There is good reason for holding that water is not properly expended, economised or supplied in the City. We trust the whole matter will receive the careful consideration of the Commissioners at tomorrow’s meeting.
Reference:
The First 100
A Selection of Editorials, 1878-1978, THE HINDU, VOLUME I