In Karnataka, as in most of the Urban Local Bodies (ULB)’s in India water supply is often intermittent, Citizens have adopted expensive coping methods that include installing Underground storage tanks and household filters, while those without an individual water connection have to queue at public fountains.
In 2004, the Municipalities of Belgaum, Gulbarga and Hubli-Dharwad joined hands with Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) and The World Bank to demonstrate the feasibility of 24/7 water supply. Each of the selected zones represents about 10% of each city’s population. The authorities through a tender chose Veolia to implement this challenging project.
Five demozones were chosen (2 in Hubli-Dharwad), 2 in Belgaum and 1 in Gulbarga) to demonstrate:
• Feasibility of 24X7 water supply in Indian context
• Provide individual metered water connection to all customers including slums
• Study the feasibility to scale up for remaining part of these 3 cities
Citizens in five demozones have been receiving 24X7 water supply from the beginning of 2008 onwards. High level of customer/ client satisfaction has been persuaded the Government of Karnataka to scale up the scheme for the remaining parts of these 3 ULB’s as well as many other ULB’s.
Over all this entire project has been pioneering in Indian water industry.
