Mayor Kuldeep Kumar, who boycotted the event, said that “even as residents do not want 24X7 supply and all they want is clean water in the morning and evening supply but they are being intentionally burdened with additional monetary expenditure.”

“Did they even take stakeholders’ views on it? Residents just need full water pressure and clean water. It is the residents who will be made to pay high tariff and make up for the loan and interest that they will have to pay to the foreign agency,” Mayor Kuldeep said.

Col Gursevak Singh (retd), president of Residents Welfare Association, Manimajra, said: “It is good that the administration has chosen Manimajra for the pilot project. The 24-hour water supply will lead to wastage of water. If there is a fault in the water line or someone leaves home with tap open, there would be wastage of water not for hours but days together. Moreover, the interest which will accrue on around Rs 500 crore loan taken for this project will be borne by all water consumers in the city. This will put a huge burden on the people, who are already reeling under heavy taxes.”

Surjit Dhillon, another resident from Manimajra, stated that “24×7 water is not required in the city and it will lead to wastage, when the whole country is facing water shortage. This will increase the cost of water supply many times.”

Similarly, Sanjeev Gaba, a resident of Manimajra town, too, said that the 24X7 water supply is not required and instead “the MC should supply water for a few hours in a day but with enough pressure”.

“Today on the one hand, the Home Minister was inaugurating 24×7 water supply and, on the other, the people of Manimajra town were getting dirty water in their taps,” he said.

A resident from Samasya Samadhan team of Manimajra stated that Chandigarh wants water but not for 24 hours, only for two hours in the morning and evening at full pressure.

“Giving 24-hour water means a huge increase in water bills and a huge wastage of water. When water runs for 24 hours then the leakage will also increase and more water will be wasted,” the resident said.

No supply to locality for the past few days

A locality in Manimajra has been suffering on account of no water for the last few days. Sonu Mehra, a resident of Manimajra, said that residents of their locality have to walk to a nearby temple or a community space to get water as the officials say, it will take time for the supply to be restored.

“The officials say that new pipelines are being laid. All these years we haven’t faced any such problem and here we are not getting a drop of water,” Mehra said.

Leakages

As per details, about 35% of potable water being supplied to Chandigarh that can cater to over 5.5 lakh residents is wasted daily due to underground leakage of pipes and unmetered water stands in colonies, shrinking the municipal corporation’s coffers by Rs 1.5 crore annually. As per details, 135 MLD is wasted due to leakages.

As per details, Chandigarh’s 12.6 lakh population consumes 386 million litres daily (MLD), coming to 245 litres per capita (per person) per day, more than the national norm.

Chandigarh residents consume more than national norm

According to the national norm, only 135 litres of water is required per person per day and in Chandigarh, 254 liters of water is available per person per day, which is 119 liters more than the fixed norm, which is very high, so Chandigarh does not have any special requirement of water for 24 hours.

As per Central Ground Water Authority and BIS Code, water requirement for domestic use is 150 to 200 litres per head per day (lphd) for communities above 10 lakh of population (translates to 22.5 to 30 KL per household per month).

In Chandigarh, average water consumption is around 40 KL per household per month which happens to be higher than the actual human needs. Prime reasons for the higher water consumption for the city are due to higher water leakage losses, unmetered connections and use of potable water for irrigation of green covers.

New tariff from 2029

Chandigarh will have to repay one million Euros every quarter for the next 15 years to French bank Agence De Francaise (AFD) to ensure 24-hour water supply in the city. Chandigarh civic body has taken a loan of 48 million Euros from the AFD for the project.The loan of 48 Million Euro, which translates to Rs 412 crore in the Indian currency, is required to be repaid over a period of 15 years after the completion of the 24×7 water supply project, that is from December 2029, on a quarterly basis. The installment will be around 1 million Euro quarterly which is Rs 10 crore.

According to the new tariff, from 2029, Chandigarh residents will have to pay between Rs 5 per kilolitre to Rs 24 per kilolitre (water tariff differs due to different charges at different stages) instead of the present range of Rs 3 per kilolitre to Rs 20 per kilolitre.

Water supply project that begins from Manimajra

Specifying that the households will get better pressure of water sufficient to fill tanks up to fourth storey, thus lowering the pumping costs, the pilot project of 24×7 water supply here at Manimajra has cost Rs 74.56 crore and an OPEX value of INR 91.29 crore for 15 years (to be borne by the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh).

The Smart City Limited stated that it aims to transform the existing intermittent water supply into a continuous and pressurised system, enhance water supply efficiency, reduce wastage, and ensure better water resource management.

Key features of the project

* Installation of 11,727 smart water meters with advanced metering infrastructure, enabling real-time monitoring and analysis of water consumption and leakages.

* Completion of the 22-km water supply network, with joint testing and diversion/connection of tube wells to underground reservoirs (UGRs).

* Construction, testing, and installation of equipment/machinery for the underground reservoir (UGR) and the Water Works III building, with furnishing works.

* Implementation of SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) and instrumentation across the water supply infrastructure.