Municipal administration mulls renewable energy for water supply scheme

Cost of a new water supply scheme will be burden for citizens

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: About 70 percent of the work on the new water supply scheme has been completed. Efforts are on to bring water to the city by December 2024. The cost of the new water supply scheme will also remain the same. The cost of electricity will be high for pumping water from Jayakwadi to Nakshatrawadi.

At present Rs 2,025 water tax is being collected from citizens. For the new scheme, again the water tax might rise to Rs 4,050. Hence the municipal administration is thinking of using solar and wind energy to pump and supply water to reduce the burden on citizens.

Two years ago, citizens were being charged Rs 4,500 per year. Keeping in mind the anger of the citizens, the water tariff was increased to Rs 2,025. This reduction will remain till the implementation of the new water scheme. After that, there is no option in front of the municipal corporation except to increase the water tax again.

Looking at the mechanism of the new scheme, the cost of electricity of the municipal corporation will also increase. Therefore, the citizens are likely to have to bear more hardships. Hence the municipal administration is thinking of running the scheme on solar or wind power to overcome the expenses.

A study will be done for this issue. Municipal administrator G Sreekanth told reporters that there is a new water purification center of water scheme at Nakshatrawadi. There is a mountain here, a wind power plant can be built on it, or if a solar power plant is built on 25 to 50 acres, the expenses of the municipal corporation on the electricity bill will be reduced, citizens will not have to bear the burden of increased water tax, said G Sreekanth.