The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) is spending about Rs 110 crore every year to supply water to houses amid the increasing population of the city
As only 50 per cent of the water bills are collected in return for this cost, the municipal corporation has started preparing the delivery of water bills to every house through a private company for the upcoming financial year.
All six divisions within the municipal corporation are expanding, and new settlements are coming up. The water supply department of the civic body has to arrange drinking water for all of them. About 2 lakh houses are currently being supplied with water through the construction of new pipelines and aqueducts.
The municipal corporation has to spend about Rs 110 crore every year on the system built to provide timely and regular adequate water supply to the citizens as well as for lifting water from the dam for this supply. However, comparatively, the water tax recovery is less. Although water rates vary for households, businesses, and commercial establishments, thousands of people neglect to pay their water bills regularly. As a result, the water tax revenue has started to decrease. Civic officials informed that usually only up to 50 per cent of the water tax is recovered every year.
Although the lack of water bill collection is owing to the indifference of the citizens to pay the bill on time, in reality, thousands of families are not receiving water bills every three months.
There is a high rate of negligence in paying the water bills owing to the non-receipt of bills. At the same time, the revenue department or the water supply department attributed the low recovery to a lack of workforce to distribute the water bills to every house.
It is believed that the payment will increase if the bills are distributed to the citizens on time. However, considering the difficulties faced in making it a reality, it was decided to distribute the bills every three months based on the reading of the water meters of the citizens by outsourcing the work to a private company. But this initiative could not be implemented.
Sources said that from the month of April, a private company will be appointed and the distribution of water bills will be done by it.