Pune: Appeal to use grey water for civic works finds few takers

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), which has made use of treated water mandatory for construction activities, is finding it tough to ensure that its directive is being followed.
Many contractors associated with civic projects are not using treated water as advised by the civic body due to high transportation cost of fetching water from the sewage treatment plants (STPs) to the construction sites.Works like road construction or road concreting are being carried out without using treated water. The civic administration has said that action would be taken against contractors / developers for not following its directive.

The PMC has offered water free of cost from the (STPs) but said that the contractors / developers will have to pay the transport charges for bringing water from the STPs to construction sites.
As per the civic data, around 150 tankers are used daily for private construction activities. Nearly 200 tankers are used daily for civic works like road construction, Metro project, construction of water tanks, 24x7 water supply project work etc.
As per the PMC data, the civic body charges Rs950 for providing a tanker within 12 km, for a distance between 12km and 20km, the charge is Rs1,135 and for distance above 20km, the charge is Rs1,329. The rate is charged one way.
According to the current practice, the tankers can be available for construction purpose for Rs800-Rs900 each, if water is procured from the nearby well or borewell. The charges go up to Rs1,600 to Rs2,000 if treated water is to be fetched from STPs situated far away. “Though the idea of using treated water is good, it is not financially viable for us. We prefer fetching water from well or borewell near construction site,” said a civic contractor.
“The construction cost for civic works like building road will go up if we use treated water at current rates. If treated water is to be used, it should be easily available cheap across civic areas,” said another contractor. “We are appealing to developers as well as civic contractors to use treated water. We are hoping that the use of treated water will increase in the days to come. More awareness needs to be created about using treated water,” said Aniruddha Pawaskar, head of the PMC’s water supply department.