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Proposed administrative procedure - MISC.02
The water meter law



    Contents

  1. Wastage of water
  2. Proposed administrative solution : MISC.02
  3. Draft of the act to enact MISC.02


Problem : Wastage of water

In Ahmedabad and most of the city/town in India, the municipality supplies water to apartment complexes or individual units. In addition, the house owners may have their private bores from which they extract water.

Very few units in India have individual water meter. In ALL the 80-100 aparment complexes I studied in Ahmedabad, none, NOT EVEN ONE, had water meters for each unit. In NONE had ANY water meter at all. Basically, the water and electricity bill for motors to pump water is divided equally amongst unit owners. Or sometimes it is in the proportion of their square ft area. There is zero accountability on water use, as there is NO way to know which unit consumed how much water. And entire charge is equally divided irrespective of how high or how little each person consumed. So if there are 50 units in an apartment complex, and if a person saves as much water as he can, and other do NOT save water, the person will get ONLY 2% benefit of the water he saves. And if a person wastes hige amount of water, the additional cost he bear due his wastage will be only 2%. So no unit owner has ANY incentive to save the water consumption, and so wastage in Ahmedabad, and ALL over India is rampant.



Solution? Procedure MISC.02 : The water meter law

To reduce the wastage, the municipal council may pass the following law :
  1. The municipality MUST supply water by meters ONLY. The water bill sent by municipality will be monthly or bi-monthly or tri-monthly and will be strictly based on per liter consumption, and NO fixed charge.

  2. From a perticular date, every new construction plan that is proposed, which has more than 1 units, MUST meet the following conditions :

    1. Each apartment/office/shop unit MUST have its own 1-more water meters. And all the water points inside the unit MUST be connected to the water meters of that apartment ONLY.
    2. The common facilities, if any, MUST also have 1-more water meters. All water points of the common area MUST be connected to those water meters.
    3. If the complex has any bore, there MUST be a seperate water meter for each bore.
    4. The complex (i.e. society etc which consists of several units) MUST take and note readings of all its meters on the 1st the month.
    5. The society MUST have a seperate electricity meters for motors used for pumping water. From this connection, the society cannot operate ANYTHING except water pumps. Furher, ALL motors used to pump water MUST be used strictly from this meter ONLY.
    6. The water bill sent by municipality and electricity bill sent by electricity company (for electrical connection meant for water pumps) MUST be divided amongst members as per the readings of their water meter. Only the bill of common connection may be divided equally.


  3. From a perticular date, say 1 year after passing this law, every society which has its own bore MUST also install water meter for its bore, and obtain seperate electricity connection to run the motors to pump water, or else the Jury may seal the bore.

  4. From a perticular date, say 3 years after passing this law, every society whose land value is above Rs 10000/sqm as decided by municipal council will install water meters for EACH unit, in such as way that ALL water connections in the unit are connected to that water meter ONLY. The society, after installing water meters MUST divide the water bill and electricity bill of water pumps strictly as per their water consumption. Upon installing these meters, the municipality will waive the tax of Rs 2000 from their next municipal tax bills.

  5. From a perticular date, say 5 years after passing this law, every society whose land value is above Rs 6000/sqm as decided by municipal council will install water meters for EACH unit, in such as way that ALL water connections in the unit are connected to that water meter ONLY. The society, after installing water meters MUST divide the water bill and electricity bill of water pumps strictly as per their water consumption. Upon installing these meters, the municipality will waive the tax of Rs 2000 from their next municipal tax bills.

  6. From a perticular date, say 6 years after passing this law, every society will install water meters for EACH unit, in such as way that ALL water connections in the unit are connected to that water meter ONLY. The society, after installing water meters MUST divide the water bill and electricity bill of water pumps strictly as per their water consumption. Upon installing these meters, the municipality will waive the tax of Rs 2000 from their next municipal tax bills.


Draft of the act to create procedure MISC.02

I have NOT been able to find time to write the draft for water meter law. Nor am I inclined to write a draft till Direct Vote is enacted. But as the reader may see, the procedures are straight forward, and writing drfat is a simple tax.

     Now citizens can ask City Councilors to pass this Act. But IMO, it will be wiser for citizens to first enact procedure LM.01 then use LM.01 to pass this MISC.02 draft WITHOUT any help from Corporators. To know about procedure LM.01, please click here.



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