GANDHINAGAR, DEC 4: Faced with an acute financial crunch, the government appears all set to privatise drinking water supply and also hand over to private contractors the operation and maintenance of various water schemes being implemented by Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board (GWSSB).Water Supply Minister Narottam Patel has already endorsed a proposal of his department and sent it to Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel for his final nod. ``We expect the Chief Minister to put his signature on the file and clear the proposal in a day or two,'' he told The Indian Express on Sunday.The Minister said the idea behind the proposal was to cut down the increasing capital costs and expenditure on the operation and maintenance of tubewells and water group schemes being implemented by the GWSSB to supply drinking water to drought-prone villages.He said the ``privatisation experiment'' will initially be launched in Amreli, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Surendranagar and Kutch districts, and also Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Patan and Mehsana in North Gujarat.Explaining the proposal, Patel said private parties, mainly farmers, would be encouraged to dig deep tube-wells and purchase pumps on their own to draw water. The Goverment will buy water from them and ask village panchayats to supply it to people.The Government is not averse to entering into a five-year contract with farmers. The Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) is prepared to provide out-of-turn at least 4,000 new power connections to farmers, with the condition that they spare water on a daily basis for drinking purpose after irrigating their farms, he said.The Minister said his department would work out the rates to be paid to farmers and other private water suppliers as soon as the Chief Minister cleared the ``privatisation'' proposal. A meter will be installed on each of the sumps constructed by farmers near their tube-wells.A senior GWSSB official said the move will not only help the Board cut down on its growing expenditure, but will also ensure better use of the State's water resources. ``The move is part of the reform process to gradually reduce the Board's role in the water sector,'' he explained.``It costs Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh to sink a deep tube-well, construct a pump-house and sump, and buy a motor-pump. The board has about 5,000 tube-wells which are being maintained by individual village panchayats. Over 3,000 tube-wells are operating under the various group schemes supplying water to the needy villages,'' the Minister said.The board is implementing as many as 507 group schemes, of which six cover a cluster of about 100 villages each and 20 cover a group of 50 to 100 villages each. ``We propose to go in for the privatisation of operation and maintenance of these schemes by involving NGOs as well as small and medium contractors,'' he said.Private parties can also be involved in recovering water charges (Rs 14 per capita per annum) from village panchayats under the group schemes, the Board official said, admitting that the present recovery rate was a dismal four per cent.
