Kerala is famous for its monsoons
and receives on the average 140 rainy days a year. 
Despite this, many Keralites
moving into newly-built homes will testify receiving public water service as a
tedious process. At the time of hand-over, the only water available for
consumption in our community was from a common RO-Plant (Reverse Osmosis) setup
by the builder. The plant functioned on rainwater runoff from a few houses and
was sufficient only to quench the thirst of 15 houses or so. Our community has
over 100 houses making that facility sorely inadequate. While it can be argued
the builder was fraudulent, this setup is fairly common in new single family
homes and flat projects. The builders are able to work their way out of this
mess as the bulk of these flats and houses are purchased by NRI’s
(Non-Resident-Indians) and occupancy is rarely above 10% at the time of
handover. At that level of occupancy, there is plenty of water to splash
around, and the builders generally succeed in handing over the maintenance of
the project to an owner-elected-body (Home Owner’s Association) within the
first few years.
Despite this, many Keralites
moving into newly-built homes will testify receiving public water service as a
tedious process. At the time of hand-over, the only water available for
consumption in our community was from a common RO-Plant (Reverse Osmosis) setup
by the builder. The plant functioned on rainwater runoff from a few houses and
was sufficient only to quench the thirst of 15 houses or so. Our community has
over 100 houses making that facility sorely inadequate. While it can be argued
the builder was fraudulent, this setup is fairly common in new single family
homes and flat projects. The builders are able to work their way out of this
mess as the bulk of these flats and houses are purchased by NRI’s
(Non-Resident-Indians) and occupancy is rarely above 10% at the time of
handover. At that level of occupancy, there is plenty of water to splash
around, and the builders generally succeed in handing over the maintenance of
the project to an owner-elected-body (Home Owner’s Association) within the
first few years.
As occupancy improved, the lack of
ready water surfaced as a pressing problem. Our Management Committee (MC) in
the first two years attempted several avenues to resolve the water issue. To
meet the immediate needs, water was purchased in bulk from private water
providers in tankers (Lorries). This is a very expensive option and the
estimate was that at 50% occupancy, more than 35% of our yearly budget would
have to be dedicated to providing water – RO plant operation manning,
electricity to run the plant, and purchasing of water from private parties.
Alternatives such as bore wells and regular wells were explored but were not a solution
– water from the bore well was deemed good only for non-domestic use as it was
too saline – the regular well could provide only a very limited amount of water
daily. Expanding the RO infrastructure to collect rainwater runoff from more
houses was also considered but abandoned due to prohibitive costs. That
expansion involved replacing or upgrading the RO plant the builders installed
which had a capacity to serve the needs of only 20 and odd families. From these
various options, rainwater harvesting hooked up with an RO-plant of sufficient
capacity is usually the best alternative for most villa and flat projects in
Kerala, as the monsoon ensures plenty of freshwater throughout the year.
For the longer-term, the Management
Committee chalked out a plan which involved the process of procuring KWA
(Kerala Water Authority) connection to every villa, possibly with the help of
the builder and reserving the existing infrastructure as a backup and for
non-domestic water needs. Negotiations with the builder were partly successful
- they agreed to bear 50% of the costs involved in obtaining the connection.
All said and told, it took two full years after maintenance-handover before the
villas in our community got KWA connection. The costs came to around Rs 5K per
household and included digging up the roads within our community for laying the
KWA pipes. This duplicate work could have been avoided had the builder
possessed the foresight and willingness to ensure KWA connections were received
and had planned infrastructure accordingly during the construction phase. But,
the community’s water problems were still not solved, as by KWA’s unique
definition, having a connection does not translate to receiving water. For
people used to the woeful service levels of Kerala public sector, this will not
sound too bad. At our home, no water dripped down the KWA line for the first
five months. The billing rep came by after the first three months of receiving
connection and to pacify us called the KWA contractor who agreed to fix the problem.
Meanwhile, a few from our community went to check the status with the KWA
office and the response received was that our community was given connection
mainly to avoid a backlog later on – there is a water shortage in the area and
continuous water supply is two years away. They were clueless as to why certain
houses received a very small amount of water certain days while others received
none whatsoever. The billing rep showed up again a couple of months later and
presented us our first bill – apparently, there is a minimum payment regardless
of whether water is available or not (~Rs 90pm). This time, we were on his
case and the guy connected us with the Assistant Executive Engineer who called
the KWA contractor directly and updated him on the situation in our community.
We paid the bill promptly and a few days later started receiving water three to
four times a week. With our tank capacity of 2000 liters, that level of service
barely sufficed.
Prospective home owners in this
God’s Own Country should ensure builders provide rainwater harvesting and
RO-plant infrastructure with adequate capacity prior to maintenance handover as
any costs past that date will have to be borne from the HOA’s common funds as
opposed to by the builder.
2012 Update: Our builder Heera and our home owner's association managed to get KWA connections to all the villas at a cost of Rs 5000 per villa. However, no water from the connection at all in our villa so far. Some villas get a very small amount of water once every few days.
2013 Update: After multiple visits to KWA and meetings with KWA authorities, our association succeeded in getting water to our villas. Rumors are aplenty that corruption is the reason behind water playing hide and seek – KWA contractors, private water suppliers, and valve operators all stand to profit by controlling the water supply to flats and villas in the area ensuring, private water suppliers continue to get good business…
2015 Update: Our water meter broke and the billing rep determined this by comparing two consecutive readings. She wrote up a notice stating that it needs to be replaced by a KWA approved plumber after getting the meter certified. She also indicated that going through the KWA contractor in our area is the best route. Here again, rumors have it that KWA contractors are a primary source of corruption at this public utility: since there is a virtual monopoly (if you attempt to do things on your own bypassing the contractors, they will ensure that it takes multiple visits to KWA to get anything done), they can charge whatever they want. Meters go for around Rs 1000/- at private market. But, the contractor's "full-service" offering starts upwards of Rs 2000 and can go for as much as Rs 3000. We went with the contractor and his workers came by, took the notice, purchased the meter, certified it at KWA, replaced the meter at our house, and gave the KWA certification receipt back to us, all before noon same day...
2012 Update: Our builder Heera and our home owner's association managed to get KWA connections to all the villas at a cost of Rs 5000 per villa. However, no water from the connection at all in our villa so far. Some villas get a very small amount of water once every few days.
2013 Update: After multiple visits to KWA and meetings with KWA authorities, our association succeeded in getting water to our villas. Rumors are aplenty that corruption is the reason behind water playing hide and seek – KWA contractors, private water suppliers, and valve operators all stand to profit by controlling the water supply to flats and villas in the area ensuring, private water suppliers continue to get good business…
2015 Update: Our water meter broke and the billing rep determined this by comparing two consecutive readings. She wrote up a notice stating that it needs to be replaced by a KWA approved plumber after getting the meter certified. She also indicated that going through the KWA contractor in our area is the best route. Here again, rumors have it that KWA contractors are a primary source of corruption at this public utility: since there is a virtual monopoly (if you attempt to do things on your own bypassing the contractors, they will ensure that it takes multiple visits to KWA to get anything done), they can charge whatever they want. Meters go for around Rs 1000/- at private market. But, the contractor's "full-service" offering starts upwards of Rs 2000 and can go for as much as Rs 3000. We went with the contractor and his workers came by, took the notice, purchased the meter, certified it at KWA, replaced the meter at our house, and gave the KWA certification receipt back to us, all before noon same day...
