Most of the bore wells in and around Bangalore is
dried Some intelligent people who own a
small piece of land dig very deep and
huge bore well to do water tanker business are the cause of drying the other
bore wells in around that area.
One resident claims that water supplier
continuously selling water for two years in his area has become the owner of a
multi-storied Apartment which has been constructed on his land. This gives an insight about the quantum of
money he has earned and saved after meeting all his other necessities in two
years, with no liability to Income tax or any other local taxes. Whereas the
BWSSB not charging anything for these bore wells since it is on a vacant land
and is not registered. On the other hand the dried bore wells of
residents/apartments continuously receiving the bills for bore well even though
it is not yielding any water.
Due to this lucrative income, private water
suppliers have mushroomed across the city, and who come to your rescue in times
of crisis.
The vast part of the namma Bengaluru depends on
the water they supply. Some of us like to believe the public authorities when
they try to deny the existence of ‘Organised group’ in managing water or
garbage but their existence is a reality. They exercise a form of ‘public authority,’ by controlling the water supply? What is not clear is how mafia
authority is enacted and maintained and, in particular, the relationships of
mafias’ share with 'the state’.
Water tanker operators are often backed by the
local corporator, the legislator, or a powerful politician. In some cases,
political patronage is open. In others, patrons operate in the shadows. These
groups have strict unwritten demarcated territories to operate.
Most of the colonies mushroomed on the outskirts
of Bangalore are totally dependent on the ground water supply only. The BDA has
not recognised approximately 90% of residential settlements at Bangalore’s periphery
– around 500 square km and a population of two million – have developed the way
they have, and considered as
'unauthorised.’
Certain residential layouts acquire greater
legitimacy than others through the exercise of public authority. The local governments
accept the property taxes paid by informal resident, tacit sanction from an
urban authority, investment in roads or water supply by a local politician, or
protection offered through networks of political actors.
All settlements exhibit varying shades of legality and tenure security, depending on the sanctioning authority. In fact,
even the so-called formal BDA layouts possess varying shades of legality. Due
to this fluid situation that water tanker has been able to flourish and service
the majority of peripheral settlers. The key to the success of Water tanker
owners is their complicity in both water and land regimes. From the early
1990s, the deregulation of land has fostered crony capitalism in the real estate sector, and has provided ample opportunity for speculative and
exploitative land deals. This has further bolstered the authority of water
mafias.
The BWSSB services approximately 5 lakh domestic
connections with 900 million litres a day of treated water from the Cauvery
River, only 10-30% of households at the city periphery have access to BWSSB’s
water. Here, most depend almost entirely on groundwater sourced from household
bore wells, municipal or village bore wells, and water tanker suppliers to meet
their domestic needs.
The water tanker owners are tapping the aquifer
quite indiscriminately in the absence of groundwater regulation. This has
encouraged households, apartment complexes, commercial establishments and water
tanker businesses to tap the natural resources. The average consumption of
ground water is estimated over 600 million litres per day in Bangalore, which
is approximately half of BWSSB’s water supply. Over the years, water table has
plummeted.
The domestic bore wells are not on public domain
on where tanker businesses source their groundwater from based on their
customer requirements. An estimate by the BWSSB suggests that there are around
200 private water tanker businesses in the city, each operating two to three
tankers. The Tanker business work round the clock, making delivers to 15-20
houses per day at approximately Rs.250-300 per load which may contain
approximately 4000 litres of ground water. On an average he middle class people spends around Rs.1000 to 1500/- per
month for procuring water from the tanker business. They generally use only tractors
in order to approach informal settlements through unpaved and rough roads.
Running a tanker business is lucrative. The
inputs are virtually free. Only a mobile phone and one or two water tankers are
enough. On a typical day, a tanker owner operating in a densely populated
residential area can make around Rs 8,000-12,000 depending on how many tankers
he owns. If the business is able to pump groundwater through subsidised
electricity or diesel-powered generators, the only cost is the diesel required
to fuel trucks or tractors. Since diesel is also subsidised, profit margins can
be quite substantial.
Territorial discipline:
Like any other
business they too have stiff competition. So they want to have this competition within their territory and they
will not step in to others territory. There is unwritten agreement to maintain their jurisdictional territories. They too have strong
customer base. They claims to be social workers since they help the citizens
neglected by the authorities. They have
friends in administration and elected representatives on whose patronage they
enjoy.
Artificially creating scarcity to maximize their business.
The tanker operators also collude with
lower-level officials to restrict water supply so that they could offer the
alternative and payments from consumers were shared with these officials. There
is no difference between a politician and people like water tanker operators. Because once you have money, you can get
power and become something, and once you have power you can get more money.
Power is very necessary. That is the game of the day to become powerful politician and vice-versa.
No comments:
Post a Comment