Privatisation of water supply opposed

Privatisation of water supply came in for vehement opposition at a workshop organised by Chetana Society here on Wednesday. Several speakers lashed out at the state government for toying with the idea of handing over water supply to private players as per an old recommendation of the World Bank.

 The problems plaguing water supply schemes are entirely the fault of the Water Board and the state government's current policies, they said and demanded that the board submit a report to the Assembly in this regard.

 Former MP P Madhu of the CPM alleged that the government was planning to privatise water supply in all municipalities and cited the example of such an initiative being conducted on a pilot basis in Kukatpally in Hyderabad.

 He said a massive agitation would be launched against privatisation if this project was extended to other municipalities.

 Chetana Society director D Narasimha Reddy said that at present the 80 lakh people of Hyderabad were being supplied about 350 million gallons of water per against a demand of 450 million gallons.

 The population of the city is projected to climb to 1. crore by 2030 and the demand for water is expected to rise to 500 million gallons per day. But the government has no plans for such a contingency, he said.

 D Ramakrishna, former engineer-in-chief of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, CPM leader Y Venkateswara Rao, BJP state vice-president P Malla Reddy and representatives of several organisations participated in the event.