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September / October 2006
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EDITORIAL

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KMC's Clean Water and Dirty Water Problems

In this editorial we want to talk about water, a commodity that many people take for granted but should be treated with much greater respect. Elsewhere in this edition of The Kandy News we report on two important water issues in Kandy. One concerns clean water - the unpaid water bills totaling Rs 65m to the KMC. The second concerns dirty water - the start of construction of the sewerage purification plant in Gannoruwa. Both are equally important issues for the Kandy community.

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It is perhaps useful to begin by viewing water in a broader context. Just a few weeks ago the dispute over release of water from a small irrigation anicut in Mavilaru in the Eastern Province led to a major battle between the security forces and the LTTE causing loss of life and large scale displacement of people. This dispute over water may well be the start of Eelam War IV. More important, this hints at “battles” to come as the nation tries to share its increasingly scarce water resources.

A few months ago the noted science writer Fred Pearce published a book titled When the Rivers Run Dry: Water The Defining Crisis of the Twenty First Century. In the book the author argues that water would be the scarcest resource that humans will have to contend with in this century. On average a middle class urban dweller uses about 40 gallons of water per day. This rises to about 80 to 100 gallons with higher incomes. However, a huge proportion of the water that we consume is through the food that we produce and eat. Pearce estimates that, for example, it takes between 550 gallons to 1,430 gallons to produce one kilogram of rice. Humans are prolific water users and we may have to change our ways with water to survive.

Viewed in the above broader context the unpaid water bills as well as the sewerage plant in Kandy raise a few important public policy issues. For the cash strapped Council Rs 65m in unpaid bills is a lot of money. The annual interest forgone even at a modest 10% is Rs 6.5m. With the car park revenue also not rolling in on the anticipated scale, mayor L B Aluvihare is fervently trying to get the defaulting water consumers to pay up. Councilor Thilina Tennakoon has also performed his duty as the leader of the opposition by compelling the administration to reveal the details of the uncollected water bills.
The system as it stands must be encouraging waste of expensively produced water. If the several government establishments do not pay for their water there is a high probability that water is wasted because nobody cares much for anything that comes “free.”

In general it is a very bad and stupid idea to provide anything free of charge to anybody. Even schools and religious institutions that are currently given free water should be required to pay for it. If politics require, the government can give an annual water grant to the institutions concerned. In fact simple economics tell us that, ironically, if the Municipal Council gives such a grant to religious institutions, schools and even the defaulting state institutions and asks them to pay for their water, it could save money for the KMC without harming the institutions concerned. But then smart economics is not the forte of our politicians and administrators.

It is clear that the consumers who pay their water bills subsidize those who don't. If the Queen's Hotel does not pay its water bills Kandy consumers and ratepayers are subsidizing mainly the foreign tourists and the Sri Lankan rich who patronize the hotel. Just now the paying consumers are also subsidizing the swimmers in the Girls High School and St. Anthony's swimming pools, some private contractors, elephant owners, and numerous Kandy business establishments. This happens in a country where we are constantly talking of equity and help for the poor! As far as one could see the KMC water billing system is a transfer of income from the poor to the rich.

On the “dirty water” (sewerage) issue mayor Aluvihare and the Council as well as the government have at last done the right thing and deserve the public's compliments. As Minister Sarath Amunugama has rightly declared the narrow interest of a few who opposed the construction of the sewerage plant must not be allowed to win over the wider interest of the community at large. A facility to terminate the discharge of sewerage to the Mahaweli is by any standards a great public service.

Technical experts selected Gannoruwa as the most viable location for the sewerage plant. It is not economical to locate it in some other site such as Kundasale that the opponents of the Gannoruwa site have suggested. The public have a right to insist that the officials run the plant efficiently and in an environmentally friendly manner. Such an assurance has been given but going by past experience such assurances may not be kept. In our view that is not a good enough reason not to construct the plant in Gannoruwa. The plant must be constructed in Gannoruwa and the officials must be held accountable for its proper running. That is the only way for this country to progress.