Price of Water

On the face of it, it should be simple. The price of water should include the capital cost, the operations and management cost and a sinking fund to replace the infrastructure once its life is over. Then you could consider wastewater and say the price of wastewater a consumer should pay includes its collection, conveyance to the treatment plant and its treatment cost. This would include the same three components — capital cost, operations and maintenance cost, and a sinking fund.

How many cities and towns in India follow this principle of recovering the full supply cost of water? The answer is ‘none.'

While this is the responsibility of the government and institutions running the water supply and sewerage systems, the results of such poor cost recovery are for everyone to see. No city in India can supply all its citizens with the requisite quantity and quality of water. No city collects all the sewage generated and treats it for release into the environment. No city has the resources to raise finance on its own to invest in the capital necessary for newer water sources or to extend services to the outskirts of cities. Capturing the true ecological cost of water is far away when even the supply cost is not recovered. In India, water is under ecological stress too. Catchments need protection, rivers have to be protected for them to flow perennially and the quality of water in lakes and reservoirs needs protection from pollution. The true ecological cost of water would be when the full supply cost and all the externalities are captured. Unless we move to a regime of capturing ecological costs, our water and sanitation systems will be under stress and many people will not have access to water and the numbers will increase. If a layout or an apartment has its own water resource, it too should move to recover full ecological costs from the consumers.

Meter your borewell for both water and energy. Capture the production cost of water and factor in a sinking fund to drill or deepen your borewell or simply to invest to recharge the borewells.

Pleasure of Nature