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Valuation water: A policy matter and present practice

Published : Monday, 5 April, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 1426

Valuation water: A policy matter and present practice

Valuation water: A policy matter and present practice

Water is a basic need, yet millions urban people do not have proper access to it. Dhaka alone, present actual demand of water is much higher than the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) provide--with a production of almost 2110 million litres per day (MLD) for almost 12.5 million people. Dhaka has many environmental problems, and these problems overwhelm the assets of the city. Migration from rural areas to Dhaka swells the number of poor population, resulting in rapid and uncontrolled growth of slums and squatter settlement.

It is therefore a matter of management capability of Dhaka City for this huge population and their requirement, especially basic public and utility services. Managing water uses in domestic, industrial and other sectors, and patterns of use of water would more consistent effect upon water conservation than increase of the price of water. The provision of adequate water to the rapidly growing urban population is increasingly becoming a challenge for government, particularly for service providers. The expansion of water user area in the city who need water services and who cannot readily get this service by self-provision, form a continuous pressure to either invest in additional production capacity or to stretch the available supplies to serve more people. At the same time, industrial activity also demands the expansion of urban water supply services.

However, water use through proper metering mechanism by ensuring adequate water supply to the end-users at moderate cost imposed by the supply authority will reduce huge environmental and economic stress on to the city dwellers, like Dhaka city.

Surprisingly price of water for all (poor, middle class and rich) are same, while availability and supply of water is not same for all class of people. Standard of services and quantity of supply vary from one parts of city to another. It also depends on the water pump availability in differ locations, for instance in old part of Dhaka is more critical situation than new part. Dhaka WASA has been continuously struggling to expand its service domain and upgrading its level of services to keep pace with the growing demand since its inception.

However, pattern of urban poor users is only the optimum use of water for drinking, bathing, cooking and utensil washing purposes while pattern of use is different at middleclass. Their purpose of uses is ranging from drinking, bathing, cooking, washing and small gardening (if any). Consumptive pattern of rich users is also different from both poor and middle class.

It is observed that rich are not bother about the loss of water by their using pattern due to very low price of water per unit for them. For example in their using pattern of sanitation, using of modern sanitary fittings consume more water than that of normal one. By using water efficient fittings such as low flush toilets, low volume showerheads and taps and flow limiters, users can conserve a considerable amount of water. These can lead valuing water.

Pricing of water is one of the factors of urban water sectors and it is a political issue. This pricing factor improves water allocation and encourages conservation while world population is demanding ever-larger quantities of water by guarding against water wastage. Literature also provides many examples of the influence water charges can have on water use efficiency. Different countries have different reasons for charging on water. Some wish to recover costs, some want to transfer income between sectors through cross-subsidization, and other use charges to improve water supply system and water conservation.

For instance, water supply in most of the countries in South Asia constructed and maintained by government agencies using government fund. Due to the poor economic conditions of those countries, this sector had to be highly subsidized by government. For this reason the prices of water is an important factor for both supplier and consumer sides. Therefore price of water and at the same time willingness to pay for better water services appears to be a critical factor for system sustainability and government's accountability.

Water price in Dhaka City, officially is charged in volumetric by both meter and without meter systems. Pipeline connection with meter system is charged according to the unit of per thousand litre and "holding" without meter is charged according to the annual valuation of the holding. However in real world, from distributor to the end-users practices both in volumetric and fixed charges. At present price of domestic water at household level is Tk 14.46 per thousand litres, and commercial and industrial water price is Tk. 40 per thousand litres.

While price of water without-meter holding at household level is charged by 29 per cent of the annual valuation of holding and at commercial and industrial level it is 29.50 per cent. However, water price for under construction building (without meter) is charged monthly by different sizes of the water-pipe connections, which are provided by the authority.

However, in water pricing practices, domestic users with meters are mostly house-owners and they pay water price according to their consumption.  In general, households without meter are mostly tenants and they pay a fixed amount of money for water to the house-owners, which is determined by house-owners. Therefore, consumptions patterns are unequal which increases possibility of loss of revenue collection.

Dhaka water and Sewerage Authority provides water connection to the place, for which a holding number" need to present to the authority. Each holding gets a water measuring meter according to the authority's procedure. One holding would consist of one household or more than one. All households under the same holding number pay the water price by following the one meter reading, though each of the household does not know how much water they are consuming independently. However, this fixed charges system has several drawbacks.

Deprivation of proper access to water and limited water supply capacity leads to degradation of three broad issues: social, economic and environmental condition. In addition, it is predicted that the population of the city would be 20-22 million by 2025, while the daily water demand in Dhaka increase to 32 billion litres. Therefore unless a proper supply scheme is planned, cost of water is properly estimated and income-category based consumers are identified for the coming years, the city will experience severe shortage of water.
The writer is researcher, Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DORP)











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