Porvorim: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar today hinted at possible hike in tariff of drinking water in the State in near future.
Parrikar told the House that the State has been hugely subsidizing the water supply provided to the consumers. “But in future, we should be ready to pay more for it after providing some water up to certain units at the cheaper rate,” the chief minister said.
The Chief Minister also said that the State has appointed a consultant to map the existing water supply and problems related to it whose report would be considered before laying new pipelines.
He was responding to a question tabled by Congress legislator Philip Neri Rodrigues about the water supply in the State during ongoing monsoon session of the House.
“The water which is provided to the consumers is at much subsidized rate. We get only Rs 150 crore from the consumers annually while the actual expenditure is Rs 800-900 crore,” Parrikar said.
“Except for the first few initial units, we should be ready to pay more for the water,” he said.
The chief minister said that the State government has appointed a consultant to map the water supply chain and carry out analysis about the distribution.
Parrikar ruled out that there was water shortage across Goa. “It is not the case that we don’t have water. The people living at tail end or those located at elevated places face this problem,” he said.
The chief minister said that the state government is in the process of augmenting the water supply by adding more 152 MLD to the existing capacity
