Thiruvananthapuram: Wastage of water limits the availability of the scarce resource to people living in areas where its shortage is felt.
Apparently excessive and injudicious water use has been reported from the official residence of none other than Kerala Water Resources Minister Roshy Augustine, though he defended it by attributing it to two connections to the public supply line.
Over 1.22 lakh litres of water was used at Roshy's residence in June and July, 2022. In other words 60,000 litres was used on an average monthly.
This splurging has come to light when 15,000 litres is sufficient for a four-member family in a month.
The Minister, however, put to rest a question over this in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday. The query was raised by Congress legislator Saneesh Kumar Joseph.
There are two water connections in the Minister’s house. During the months of June and July, 112 kilolitres of water was used from one connection and 10 kilolitres from the other connection.
The bill for both was Rs 2,542. For the entire period of last year, 481 kilolitres of water was used; making it 40,000 litres a month on average, the Minister explained. (One kilolitre is 1,000 litres)
Apparently employees on duty at the official residence also use water supplied by the Kerala Water Authority. Moreover, water is used to wash the fleet of official vehicles.
Last month while defending the hike in water charges the minister himself had remarked in the House that most families would be requiring only about 15,000 litres monthly and there would be none requiring twice that quantity.
