Page 77 - HUDCO Award for Best Practices - 2024

THEME: URBAN GOVERNANCE

Water Tanker Pass issuance and Monitoring

system with mobile app at Thiruvananthapuram,

Municipal Corporation

Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, Kerala

BACKGROUND
This project aimed at bringing all tanker operators in the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation area under a single umbrella
and to regulate the Water tanker service. The targeted goal has been achieved fully and all drinking water and non-drinking water
truck movement in the city is now being done via the system only. Any illegal activity is identified and the vehicle detained by the
health squad of the Corporation. There is no reported complaint from the public regarding the unauthorized collection of drinking
water from polluted water sources.
Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, one of the largest corporations in Kerala having 214 Kilo Meter Square area and 9.68 lakhs
population (2011 census), being the capital city of Kerala, a dynamic and vibrant city, have more business activities than any other
cities in Kerala. Water supply is one of the mandates of the urban local body, enshrined in the constitution, powers and responsibilities
are vested to the local body by the state enactments. But in Kerala, Kerala Water Authority is the Government agency to provide
drinking water to the public. There are 2,91,528 water connections in the city corporation. That is around 30% population is not
covered with the water authority’s water supply system. Further there are 35,000 traders and more than 2,000 government as well as
other institutions. The water supply in Thiruvananthapuram city is sourced from Aruvikkara dam having a capacity of 386.65 MLD
and per day consumption is 355.65 MLD as per the data available with the Kerala Water Authority. There are certain locations, where
water supply network of water authority is not available and there are break-down or bursting of water supply line frequently in
many areas, which disrupts supply of water on a regular basis. Further many large institutions arranged water through private water
tankers. There are more than 100 water tankers in the city and they source water from different source, including authorised vending
point of Kerala Water Authority, ponds, lakes and such other water bodies. There had been so many complaints regarding sourcing
of water from unauthorised points which are heavily polluted, which adversely affected the health of the general public. There was
system in the city to control the same, even if there was a direction to the private water tankers to source water from the official
vending point of the Kerala Water Authority, they were not ready to collect the same from the vending points since sourcing water
from the ponds and such other water body was very cheaper and very near to the selling point. A few incidents occurred in the city
where polluted water supplied to a few restaurants caused public health issues and in order to control or to regulate this unauthorised
sourcing of water and to control the mafia working in this area corporation mooted a new system with the support of the e-platform.

This project has transformed the overall landscape of the tanker-based water delivery system which operated in Thiruvananthapuram
Corporation. The general public who relied on water tankers for fulfilling the daily water requirements had no control over the
quality of water delivered to them. The fact that most of the institutions like restaurants, malls, hotels etc in the city had to depend on
tankers for water made the situation a huge public health concern. The project implemented a mobile app based public interface for
booking water tankers and contained GPS based tracking and digital pass based source verification against each booking. The data
stream from vehicle drivers, vending point operators and GPS devices converged in the servers from which meaningful information
and alerts were given to the customer in real time empowering him with knowledge about the source, quality, and status of the water
that he has paid for. The public was saved from exploitation and helplessness and was raised to a platform where they could raise
their grievances and concerns directly to the corporation via digital medium. The internal systems were empowered using rapid
training programs to handle issues, concerns, and complaints from the field on time. The reengineering processes involved in the
implementation has transformed the way in which the corporation machinery operates and provided service delivery.

The project also separated drinking and non-drinking water delivery systems and made sure that the vehicles which supplied one
is not used for supplying the other. Strict monitoring and testing framework was set up to ensure quality of the drinking water
transported and delivered to the customer.

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