Why AAP’s “Free Water” policy fails to provide any relief to common man

The new Aam Aadmi Party government has recently announced the free 700L Water per day scheme (20,000 L per month). And they’re right, water is the ‘lifeline’ and hence should be readily available. I prima-facie welcomed this new policy as it promised a minimum threshold upto which even the weak economic section will be able to get affordable water. Water bills was a major agenda in recent Delhi elections. Everybody is aware of the faulty metres and tanker mafia issues which crop-up their ugly faces, especially in the scorching summer of Delhi. And AAP came up with these solutions within 3 days of their working.

I, like many among you, am not very good at reading numbers. We receive the bill, there’re several charges, tax, slabs and what not … but despite doing calculations not being my strong suite decided to find out how much monetary change would these measures bring in the average household economics.

After going through several bills and the new slabs, this is what I found,

There are three major components of your water bill:

1. Metered Water Consumption
2. Sewer Maintenance (60% of Metered Water Consumption)
3. Fixed Service Charges (there’s a slab for this as well)

First let’s have a look at the OLD SLAB:

Consumption per month	Old Rate (per KL)	Fixed Service Charges
1-10KL	₹2.42	₹60.50
10-20KL	₹3.63	₹121.00
20-30KL	₹18.15	₹181.50
30KL onwards	₹30.25	₹242.00

AAP government has made consumption within first two slabs free while increasing the rates for metered water consumption and fixed service charge by 10% (Economic Times Report)

Now, the NEW AAP SLAB:

Consumption per month	Old Rate (per KL)	Fixed Service Charges
1-10KL	₹0	₹0
10-20KL	₹0	₹0
20-30KL	₹19.97	₹199.65
30KL onwards	₹33.28	₹266.20

Now, upto 20 KL per month, you don’t have to pay anything. What about 21 KL? Let’s check:

For 21 KL, Per the OLD SLAB,

For the first 10KL you have to pay Rs 24.20 (@ ₹2.42 / KL)

For the next 10 KL you have to pay Rs 36.30  (@ ₹3.63 / KL)

For the last 1 KL you have to pay Rs 18.15 (@ ₹18.15 / KL)

This adds up to Rs 78.65 for 21 KL

60% of this usage is Rs 47.19, this is you sewer maintenance

Lastly, add the fixed service charge of Rs 181.50

All this adds upto (78.65+47.19+181.50) = Rs 307.34

For 21 KL, Per the NEW SLAB,

All 21 KL are payable since you have crossed the limit of 20KL

For 21 KL you have to pay Rs 419.37 (@ ₹19.97 / KL)

60% of this usage is Rs 251.62, this is you sewer maintenance

Lastly, add the fixed service charge of Rs 199.65

All this adds upto (419.37+251.62+199.65) = RS 870.64

There’s a difference of Rs 563.30 and it is roughly an increase of 183%!!

AAP argues this policy will provide advantage to majority of Delhiites as the average usage is below 20 KL per UN standards. Though the argument is weak, it’s still hopeful. But the you’d want to find our how much is this advantage??

Let’s calculate how much would go into the pocket of common man who decides to use water within 20 KL.

For 20 KL, Per the OLD SLAB,

For the first 10KL you have to pay Rs 24.20 (@ ₹2.42 / KL)

For the next 10 KL you have to pay Rs 36.30 (@ ₹3.63 / KL)

This adds up to Rs 60.50 for 21 KL

60% of this usage is Rs 36.30, this is you sewer maintenance

Lastly, add the fixed service charge of Rs 121.00

All this adds upto (60.50+36.30+121.00) = Rs 217.80 /-

This directly means, no household is going to get an advantage of more than Rs 217.80!!

Situation doesn’t look that positive now. Now, let’s get out of this UN standards to real life water consumption.

Delhi has a hot climate and people use water coolers. This is not rich upper-middle class AC users. This is aam janta using coolers. Then add up factors like festivities, guests, lack of storage facilities etc. There’s also the case of tenants who share the meter with the house-owners. We’re not even including the joint families yet. Those water bills are going to pile-up.

You’ll also have to factor in the faulty meters, which has already been established, that are in plenty in Delhi. These metres are already going to show inflated readings – and are going to inflate the water bills further.

Lastly, per the realistic usage, if you really try hard sometimes you’ll be within 20KL, sometimes not. In this scenario, your advantage of Rs 217.80 of even two months (i.e. Rs 435.60) won’t be able to cover the penalty that you’ll pay for using that extra KL i.e. Rs 563.30. These new rates are here to stay till March, when the summers will begin and a lot of people may hit their mark of 20 KL and lose all the saved bills right then.

All in all, this new policy of “free water” doesn’t seem to be a smart decision  by the AAP government, even if it seems at the beginning. If it was a mobile plan you wouldn’t go for it, everybody wants a little flexibility.

Here’s a comparison of OLD SLAB vs NEW SLAB – the gradual progression of bill per usage comes out to be better than the new plan by AAP.

To add to it, current measures not even scratch the surface of real water-related problem like faulty meters and tanker mafia. These issues can only be resolved through extensive effort on improving the water-infrastructure.

In my view, Arvind Kejriwal has jumped the gun here by applying these measures without arranging required infrastructure for it. The section which is suffering at the hands of tanker-mafia is not even the bracket which can avail this “advantage” … but AAP is saying that those will be attended soon. So we should give AAP govt to sort that issue then. But he himself has raised the issue of faulty water-meters in Delhi and show inflated readings. If you include that factor, what is the realistic 20 KL then? Would the limit touch if somebody has just used 10-15 KL? Should the meters not be changed first then?

The Assumptions

It’s not just about the process, but the whole policy of “free water” is based on several erroneous assumptions:

1. ‘Aam Aadmi’ core focus group of AAP lives in the family of 4. What about joint families? Families with more kids or with parents? How do you assume that people using more water are ‘khaas aadmi’??

2. ‘Aam Aadmi’ has their own house. Most people falling in this bracket are not house-owners but tenants. It’s a well known fact that most such households use shared meters (which is not illegal btw, yet). The onus of installing the water meter will lie on house-owner (landlord) and not the tenant. And tenant will be on the mercy of landlord’s discretion or will.

3. Another argument is of water conservation. It is frivolous at best. What is AAP’s core concern? Reducing rates? Availability of water? Or water conservation? Why don’t AAP focus on rain harvesting for water conservation and quit selling the “free water” policy in the veil of altruistic but unrealistic conservation? Most wastage happens anyway due to broken pipelines.

4. Lastly, AAP should decide what is their priority – “free water” or “easily available water”? Clearly availability of water is the core issue of Delhi crisis. It’s not like power that people can’t afford it. The problem of inflated bills was due to faulty meters which is also infrastructural.

The water-formula suggested by AAP looks very promising at the first glance, but in real world fails to provide any real relief to common man. Per the calculations seen above it does have a potential for aggravating the situation further. And numbers don’t lie.

Written by Ishaan Mohan Bagga

Political Analyst. Social Visionary. Editorial Journalist. Founder of open-magazine Indian Exponent.

Follow him on twitter @IshaanMohan