Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) is taking stringent measures to recover outstanding revenues from local governing bodies, following the accumulation of unpaid water bills for public water taps, which have exceeded Rs. 1,000 crores. As part of this effort, KWA has issued a revenue recovery notice to Chalakudy Municipality, which owes over Rs. 46 crores. They have initiated recovery proceedings against the Thrissur Corporation, which has an outstanding bill of more than Rs. 20 crores.

Though KWA has given the chance to settle the pending bill of Rs. 44 crores through a one-time settlement option of Rs 30 crores to Kozhikode Corporation, they too have failed to respond to the option.

According to KWA sources, the revenue recovery steps regarding the pending bills of Kochi Corporation (Rs 140 crores) and Thiruvananthapuram Corporation (Rs 59 crores) will begin soon. Meanwhile, Chalakudy Municipality has moved court against the revenue recovery notice. As of July 31, the total outstanding bill of all the local bodies in the state amounts to around Rs 1072.13 crores.

Since domestic pipe connections are being given to all the houses in the state as part of the Jal Jeevan Mission, the number of public taps is being cut down across the state. The total number of public water taps in the state was 1,12,993 in May, which has been reduced to 97,630 in July. Public water taps in 102 panchayats have been completely stopped. Corporations in the state have to pay Rs. 21,000 per year for each tap no matter whether they are functional or not.

KWA, which is going through an acute financial crunch, finds it difficult to pay even the electricity charges. It is in the wake of this difficult situation that the department has decided to initiate revenue recovery proceedings against local bodies. The decision of the management is to collect as much as possible through the one-time settlement option. A meeting of the Water Resources Minister and the LSGD Minister will be held soon to resolve the crisis.

Local bodies having pending bills in connection with public water taps (Amount in crores): Corporations - 265.28 Municipalities - 405.30 Panchayats - 401.55

Municipalities with pending bills (in crores): Alappuzha 47.52 Kayamkulam 15.01 Cherthala 13.65 North Paravur 15.10 Karunagappally 13.44 Vaikom 14.65 Vadakara 13.18 Ponnani 11.29 Shoranur 20.84 Palakkad 12.08 Ottappalam 10.34 Neyyattinkara 14.59 Nedumangad 13.83 Kodungallur 20.29 Chavakkad 11.70