Emphasizing on the need to reduce non-revenue water
(NRW), officials of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA),
while speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day national workshop
for reduction of NRW in India held on Thursday, urged the government to
tackle issues in the water sector at the earliest.
At the conference held at a resort in Utorda, Tomohide Ichiguchi, deputy chief representative, JICA India, said that they had 30 engineers from the PWD in Goa in non-revenue water management and its time that they should not sit idle but start action and take measures to reduce the NRW.
"Weak financial base and political intervention are two major issues in the implementation of the project in Goa and the lack of asset inventory and management system are responsible for the delay in the JICA project," said Emi Doyle, JICA country analytical in the water sector in her opening remarks.
Doyle added that practices in the state were time-consuming such as land acquisition, tender evaluations, government approvals from other authorities like tree-cutting, road permissions and utility shifting, and that the poor performance of the contractor and frequent transfer of key staff are some of the reasons in delay of JICA-assisted projects in the water supply and sanitation sector.
"Need of reduction of NRW is need of the hour and the issue is to be addressed on a war footing. This will also help increase the revenue of the state," said PWD minister Sudin Dhavalikar, while addressing the delegates. Dhavalikar said that no work orders were given over a period of one year in spite of finalization of tenders and that work orders were issued only after the new government came to power while putting the blame for delays in completion of JICA projects on the previous government.
Anand Wachasunder, project director of JICA Goa project said that the NRW rate in Goa was around 42% which is two times the national NRW average of 20%.
At the conference held at a resort in Utorda, Tomohide Ichiguchi, deputy chief representative, JICA India, said that they had 30 engineers from the PWD in Goa in non-revenue water management and its time that they should not sit idle but start action and take measures to reduce the NRW.
"Weak financial base and political intervention are two major issues in the implementation of the project in Goa and the lack of asset inventory and management system are responsible for the delay in the JICA project," said Emi Doyle, JICA country analytical in the water sector in her opening remarks.
Doyle added that practices in the state were time-consuming such as land acquisition, tender evaluations, government approvals from other authorities like tree-cutting, road permissions and utility shifting, and that the poor performance of the contractor and frequent transfer of key staff are some of the reasons in delay of JICA-assisted projects in the water supply and sanitation sector.
"Need of reduction of NRW is need of the hour and the issue is to be addressed on a war footing. This will also help increase the revenue of the state," said PWD minister Sudin Dhavalikar, while addressing the delegates. Dhavalikar said that no work orders were given over a period of one year in spite of finalization of tenders and that work orders were issued only after the new government came to power while putting the blame for delays in completion of JICA projects on the previous government.
Anand Wachasunder, project director of JICA Goa project said that the NRW rate in Goa was around 42% which is two times the national NRW average of 20%.
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