KMC losing millions from water pilfering: Engineer

More than 35 per cent of the water supplied by the Kandy Municipal Council (KMC) to residents in the area is being pilfered thus denying the municipality millions of rupees in revenue, the KMC Water Supplies Division Chief Engineer said.

While the municipality provides water free of charge to school and municipal buildings, the KMC collects more than Rs 40 million monthly for water supplied to residents and business establishments in the city limits.

In recent months the municipality had collected nearly Rs 80 million for water supplied, Chief Engineer Palitha Bandara Abeykoon said.

However with the large scale of pilfering of water, the KMC is losing a great deal of money, he said.

He said more than 38,000 cubic metres of water are supplied to meet the demand for water in the KMC area and of this amount at least 12,000 cubic metres are pilfered.

Much of the pilfering is done by those running hotels and car sales centres, the Chief Engineer said.

However, Mr. Abeykoon assured that despite the prevailing dry weather conditions there will be no water cuts in Kandy and added that the new water supply scheme in Harispattuwa will provide water to the KMC limits as well.