Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has formed a water engineering consultancy division to make the most of the revenue inflows opportunity in countrywide water supply projects under JNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission) and the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT). Wascon, KWA consultancy division, is India?s first State-run water agency to shift gears to implementation and consultancy from its traditional role of distribution.

?Wascon should ideally be modelled on Israel?s water engineering and managment,? said Kerala Governor RL Bhatia, inaugurating the new outfit. He proposed that the consultancy should start off honing it skills in water-resorce-short Israel, which makes the most of its waste water to irrigate crops.

JNURM, UIDSSMT and other externally funded programmes mandate shifts the onus of service delivery in water supply from traditional water supply PSUs to local bodies. This would empower Wascon to undertake consultancy of not only Kerala?s own projects in JNURM, UIDSSMT or JBIC (Japan Bank for International Co-operation) but also those of other States or private organisations that need it.

In JBIC drinking water project, the Kerala government had spent as much as Rs 120 crore on the fees for the mandatory consultancy alone, when KWA had the required expertise. A dedicated consultancy division could also help save such expenses, State water resources minister NK Premachandran said.

It was mainly the high-end technical expertise available with KWA that enables it to spawn into a consultancy, according to Heinz J K Fenner, water engineering expert, Germany.

Besides Fenner, experts in the field like Kevin Mowforth, expert in Germany, Chandra Dissanayake, project expert, New Zealand, Sunil Karn, management expert, Nepal, Babu Ambat, environmental engineering expert, Kerala and RPR Nair, structural engineering expert, Kerala outlined the new trends in water managment at the workshop that followed Wascon?s opening ceremony.