Bhubaneswar: The Public Health Engineering Organisation (Pheo) is all set to bring new rules for drinking water use by residential and commercial units.

The authorities are working on a draft - the Odisha Use of Water for Industrial, Commercial and Other Establishments (Regulation and Control) Bill of 2018, which will come into force after vetting with the law department and publication in the gazette.

According to a few salient features of the new rules, the authorities have proposed to hike the fees for water use by households, industries and commercial establishments while it was decided that water would be made free for the urban local bodies.

"We have decided to include a provision for municipal water supply in new rules. Under this, the water at the stand-posts installed in public places was made free, fees for which was earlier borne by the civic bodies," said a Pheo official.

He said that drinking water charges collected by Pheo was very nominal that did not even meet the operational and management cost in the water supply system.

"We have proposed to hike the water charges for the users in the new rules," said the official.

At present, a domestic consumer is paying Rs 3.94 per thousand litre of water whereas in case of a commercial establishment, the water charge is Rs 13.03 per thousand litre of water. In case of industries, the charges differ basing on the size of the establishments.

"We are working out on a number of schemes to improve the water supply system in the cities. There is also a need to improve the service-delivery system for which the new water use rules will be helpful," said Pheo superintending engineer C.R. Jena.

Besides, steps will also be taken to install water meters at the households based on which water charges will be collected. At present, the charges are being collected based on the calculation made on the number of taps installed in households.

"The funds for installation of the water meters have already been sanctioned by the state housing and urban development department. An amount of Rs 115 crore will be spend for the process," said another Pheo official.