Residents spend sleepless nights

Residents spend sleepless nights
Sunday August 24 2008 03:23 IST

Faiza Haneef | ENS

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BANGALORE: For residents of Okalipuram, disruption and irregularity in water supply is nothing new. When they spend sleepless nights to collect drinking water, officials concerned turn a blind eye towards the problem, citing technical reasons.

The pipeline, which supplied water from Rajajinagar, was disconnected about two years ago when the underpass work on the Magadi road junction started. Now, the residents have lost all hopes of the water connections to be restored until the completion of the underpass.

The water supply to this area was not a problem until the construction of the underpass started. At present, water to this locality is being supplied from a different pipeline only during night time.

The supply duration is also short and at times there is no supply for days. ‘’Every alternate night, we have to wait for the water and this has become a routine now," says Manohar Urs, a resident of Okalipuram.

Moreover, water to this locality is being supplied from the West Division whereas the Okalipuram comes under Central Division.

"While this area comes under Bashyam Nagar service station (Central Division), water is supplied from Rajajinagar (West Division). And whenever we go with the problems regarding the disruption in water supply, officials at the Central Division do not bother as they look after maintenance problems only.

When we approach the West Division official, he says they are not supplying water to this area. The problem with the irregularity in supply is due to this," Manohar said.

After the residents failed to get response from the BWSSB officials, they have now decided to bring the issue to the notice of the Commissioner of the Social Welfare Department.

"It is very inconvenient to be awake during nights to collect water which is supplied for such a short duration. There are even days when we go out to the public tap to collect water though we have proper water connections at home," said Ravindra, another resident.

Speaking to this website's newspaper, a senior BWSSB official said:"We are aware of the problem in this area and after the line was disconnected we have been supplying water through an alternative line. Water has to be supplied during night and there is a problem from the last six months.

We had to cut down the supply hours as we are not able to pump water from TG Halli which has almost reached dead storage now."