Water crisis to worsen in City

Water crisis to worsen in City
Bangalore, March 11, DH News Service:

Drinking water crisis in Bangalore only seem to aggravate in the coming days.


The City is getting 900 million litres of water per day (MLD) as against the demand for 1,125 MLD. Moreover, contractors are not coming forward to sink new borewells due to the new no-water-no-bill policy and the proposed Cauvery Stage IV, Phase II project, which will be completed only in 2012. In addition to this, every year BWSSB is giving nearly 45,000 new water connections.

Following the question raised by Gandhinagar MLA Dinesh Gundu Rao about the water crisis in the City, Minister for IT&BT and BWSSB Katta Subramanya Naidu revealed the drinking water crisis, in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday.

The problem is more acute in the newly-added areas of BBMP, where BWSSB does not supply Cauvery water, he added.

“Katta Subramanya Naidu has asked all the MLAs to sink borewells. However, the contractors are not ready to undertake the job. Also, the BWSSB officials always keep their mobile phones switched off,” Yeshwantpur MLA and former minister Shobha Karandlaje complained.

Water crisis is accentuated due to frequent power cuts. Aggrieved people form a beeline in front of my house everyday to lodge complaints. But we are helpless,” said Gundu Rao.

BWSSB to drill borewells

However, the minister assured that the BWSSB will take steps to sink new borewells immediately.

Unless water conservation measures like adopting rain water harvesting and recycling of waste water are undertaken, the future seems bleak for Bangalore. In order to tackle the water crisis both the State government and the public should make joint efforts, he added.

Meeting over water

The State government will soon convene a meeting of leaders of all political parties to decide about the possible sources of drinking water for Bangalore and towns surrounding it, minister said.

Quota of the Cauvery river water for Bangalore city has been completely exhausted, as per the final award of the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal. Now, new sources will have to be unearthed. Sources could be found in Mangalore or other places in the State, he added.