Drinking water scarcity singes City fringes

The areas newly brought under the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike are bearing the brunt of acute water scarcity in the City.

With no sign of rain and borewells drying up, these areas on the periphery of the City are dependent on water tankers to meet the daily requirement.

The corporators from Byatarayanapura, Mahadevapura and KR Puram constituencies, during a meeting with the chairperson of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board on Tuesday aired their concerns over the grave situation in their wards.

Ashwath Narayan Gowda, the Kodigehalli corporator said around 40 borewells in his ward had dried up and the rest were not yielding much water. He said the residents were struggling for water with no other source. “I receive close to 200 calls a day on the water problem,” he said.

Yashodamma, the Kuvempu Nagar corporator said of the 73 borewells in her ward, water could not be lifted from around 11 for want of motors. She said the motors were dysfunctional and need to be repaired at the earliest. 

“We need additional supply through tankers and the BWSSB has agreed.  Rainwater harvesting in my ward is another alternative to be explored,” she added.

Byatarayanapura corporator Indira said of the 280 borewells in her ward, around 114 borewells had dried up and the remaining were not yielding any water. 

Depleting water level in borewells and dysfunctional motors were the two prominent issues raised by a majority of the corporators. Several corporators demanded sinking of  new borewells.

However, with the new groundwater regulation in place, BWSSB chairperson Gaurav Gupta ruled out sinking new borewells and agreed to provide additional supply through tankers.

The Board supplied water for three months during summer (March, April and May).  With southwest monsoon nowhere in sight, the Board has decided to call for fresh tenders to supply water through tankers.

The corporators also complained about the snail’s pace of the work on projects taken up under the Karnataka Municipal Reforms Programme.