To slake City's thirst, BWSSB favours Linganamakki water

An expert committee of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), formed in 2010 to find long - and short - term solutions to the growing water demand in the City, has put forward the very suggestion mooted by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah: to draw water from Linganamakki Dam.

The report of the nine-member panel is ready to be made public but for unknown reasons, the BWSSB has not been able to submit it to the State government. The Board’s officials are waiting for the chief minister to make the announcement.

Located in Sagar taluk of Shimoga district, Linganamakki is the biggest reservoir in the State, having a capacity to hold up to 151 tmc (thousand million cubic) feet of water with an annual inflow of 181 tmc.

The committee has proposed to lay pipelines for about 100 km from Linganamakki to Yagachi dam in Hassan district and draw about 50 tmc feet of water. The pipelines may have to run through forests but will not have any impact on the environment, sources said.

After reaching Yagachi dam, water will flow through gravity for nearly 50 km to reach the City. The water drawn thus can be supplied to Bangalore, its surrounding areas as well as Kolar, Ramanagara, Chikkaballapur and Chitradurga.

The expert committee has also proposed a reservoir at Mekedaatu in Kanakapura taluk of Ramanagara district, where the collected water can be supplied to the farmers. Besides, the panel has recommended that water be drawn from Lakshmanateertha river to Krishna Raja Sagara dam which would require diversion.

Sources insist the project would not cost more than Rs 100 crore and can be completed in three years. The committee has also proposed that more water be drawn from the Cauvery basin, within the framework of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal award.

The panel’s other recommendations are those already mentioned in the interim report given to the State government in December 2011. In that report, it had recommended that orders be issued to enforce dual piping system in all layouts and commercial establishments such as hotels and apartment complexes must have separate pipes for drinking water and other purposes.

The committee also called for plugging the leakages and reducing the unaccounted for water by replacing the pipelines and bringing down the wastage from 48 per cent to 16 per cent.

The BWSSB Chairman, M S Ravishankar, said the Bangalore district in-charge minister would be apprised of the report first. Later, the chief minister would make it public.