JOIN USCauvery connection is not a guarantee against a water crisis this summer. This couldn’t be more apparent than in Kacharakanahalli Grama Panchayat in Bangalore East, where water shortage is a big issue despite around 600 households getting Cauvery water supply. The pressure of the water supplied is so low that residents here are forced to depend on private tankers and a borewell sunk by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
Here’s what Jaganath Reddy, a resident of the area, has to say on the problem: “Cauvery water is supplied to our households thrice in a week but the pressure is so slow that we are able to fill just a bucket of water. People spend Rs 500 to Rs 600 for a tanker every week. The borewell water is salty and unfit for consumption. Despite approaching the area corporator and BWSSB, there is no solution in sight.”
Only a kilometre away from this place is Hennur, where the residents face the same water pressure problem, although their tale is slightly different. Muniraju N, secretary of the Hennur Residents’ Welfare Association, maintains that the supply of water this year has improved in his area.
“Last year, residents of Hennur, especially those staying in Sonnappa Layout, Prakruthi Layout, Byraveshwara Layout, Chikkanna Layout and Veerappa Garden faced severe water crisis and all the borewells too went dry. We were provided Cauvery pipeline connections in the year 2005 itself but not a single drop of water reached our homes. We are better off now since they supply water twice a week. But the pressure remains low,” he says.
Muniraju had a suggestion to improve the pressure. “The feeder lines connected to the layouts here are of four inches. They should be increased to six inches so that the water flow is good,” he says.
Residents of surrounding layouts such as HBR Layout, HRBR Layout, Banaswadi and Bhuvanagiri say the areas have adequate water for now. Saraswathi, a resident of Bhuvanagiri, says, “We get adequate water supply twice a week. Three years back, we were hugely depending on tankers shelling out Rs 600 to 1000 every week. Now the situation has improved.”
However, she was not sure whether the scene would be the same in the peak of summer later this year.