Even before summer, water supply hit in parts of city

Drinking water supply has hit parts of the city even before the onset of summer, forcing people to depend more on private water tankers.

Residents of Nagashetty Halli, RMS Layout near Sanjaynagar, Postal Colony near Hebbal, BTM Layout 1st Stage and other localities say the water supply has reduced in the last few days. The situation is contrary to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s assurance that water supply in the city will not be hit till June.

“The supply in our area has reduced to 10-15 minutes from 30 minutes earlier. It is becoming difficult for us to sustain with reduced supply of water. We cannot always rely on
private tankers as they charge high,” said Bore Gowda S, a resident of BTM Layout 1st Stage.

Santosh G, a resident of Rajajinagar 2nd Stage, D Block, said water supply was limited to 3 pm to 6 am since last week. “In the next few weeks, the supply may get worse,” he added.

Borewells, lakes dry up

Lakes in Herohalli, Lingadheeranahalli and Andrahalli have dried up, leading to a cascading effect on borewells. As the areas do not get Cauvery water, residents are forced to depend on private tankers. Around 800 households in Vidyamanya Nagar and the adjoining areas depend on two public borewells for water supply. With the lakes which acted as feeders to the borewells dried up, the situation has worsened.

R Guruprasad, a resident of Vidyamanya Nagar, said, “We are not getting Cauvery water for many years now and are dependent on BWSSB drinking water cans.”  A BWSSB official said that out of 9,000-odd public borewells in the city, 600-700 had dried up. “Some borewells have dried as they are old. We have invited tenders for drilling new borewells,” the official said.

‘Sufficient supply till May’

Speaking to DH, BWSSB Engineer-in-Chief Kemparamaiah insisted that the glitches in water supply were caused by power failure. “We have sufficient water till the end of May. We are in the process of locating groundwater points for drilling borewells. We are also taking other measures to ensure that water supply is not affected during the summer,” he added.