Respond to water woes, deputy commissioner tells officials

Deputy Commissioner Dr K G Jagadeesha has directed the officials to respond immediately to water woes.

Chairing a meeting to convened discuss on water problem in the district, he said that there is no shortage of grants for taking up water projects.

The funds to take up water related projects have been released to the local bodies. They have to submit a proposal to the district administration for additional funds, he added. 

Jagadeesha directed the officials to respond to the water woes within 24 hours of receiving the complaints. If any place faces shortage of water, then the tahsildars should takeover private borewells to supply water, rather than waiting for the digging of new borewells. The gram panchayat development officers and village accountants should identify the areas that will face acute shortage of water and make necessary arrangements for the supply of water.

The gram panchayats and urban local bodies should submit a report on supply of water in tankers to the DC’s office every week, he added.

The deputy commissioner directed the Mescom not to delay the process of providing electricity connections to water projects. The Agriculture, and Horticulture departments and Mescom officials should ensure that private pumpsets are not used for drawing water from rivers. The water should be drawn only in case of emergency to irrigate the farm land, he said.

With the state government declaring Mangaluru and Bantwal taluks as drought-hit, the government has released Rs 2 crore to tackle drought. Rs 30 lakh each has already been released to these taluks. The DC said the district administration has written to KIOCL on drawing water from Lakya dam.
 
Water rationing
Even before the intense summer heat, the water supply system in the city has been hit with the Mangaluru City Corporation taking up rationing of the water supply, from Monday.

With the depletion in water level in Thumbe dam, the source of water supply to Mangaluru city, the officials from AMR Hydro Power Project at Shamboor on the upstream of the dam have started releasing water to Thumbe dam since Sunday.

As a result, the water level in the dam increased to 5 metres by Monday evening. The water-level was 4.3 metres on Monday afternoon. It was 3.98 metres on Sunday, the city corporation officials said.

Water till May 25
Mayor Kavitha Sanil said if the rationing of water continued, then available water from AMR and Thumbe dam will be sufficient till May 25 for supply.

The MCC is ready to tackle water crisis and people need not panic, she added. She said she has written to the DC to stop water supply to industries completely.

With the MCC initiating rationing of water supply, the hotel and restaurants have started depending on tankers to supply water.
DH News Service