Most water purifying plants in state dysfunctional

Even as summer is to reach its peak, people are already feeling the heat of water shortage. To add up to their woes, around 600 units of the 'shudhha neeru ghataka' (reverse osmosis plants) in the state are said to be dysfunctional.

However, even as the government claims that only 10% of the total number of water purification plants are dysfunctional, the actual number is much more.

Unlike the core areas in the city, 110 villages which are part of Bengaluru city do not have access to Cauvery water as the work of laying the infrastructure is still being carried out.

So, the residents of these areas are completely dependent on water cans for drinking water.

For instance, the RO plant in Doddakallasandra, located off Kanakapura Road was inaugurated in August 2017. In less than a year, the plant has stopped working to its full capacity. Its operator says that lack of maintenance was resulting in the slow filtering of water.

A local resident says that it takes more than 30 minutes to fill a 20-litre can and that he has to wait for hours together to fill two cans.

"Fed up with the long queues for water, my neighbour chose to install a small RO plant inside his house," said Praveen Kumar, a resident.

According to H S Prakash, chief engineer, rural water supply under the rural development and panchayat raj department, around 587 RO plants are dysfunctional in the state.

However, he added that the numbers keep fluctuating as there was more than 10,000 water purifying plants in the state.

"Normally we give 5-year contract to operate and maintain the RO plant. The contractor will have to take up the repair work to ensure that the plant runs smoothly," he added.

In most of the cases, the motors in the units stop working for some reasons and it has to be repaired by an authorised person only. If there is no water in the borewell, then there is a provision to bring water from tankers, filter and supply.