BWSSB engineers visit crisis-hit dhobi ghats, offer treated water

Bengaluru: After a DH report on water scarcity in dhobi ghats, BWSSB engineers inspected the Vyalikaval and Rajajinagar ghats on Saturday and offered treated water for washing.

At the Vyalikaval dhobi ghat, the engineers offered secondary treated water from the Hebbal sewage treatment plant (STP) at Rs 10 per kilolitre, which works up to Rs 60 for a 6,000-litre capacity water tanker.

"We spoke to the president and secretary of the washermen's association on Saturday and are in touch with them. They said they don’t have any issues at present," said Lakshminarasimaiah, BWSSB Assistant Executive Engineer, Northeast-1 Division.

The BWSSB is willing to offer this treated water at Rs 360 per tanker, if the dhobi ghat is within a five-kilometre radius. However, since this ghat is about seven kilometres away, they will have to make their own arrangements for water from the STP, should they take up the offer.

At the Rajajinagar dhobi ghat, where three out of four borewells have dried up, the board is offering tertiary treated water from either the Nayandahalli or the Cubbon Park STPs at Rs 15 per kilolitre.

Mahesh, chief secretary, Rajajinagar Washermen's Association, said the workers at the ghat are not interested in the offer since they think the water will leave a foul smell on the clothes. “This is not ideal for washing,” he said, adding that digging another borewell is the only option, though depleting groundwater remains an issue.