Council okays proposal on comprehensive water supply

The council of the Mangaluru City Corporation approved a comprehensive proposal on 24X7 water supply “Jalasiri” to be taken under second phase of the ADB-funded project.

The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) under Karnataka Integrated Urban Water Management Investment Programme (KIUWMIP) will implement the project at a cost of Rs 390 crore.

Speaking at the special council meeting of MCC, Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer said that the project aims to strengthen the distribution system to implement water supply round the clock. Under the second phase of the ADB-funded project, a sum of Rs 195 crore has been earmarked to lay UGD lines and Rs 218.50 crore for the water supply system. As the distribution system can not be strengthened with Rs 218.50 crore, it was decided to prepare an estimate for Rs 390 crore. The KUIDFC officials have informed the MCC that the remaining Rs 171 crore will be mobilised by raising the pending amount from other small cities and also from the state government.

The proposal on comprehensive water supply system has been prepared keeping in mind the estimated population of MCC, the Ullal CMC, the Mulki TMC and the en route villages in 2046.

Additional projects

“The MCC proposes to add 20 more water storage units, eight additional pump houses, and 18 MGD capacity filtration unit at Ramalkatte. It also plans to lay 1026-km length HDPE distribution lines, restore roads dug for utility shifting, install multijet water meter for every consumer, and computerise all filtration units and water storage units with SCADA technology. The contractor will be entrusted with O and M for the next eight years after the completion of the project,” said the Commissioner.

Further, the Commissioner said that as the filtration unit will come up at Ramalakatte, purified water will be supplied to Bendoor and Panamboor storage unit as well as. Even the en route villages that were drawing raw water from the 2MGD pipeline, will get purified water once the comprehensive project is implemented. As per the proposal, 60 wards will be divided into 48 zones to strengthen the distribution lines.

Mayor Bhaskar Moily said that the proposal will be ratified after including a few changes suggested by the corporators.

Corporators speak

Opposition leader in Council Premananda Shetty questioned the need to spend such a huge amount of money. “While implementing first phase of the ADB-funded project, it was promised to supply 24X7 water. However, the MCC could not implement it till date. What is the guarantee that 24X7 water will reach the all the households after the implementation of the project,” he asked.

He also sought details on operation and maintenance of the project. Even during monsoon, the MCC could not supply water to all its wards due to fault in the system, he said.

Corporator Radhakrishna said, “Owing to the faulty UGD system, thousands of wells were polluted in the MCC jurisdiction. As a result, the citizens had to depend on water supply from the MCC. There is a need to increase the sources of water.”

Corporator Roopa D Bangera said no efforts have been made to clean the water tanks. Muddy water is supplied to the citizens during monsoon.

The corporators also sought to know maintenance of the water supply system.