Drought likely to force 110 villages to wait longer for Cauvery water

The city’s 110 villages will have to continue their long wait for Cauvery water, thanks to the ongoing drought situation gripping the state. The Cauvery Stage V project, which aims to bring an additional 775 MLD water to the city, has been delayed by over a year after the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) hit multiple roadblocks.

With the board expecting to complete the project by January 2024, sources admitted that poor monsoon is playing spoilsport and is likely to push water supply to the area beyond the next monsoon season.

Although senior BWSSB officials said they would wait and watch how the rain situation would play out, board sources told DH that serving water to the 110 villages is getting increasingly difficult as scheduled in January 2024, especially if the drought situation continues.

“Since the state is heading towards a severe drought, in a few months, it may be difficult to ensure that Bengaluru continues to get 1,450 million litres per day (MLD) that is being supplied now. When such is the situation, we doubt if the additional 775 MLD will be provided,” a senior BWSSB official said.

Anticipating the severe water crises in the city, the BWSSB recently wrote to the Cauvery Neeravari Nigama Limited with a request to reserve at least 1.6 TMC of water every month for the city’s needs. The letter also mentioned that an additional 8.82 TMC water may be required to serve the 110 villages from January 2024.

While residents of these villages are managing their water needs with a combination of borewells and water tankers, depleting water levels has been the chief source of concern for them.

“Over the last two years, there have been good rains, and this helped us. This year, the situation is bad since many borewells have dried up and private tankers also refuse to serve. If the BWSSB had stuck to the deadline and provided water supply, we would not have to face such a dire situation,” said Abhay K, a resident of Mahadevapura.

A resident of Horamavu said many in their locality have already paid for the BWSSB Cauvery connection and have been waiting for two years.

“They asked us to get the connections even before they could supply water. We agreed. The roads were in a poor state for nearly two years owing to the pipeline laying works. We endured it hoping to receive Cauvery water. But, the BWSSB has been dragging its feet,” he said.

BWSSB officials blamed the delay on the pandemic and a few administrative issues. “The pandemic resulted in a labour crunch and lack of industrial oxygen to continue work. Also, we had to wait for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to complete a few works,” a senior BWSSB official said.