Water crisis haunts fishermen going on deep-sea fishing

The delayed monsoon and severe water crisis has forced the temple city to experience its worst drought situation ever.

With no water available in most of the wells, people have been trying to remove silt from their wells in many places in Udupi. In some cases, people were able to draw water after removing the silt.

Fishermen in Malpe harbour were also seen struggling as they need good storage of water in their fishing boats in order to venture into week-long deep-sea fishing.

Sources said that water scarcity problem began to haunt the fishing activities in Malpe harbour about a month ago. Now, workers of fishing boats are literally struggling to source water.

A mechanised fishing boat that ventures into 10 to 12 days of deep-sea fishing expedition requires about 6,000 liters of water. Seven to eight fishermen who will be on board during the deep-sea fishing use this water for their daily chores, including cooking, bathing and drinking purposes. While smaller fishing boats require at least 3,000 liters of water during their deep-sea fishing. Some private tanker owners have been supplying water to the fishing boats. However, situation may worsen if the region fails to get rain within a week.

Residents in Kathyayini Nagar in the city are blaming the civic authorities for the water shortage. They said that an open well in their area was the source of water for about 25 households. However, due to apathy, silt has accumalated in the well and the CMC neglected the demand of the local residents to remove the silt.