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Drought makes quiet entry as Karnataka battles virus

Last Updated 01 April 2020, 19:54 IST

COVID-19 on one hand, Karnataka seems poised to face another crisis that comes with a harsh summer: drought and the resultant shortage of drinking water.

Muted by the noise over COVID-19 is the fact that nine districts — Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Kolar, Chikballapur, Tumakuru, Ramanagara, Chitradurga, Davangere and Haveri — have slipped into a drinking water problem.

“The summer has started and I don’t know what to do because 70% of the borewells here have dried up,” Devanahalli legislator Nisarga Narayanaswamy told DH. Devanahalli, a drought-prone region, is some 40 km from Bengaluru.

“I have asked the local engineer to drill new borewells, but he says all the drillers have gone (due to the lockdown). Using water tankers is ruled out; there’s hardly any water for the tankers to take,” he said, pointing out that the government should start focussing on the drinking water issue besides combating COVID-19.

On Wednesday, Development Commissioner Vandita Sharma took stock of the situation with senior officials. “This year is better than last year because of good rains, and surface water is still there to feed urban areas. But in rural areas, the problem is rearing its head because the borewells are failing,” Rural Development & Panchayat Raj principal secretary L K Atheeq said.

In October 2019, the government declared 49 taluks across 18 districts as drought-hit. “In these 49 taluks, the chief executive officers of zilla panchayats have been asked to prepare contingency action plans and take up drilling of borewells, if necessary, for which Rs 1 crore per taluk is allocated,” Atheeq said. “For the remaining 127 taluks where drought has not been declared, there’s an allocation of Rs 25 lakh.”

It was decided in the meeting to ask the Finance department to release Rs 87 crore for the contingency plan to tackle drinking water problems.

“Also, the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) money can be used for tanker water supply and borewells only in places where drought has been declared. In all other places, the revenue department will need Rs 50 crore. The Finance department has been asked to release this, too,” Atheeq said.

Presently, the government has roped in 65 tankers to supply water to 59 villages and 237 private borewells for 215 villages. Last year, over 2,000 tankers and over 1,800 private borewells were hired to supply water to 2,999 villages.

On average, the government spent about Rs 5 lakh per day on water supply through tankers. Also, it takes about Rs 9 lakh to drill a successful borewell.

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(Published 01 April 2020, 19:13 IST)

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