The Hindu : Mysore heading for water crisis

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Mysore heading for water crisis

By Our Staff Correspondent

MYSORE, MARCH 22. The water crisis in Mysore and the depleting water level in the reservoirs set the tone for the World Water Day on Monday. The level at the Krishnaraja Sagar Reservoir, which meets the drinking water requirements of Mysore, Bangalore, Srirangapatana, Mandya and other towns, hovers at 72.92 feet and the inflow is 84 cusecs against an outflow of 916 cusecs. At this rate, the reservoir may hit dead storage level of 64 feet soon making it impossible for the authorities to pump water.

Similarly, the storage level at the Kabini and Harangi reservoirs is poor with the inflow at Harangi being a mere three cusecs which will be lost to evaporation. The inflow at Kabini was 72 cusecs.

As a result, the Kabini backwater area has become dry with even animals on the fringes of the forests dying of thirst.

However, the measures initiated to mitigate the problem smacks of ad hocism. It is certain that the district will face a severe water crisis and there is little that the authorities can do now, according to sources.

The Mysore Agenda Task Force came out with a series of measures to be implemented to offset the scarcity. This included plugging leakage in water pipes, utilising water from Krishnaraja Sagar only for drinking and creating awareness against wasting water.

But some of the major leaks, especially the ones near Metagalli, have not been plugged while it is suspected that the discharge from the reservoir is being used for irrigation in the upstream region.

Mysore city requires nearly 135 million litres of water a day to meet the needs of nearly 8.5 lakh people. But given the drop in the reservoir level, the authorities will be forced to draw water from the riverbed. The result is that the entire region will have to face an acute drinking water scarcity in the days to come.

The situation is not different in rural areas of Mysore and Chamarajanagar districts. There are 890 villages in the district which are receiving less than 40 litres of water per capita daily as against the minimum national norm of 55 litres of water per capita daily.

For a district endowed with adequate water sources, including Cauvery, Kabini and Lakshmantirtha, the scarcity is reckoned to be an outcome of resource mismanagement.

Though the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission was launched in Mysore almost five years ago, the district is lagging behind in its implementation.

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