The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Why are we denied Cauvery water? ask village residents

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 03, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Why are we denied Cauvery water? ask village residents

Bageshree S.

People living near Bommasandra Industrial Area say groundwater is polluted

Three studies have been done on the quality
of groundwater
Discharge of industrial effluents blamed for the situation

Bangalore: Residents of 19 villages around the Bommasandra Industrial Area here, numbering about 1.25 lakh, want a simple question answered: why are they denied Cauvery water when the industries, whose effluents they allege have polluted their groundwater and rendered then unfit for drinking, are being supplied Cauvery water by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB)?

Members of the Bangalore Urban Zilla Panchayat representing Hebbagodi, Bommasandra, Chandapura, Hennagara and Jigani have held around 10 rounds of meeting with various officials demanding that they be provided Cauvery water as the water they get from most borewells in the region is not potable.

So far, three independent studies have been conducted on the quality of groundwater in this region by the Mines and Geology Department, the Indian Institute of Science’s Centre for Sustainable Technologies and Bangalore University’s Department of Environmental Sciences. Though they do not state a specific link between industries in the region and pollution, they establish categorically that a majority of random water samples here are unfit for drinking. Many villagers are now forced to get water from sources far away or buy drinking water.

In the last round of talks with people’s representatives, the zilla panchayat officials and BWSSB, a decision had been taken to ask the BWSSB to draw up a proposal on the cost involved in providing Cauvery water to the villages.

But, there are already apprehensions that this may take years as a decision would have to be taken at the government level considering the huge costs involved. When one of the BWSSB officials suggested at the meeting that the demand might be met in Cauvery Phase IV in 2012, a livid G. Nagaraju from Chandrapura said that “all the villagers might be dead by then.”

Officials in BWSSB and zilla panchayat admit that making temporary arrangements like ferrying water by tankers will not solve the problem. With no surface water sources available in the region such as tanks and rivers, the only permanent alternative is Cauvery water.

Rajanna of Hebbagodi is contemplating approaching the court on the water crisis.

The issue of water contamination reached a flashpoint in the last Bangalore Urban Zilla Panchayat general body meeting, resulting in the zilla panchayat asking the authorities to stop supply of power to Biocon, a biotechnology major based in Bommasandra Industrial Area, and withdraw its industrial licence.

Denied

However, Biocon denied the allegations made by zilla panchayat members saying there was “no connection” between the water pollution in the area and the company as it is a “zero discharge facility.” The company, it said, was complying with the norms laid down by the pollution control board.

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