The Hindu : Karnataka News : Water scarcity looms over Gulbarga

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Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Water scarcity looms over Gulbarga

T.V. Sivanandan

Slump in water-level at Saradagi Barrage; water sought from Narayanpur Dam

DRYING UP: Depleting storage level at Saradgi Barrage across the Bhima is a cause for worry as it is the main source of drinking water to Gulbarga.

GULBARGA: Over five lakh people of Gulbarga are facing a threat of severe drinking water shortage following the steep fall in the levels at the Saradagi Barrage across the Bhima, which is the main source of drinking water to the city.

The Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board officials told The Hindu that the Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Ltd (KBNJL) officials at Alamatti and Narayanpur dams had been alerted about the situation and had been requested to release at least 60 million cubic feet of water from the Narayanpur Dam via Indi Branch Canal and release it into the Bhima to buffer the storage position in Saradagi Barrage to ensure regular supply of drinking water to the people of Gulbarga.

According to the reports available, the present storage of around 120 million gallons of water in the Saradgi Barrage may last for a week or 10 days with regulated supply. At present, the city is being provided drinking water on alternative days.

Animal Husbandry Minister Revu Naik Belamgi, who had faxed a letter to the KBJNL officials asking them to release the required water from the Narayanpur Dam immediately, said that “the situation is serious and the Government would do everything to ensure that the people of Gulbarga did not suffer because of the depletion of storage of water in Saradagi Barrage.”

Mr. Belamgi, who spoke to senior officials at KBJNL at Alamatti, said the Irrigation Consultative Committee meeting of the command area of the Upper Krishna Project (UKP) was scheduled to meet at Narayanpur in Surpur on Wednesday and a decision to release water to the Bhima through Indi Branch Canal would be taken at the meeting.

Even if KBJNL took a decision to release water from Wednesday, it would take at least one week to 10 days for the water to reach the Saradagi barrage.

The officials of the board said that usually in June or July there used to be some good rainfall in the catchment areas of the Bhima in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

It was normal for the region to have floods in the river resulting in the filling up of the reservoirs and barrages built across the Bhima River in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

However, lack of rainfall had caused the water-level to dwindle in most barrages and reservoirs across the Bhima. Information about the storage positions in the reservoirs and barrages across the border in Maharashtra was not available.

“Even if there is enough storage in the reservoirs and barrages in Maharashtra, seldom the authorities in Maharashtra have come to the help of the people of the State in solving the drinking water problems in the past,” the officials of the board said.

Although the water was available in abundance in the second source of the drinking water in Bennethora river this year, the board was not in a position to lift the water because laying of the new mild steel pipeline from Bennethora to Old Filter bed in Gulbarga was yet to begin and it would take at least one year to complete the project.

The steep fall in the groundwater level had reduced the yield in a majority of the borewells in the city. Despite such a serious situation developing, the surprising fact was that neither the district administration nor the district in-charge minister Lakshman Savadi had not felt it necessary so far to review the situation.

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