The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Close to the Cauvery, not a drop to drink

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Thursday, Jul 31, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Close to the Cauvery, not a drop to drink

Afshan Yasmeen

Most villagers around the T.K. Halli reservoir do not get the river water

There are 12 villages near the vicinity of
the reservoir
BWSSB plans to supply water to only
three of them

Bangalore: Every day, villagers around the Cauvery reservoir at Thorekadana (TK) Halli are acutely aware of the irony of their situation.

A vast body of water is in their vicinity but they do not get a drop from it. Nobody knows why.

Though there are a dozen villages deprived of the precious commodity, the Government has promised Cauvery water for only three of these. The others will have to make do with contaminated borewell water and an occasional supply of tanker water. L. Nagaraj, a resident of Halagur in Malavalli taluk, told The Hindu: “Though we live a few kilometres away from the main water lines that carry 870 million litres daily (MLD) of Cauvery water to Bangalore, we are not fortunate enough to taste it. Even the borewell water supply to our village is once in three or four days.”

T.K. Halli is home to the main reservoir that supplies Cauvery water to Bangalore. The deprived villagers live at Banasamudra, Netkal, D. Halasahalli, Dhanaguru, Basavanapura, Maragondanahalli, Gundapura, Dabbahalli, Agasanapura, Puradoddi and Jogipura, which are within 6 or 8 km from T.K. Halli.

Contaminated

To make matters worse, the groundwater at Jogipura and Agasanapura has been found to be contaminated by fluoride and nitrate compounds. “The zilla panchayat authorities have asked us to drink boiled water. But most of us cannot afford to do that. So we have requested water supply through tankers,” K.N. Umadevi, secretary of Jogipura Gram Panchayat, said.

P. Krishna and A.M. Nagendra Swamy, residents of Agasanapura, said the authorities supplied one tanker of water daily.

“This does not meet the needs of the residents of these two villages. Although we have urged the zilla panchayat to somehow get us water supplied from the T.K. Halli plant, it has not happened,” Mr. Krishna said. He said the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) had planned a small tank behind the T.K. Halli water treatment plant to supply water to Halagur, Banasamudra and Netkal. “We wonder why the officials have taken up only these three villages. If they had planned a bigger tank, all of us could have got Cauvery water,” he said.

Minister for BWSSB, Excise and IT-BT Katta Subramanya Naidu, who visited the T.K. Halli plant last week, said he would ask officials from the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board to look into the matter.

Mandya Deputy Commissioner Chakravarthy Mohan told The Hindu on Wednesday that officials from Mandya Zilla Panchayat were working on a permanent solution for water shortage in the district.

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