The city is heading towards a major water crisis as water storage across two vented dams, one at Thumbe and another at Shamboor, across the Netravathi will not last long for more than a fortnight to meet both drinking and industrial needs.
Mayor Harinath told presspersons at Thumbe on Saturday that the storage in both the dams would be enough for supply for the next 18 days. But, officials of the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) privately concede that even after pumping water on alternate days, the storage would be enough for supplying to only another 10 or 12 days.
Water level at Thumbe Dam on Saturday stood at 7.9 ft against the maximum of 13 ft. The level at AMR Hydro Power Project’s dam (a private one) at Shambhoor, about 8 km away on the upstream of Thumbe Dam, stood at 12.89 metres against the maximum level of 18.9 metres.
With zero inflow in the river the only solution would be to save the supplied water and reduce consumption and stop wastage.
“We will have to depend on rain. Let us hope it will rain within a fortnight,” said the Mayor.
Though the Netravathi has two hydel power project vented dams near Gundia, on the upstream of the Shambhoor Dam, releasing its storage would be of no use as their water would not reach either Shamboor or Thumbe as the river has dried up, said officials.
Kumaradhara, a tributary of the Netravathi, has three vented dams on the upstream of Shambhoor. They are at Uppinangady, Neerakatte and at Hosmatha, near Kadaba. The dam at Uppinangady supplied drinking water to Puttur town and hence its storage cannot be let out. There is no storage in Neerakatte Dam. Though the dam at Hosmatha has some storage, its release would not be of much help, the corporation officials said.
At the same time, farmers also lift water from the Netravathi and its tributaries mainly to irrigate arecanut plantations.
Mangaluru will benefit only if it rained heavily for at least five or six times in the foothills of the Western Ghats as it would help resume the inflow into the river and its tributaries.
