Hopes of getting water go dry along with Baje dam

The town is in an alarming situation as it would be encountering acute shortage of water, what with the main reservoir of Baje having gone dry without a drop of water in the basin.

The water pumped from the huge pools in the riverbed is sufficient only for 15 days. District In-charge Minister Pramod Madhwaraj, who called for an emergency meeting to discuss the water issue on Friday, told DH that all measures would be taken to handle the emergency situation.

“There is no dearth of funds to offer the tanker water and take up dredging. However, if the City Municipality does not have sufficient funds, the deputy commissioner will allocate funds to ensure water supply to the people. The situation will be reviewed and action planned accordingly. The meeting will focus on all probabilities, however, rain will be the most effective solution to overcome the emergency,” he said.

The City Municipality has made all attempts to offer water every alternative day as the city limit is divided into two parts and water is supplied accordingly. CMC environment engineer Raghavendra said, “There is not a drop of water in the reservoir. However, water is procured by formation of huge ponds in riverbeds. There are nearly 6-7 huge ponds. The water is constantly pumped for some hours from one pond into another and passed through the distribution channel following purification.

In order to supply water for 1.5 hours every day, water has to be pumped for 8-9 hours. Efforts are being made in the direction to ensure at least some amount of water is supplied to each house. There are nearly 60,000 house that are using the water supply.”

The officer said that there are 6-8 open wells and 5-7 borewells which are owned by the government and used to supply tanker water. Everyday, there is a need for 80-90 tankers to supply water to areas where water is not supplied and also where water bodies have gone dry.

Tanker water is supplied at areas like Mission Compound, Ambalpadi, Bailur, Badagabettu, Marpalli railway station area, Chitpadi, Duglipadav, Indrali, Ananthnagar 1st and 2nd Stages and Hudco Colony, Vidyaratnanagar, Eshwaranagar, Saralabettu, Nehrunagar, Perampalli church area, Doddannagudde, Santhoshnagar, Subramanyanagar, Kodavur, Kalmadi and Gopalpura.

“The helpline introduced by the City Municipality receives many calls requesting for tanker water, and all attempts are made to address the grievances,” the officer said.