The Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) will decide next week on whether drinking water should be supplied to the city on alternate days.
Now, most parts of the city are getting water daily, but some pockets are either not getting water or suffering from water shortage because of low pressure.
According to the CMC, two houses in Kolambe and 18 houses in Rajeev Nagar, are not getting water. The CMC is supplying water to these places by water tankers every day. The areas suffering from low water pressure are in Palekatte, 17 houses in Dugulipadavu and four houses in Hanuman Nagar in Ajjarkad.
Srikanth Rao, CMC Commissioner, told The Hindu that more than the water shortage, there was some distribution problem resulting in low water pressure in some areas. “We are trying to rectify the situation in areas suffering from water scarcity, and areas where there is low water pressure,” he said.
The water to Udupi city is supplied from two dams built across Swarna at Baje and Shiroor. If the CMC continued to supply water at the present rate for about eight hours a day, the present water stock in these dams is expected to last till May 15. “If there is one good rain of four inches between March 15 and April 15 in the catchment area, there will be no water problem. We will decide on whether we should supply water on alternate days in the first week of March,” Mr. Rao said.
To avoid the problem of water shortage, the CMC has urged the district administration to issue a notification banning the use of water by farmers living on the banks of Swarna.
M.T. Reju, Deputy Commissioner, said that a notification would be issued progressively restricting the water supply in March, April and May. “Priority will be given to providing drinking water, while the interests of the farmers will also be kept in mind,” he said.
Besides Udupi, the water from the dams is also supplied to seven neighbouring villages such as Bommarbettu, Anjar, Badagabettu, Alevoor, Kadekar and Ambalpady. Though there is a dedicated power supply line to the water pumping station at Baje, disruption in power supply in peak summer could also affect water distribution.
