Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) will increase the drinking water storage in its Thumbe vented dam from 5 m to 6 m from Thursday night to meet the summer demand, said Mayor Kavita Sanil on Wednesday.
She told reporters that the corporation had stored water up to a height of 5 m for the summer of 2017. The level has been maintained since last year’s rains stopped. By increasing the storage level by 1 m, there will be 10.83 MCM (million cubic metres) of water in the dam. This will be enough for daily supply for 60 days by pumping 160 MLD (million litres a day). The inflow to the Netravathi is currently between 25 and 30 cumecs.
Water will be stored up to 6 m height for the first time since the new dam was built at Thumbe across the Netravathi. The dam’s maximum storage height is 7 m.
Compensation
The Mayor said that when the storage level is increased by 1 m, private properties of 37 persons to an extent of 50.88 acres in three villages — B. Muda, Sajipa Munnur, and Pane Mangaluru — will be submerged under water. Of them, 16 are in B. Muda village, 19 in Sajipa Munnur, and two in Pane Mangaluru. They will be paid an annual ground rent of ₹19 lakh for this. The civic body will write to the government to sanction permanent compensation for these private property owners, and it is estimated to require between ₹37 crore to ₹40 crore, she said.
A water supply engineer working with the corporation said that when water is stored up to a height of 7 m, 14.78 MCM of water can be stored in the dam.
The Mayor said that as water has been stored in a private dam of AMR Power Pvt. Ltd. at Shamboor, upstream of Thumbe, it could be released to Thumbe dam any time if there is zero inflow to the river. The distance between the two dams is about 7 km.
