Contingency measures to ensure drinking water supply to the parched areas in the district is likely to be hit owing to non-installation of dedicated transformers to the water projects in the district.
The district has been declared drought hit for the second consecutive year and a majority of the water bodies have gone dry. As over 85 villages have been facing water shortage, the Mandya district administration has launched various measures—including installation of dedicated transformers to the water projects— to address the crisis. However, these water projects have been affected owing to shortage of transformers.
There are 3,912 multi-village water and piped water projects spread across the seven taluks in the district. Of them, only 2,146 projects are installed with dedicated transformers and the remaining 1,766 have been depending on the existing transformers installed in nearby areas for streetlights and domestic connections, a senior official at the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation told The Hindu here on Friday. “We need at least Rs. 52.24 crore to procure and install dedicated transformers to all the water projects,” he said. The Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation has already submitted a proposal in this regard to the Zilla Panchayat, a senior CESC official said.
According to Chandrahas, Executive Engineer (in-charge), Zilla Panchayat, the civic body has submitted a Rs. 7.89 crore proposal to the State government to install transformers and electrical cables to the water projects. The CESC is taking steps to supply power to the water projects through the existing transformers. But, chances of tripping during overloads are high. Also, water cannot be supplied during load shedding and because of low voltage. Hence, every project needs dedicated transformers, another senior Zilla Panchayat official told The Hindu.
CESC has been supplying power to
the water projects using the existing transformers
