Even as the city is reeling under the grip of baking summer heat with the temperature hovering above 35 degress Celsius, some residential localities here have started facing water crisis as expected since over a week despite the quantum of daily pumping remaining the same.
This has forced the Vani Vilas Water Works (VVWW), an arm of the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board, which distributes drinking water on behalf of the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC), to ration water soon.
“It’s time we supply water on alternate days across the city. This measure is necessary to manage the situation till the monsoon since groundwater sources have completed dried up and storage in reservoirs have dipped further,” a VVWW official told The Hindu.
Localities sourcing water from the Kabini project have been hit with irregular supply since over a week. Even the duration of supply has been cut short and water pressure is deficient. Power “shutdown” at Kabini pumping stations has been cited as the reason for this erratic supply. “If pumps don’t function even for a day, the impact will be more, affecting supply for a couple of days,” said VVWW sources.
Tankers to have taps
Finding it tough to supply water in tankers to fill the storage sumps, VVWW has now decided to fix taps to tankers (about five to six) to help more people collect water in buckets or pots. “We cannot go on filling the sumps. It only serves a small number of the population. Moreover, we have limited number of tankers. If we fix taps, more people can collect water,” the sources added.
MCC has about 22 water tankers and each one of them has been making six to seven trips daily starting from 7 a.m. All of them have been pressed into service. This is an emergency arrangement to tackle water shortage and water cannot be supplied in tankers to the entire city, they argue.
GPS devices have been fixed in each tanker and their movements tracked by the VVWW head office in Yadavagiri here to prevent “mishandling.”
But, there have been complaints from locals that water tankers were not available when they needed the most but serve those enjoying some “clout.”
