Belagavi city is in the grip of a severe drinking water shortage, thanks to poor monsoon rainfalls that has not helped to improve storage levels at the Rakaskopp dam, the main source of drinking water across Markandeya river situated about 18 km from the city.
The storage could be the lowest since the past 33 years, Karnataka Urban Water Supply & Drainage Board Executive Engineer Prasanna Murthy said here on Tuesday. However, he was verifying records of storage levels.
He said only six pumpsets were operating, even as the storage level was fast depleting and installation of pumpsets at lower levels was becoming problematic due to the presence of silt.
The existing water might last for only for four more days unless there were good rainfalls to improve inflows and storage level at the dam immediately.
The water level at the dam today was 2,442.10 ft (2468.80 ft on this day of 2015) as against the full reservoir level of 2,475.00 ft. The rainfall in the catchment areas of the dam had been much less than expected, eventually leading to depletion of the water level at the dam.
Meanwhile, fresh rainfalls of low to medium intensity lashed Belagavi city and surrounding areas, including near Rakaskopp, since afternoon.
