Water will be released from the Bhadra reservoir from March 20 to meet the drinking water needs of people along the Tungabhadra river.
Around 400 human habitations in Shivamogga, Davangere, Chitradurga, Ballari, Gadag and Haveri districts are dependent on the Bhadra reservoir for their drinking water needs during summer.
Owing to drought in the region for the second consecutive year, the water level in the Tungabhadra has declined, resulting in scarcity of drinking water in Ballari, Gadag and Haveri districts. A meeting of senior officials of Revenue, Water Resources, Rural Development, and Panchayat Raj departments was convened in Bengaluru on March 17 to discuss measures to be taken to address the drinking water problem, in which Speaker of the Legislative Assembly K.B. Koliwad and Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj H.K. Patil participated.
In the meeting, it was decided to release 1.7 tmcft water from the Bhadra reservoir into the Tungabhadra river to tackle the drinking water crisis. H.S. Sundaresh, chairman of the Bhadra Command Area Development Authority who had participated in the meeting, told The Hindu that at present, the Bhadra reservoir has 23 tmcft of water, including 14 tmcft of dead storage.
He said that 5.5 tmcft water had been reserved for plantation crops in the command area of the reservoir spread over Chikkamagalur, Davangere and Shivamogga districts, and 3.5 tmcft for drinking purpose. In wake of acute shortage of drinking water in the Tungabhadra river basin, 1.70 tmcft of water, of the 3.50 tmcft reserved for drinking purpose, would be released from the reservoir into the river for 10 days from March 20.
