Private borewells to be taken over to address water shortage

District administration identifies many such borewells and holds talks with owners

October 24, 2016 10:47 pm | Updated 10:47 pm IST - Mysuru:

relief measures:  The district administration will lay pipelines from private borewells to the nearest villages to tackle water crisis in Mysuru.

relief measures: The district administration will lay pipelines from private borewells to the nearest villages to tackle water crisis in Mysuru.

The district administration has decided to commandeer private borewells to supply drinking water to villages facing acute shortage in the district.

D. Randeep, Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru district, and Shivashankar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the zilla panchayat, told The Hindu here on Monday that district was reeling under severe drought and most of the natural resources, including rivers, tanks and borewells, had gone dry with the groundwater depleting. Many borewells have become defunct owing to groundwater depletion, which was the main cause of concern, they said. The district administration has geared up to face any eventuality in the district owing to drought and failure of rain, they said.

The district administration has identified many private borewells, which are yielding water, and has already held talks with a few owners. A certain amount will be paid to owners of the private borewells and the water will be supplied to nearby villages. Pipeline from the private borewells to the nearest villages will be laid and the district administration will bear the cost of this, Mr. Randeep said.

Mr. Shivashankar said many borewells dug by the government institutions had become defunct and their repair may not be of use as groundwater has depleted. He said many villages in Hampapura hobli in H.D. Kote, Kavalande hobli in Nanjangud and Bilikere hobli in Hunsuru were already facing drinking water problem. The gram panchayat officials have been instructed to provide water through tankers if the situation warranted, he said.

Fodder banks

The CEO further said that the ZP has decided to set up fodder banks in at least 16 places across the district and based on the gravity of the situation in the next two weeks, it will decide on setting up of “goshalas” (cow shelter). Fodder would be purchased and sold to farmers at subsidised rates, he said. If fodder is purchased at Rs. 6000 per tonne, it will be distributed to farmers at Rs. 3,000 per tonne, he said and added that there was no provision to give cash to farmers to buy fodder. He said the ZP was also planning to build cement water tanks for livestock across the district.

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