Despite the release of water to the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) from the Hemavati, parts of Mysore continue to face water scarcity. Areas such as T.K. Layout, Saraswatipuram, parts of Sharada Devi Nagar, Vontikoppal and Gokulam are among those that have gone without water.
Hard to come by
Badrinath, a resident of Gokulam, complained that water had not been supplied to his area in the last three weeks. He was forced to depend on the borewell installed by neighbours, and travel to his sister’s house in another part of the city for bath, he said.
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With heavy demand from the public, private water suppliers have hiked their prices. People are charged between Rs. 800 and Rs. 1,000 for a tanker of 8,000 litres to 10,000 litres capacity.
With most houses unable to store more than 1,000 litres of water, and those with sumps able to store only around 4,000 litres, citizens have come together to share a tanker of water.
Mohan of Gayatripuram said each household shells out about Rs. 100 to Rs. 150 towards the tanker. Tankers run by the Mysore City Corporation and Vani Vilas Waterworks (VVWW) were free, but they came with a long waiting period, he added.
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Situation at KRS
Meanwhile, the water-level at KRS rose by nearly two feet; it stood at 66 ft against the full reservoir level of 124.8 ft on Wednesday at 6 a.m. Inflow was 3,336 cusecs.
The authorities are hopeful that the situation would be in control for around 15 days. M.K. Somashekar, Krishnaraja MLA, and a team of officials from VVWW visited KRS on Wednesday to take stock of the situation at the reservoir.
VVWW executive engineer Subramanya said water could be pumped for about a week or 10 days as the dam had been replenished by water from the Hemavati reservoir and the second pump at the Hongalli pumping station was now functional.
The water situation in Mysore would improve, but water would still be supplied on alternate days, he added.
Mr. Somashekar said Mysore was receiving about 150 mld of water against its daily requirement of 200 mld. More than 30 tankers had been pressed into service even as borewells were being replenished. There was no problem in parts of south Mysore, which were receiving water from the Kabini, he added.