Karnataka’s highly ambitious Yettinahole Integrated Drinking Water Supply Project was inaugurated on September 6. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, initiated Stage 1 of the project.
The water lifting process began at the pumping station located at Doddanagara village in Sakleshpur taluk.
Yettinahole Integrated Drinking Water Supply Project, was launched while the Congress government was in power in 2014. It proposes to ease the water woes of nearly 75 lakh people in drought-prone Kolar, Chickballapur, Ramanagara, Tumakuru, Bengaluru Rural, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan districts.
The project proposes to lift 24.01 tmcft of water from Yettinahole, a west-flowing stream, near Sakleshpur in Hassan district and transport it through a hardened steel pipeline and open canal spanning a distance of 274 km. Water from Kadumanehole, Kerihole, and Hongada Halla in the Western Ghats will also be lifted.
It will be supplied to meet the drinking water requirements of people in districts where groundwater levels are low. The government has said that the whole project is estimated to cost ₹23,251.66 crore.
With Stage 1 inaugurated, the government hopes to complete the project by March 31st, 2027. The project has been facing constant backlash from environmentalists and people from Coastal and Malnad Karnataka. They believe that it will not help solve the drinking water scarcity.
Experts also say this may cause destruction of the eco-sensitive Western Ghats.
Script and production: Ravichandran N.
Voiceover: Nalme Nachiyar
Published - September 06, 2024 06:58 pm IST
