Activists in Kolar threaten to send tankers with frothing water to MLAs

KOLAR/BENGALURU: A day after Bengaluru’s “treated sewage water” spewed froth in a Kolar village, members of an action committee seeking water to the district have threatened to make local legislators get a first-hand feel of the foam. The threat came even as the authorities stopped releasing the “treated sewage water”, and inlets from pipelines to Kolar tanks were blocked.
On Thursday, committee convener Kurubarapet Venkatesh told TOI that they have decided to send one tanker each of froth-filled water to the houses of legislators of Kolar district. The district has eight assembly segments — Sidlaghatta, Chintamani, Srinivaspura, Mulbagal, Kolar Gold Fields, Bangarpet, Kolar and Malur.
On Wednesday, the muchpublicized Rs 1,300-crore Koramangala-Challaghatta Valley project, which aims to fill tanks in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts with treated sewage water from Bengaluru, ran into rough weather after froth started gushing from the canal linked to Lakshmisagara tank in Kolar, leaving villagers irritated.
“Legislators of Kolar district should openly oppose the project that has brought frothfilled water into our tanks. Otherwise, the same water will be collected in tankers and delivered to their houses,” Venkatesh said.
“Though we have petitioned the government, seeking tertiary treatment of sewage water before releasing it into Kolar’s tanks, neither did authorities in the minor irrigation department and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board heed us, nor did the legislators,” he added.
In the meantime, the high court has listed a related PIL filed by Anjaneya Reddy to Monday for hearing.
The petitioner said though they had expressed apprehensions before elected representatives well before the project commenced, they fell on deaf ears. “In many foreign countries, treated water is used for industrial purposes, secondary use for humans or for agriculture. But in this case, the water is being used to fill tanks to rejuvenate the water table, which may pollute the existing underground water. We will be bringing all these matters before the high court,” Reddy added.