HC tells government not to pump treated water to Kolar

BENGALURU: The Karnataka high court on Tuesday passed an interim direction barring the state government from pumping treated water to Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts from the Koramangala Challaghatta Valley project. Water pumped to Kolar tanks through the project generated froth last week, raising the hackles of locals.
A division bench headed by chief justice Dinesh Maheshwari granted the government time to submit an affidavit on the quality of treated water.
“There is nothing wrong with the project,” justice Maheshwari observed while adjourning the hearing on a related PIL to August 1. “It is a welcome project as it serves several purposes. But it has to be done properly or it is can be disastrous.”
Earlier, the government’s advocate submitted that pumping operations under the project was stopped from July 13 this year after it was found that some quantity of untreated water had entered the canals due to heavy rains.
However, the court did not appreciate the argument and sought to know why officers did not anticipate such a thing happening. It termed the officers’ behavior as “very strange”.
The KSPCB counsel submitted that water samples collected from Lakshmisagar lake in Kolar revealed that the water quality was “unsatisfactory”. At this juncture, the government advocate submitted that the purpose of the project was to refill lakes to enable recharging of groundwater.
But the bench observed: “Now you are troubling Kolar people, after Bengaluru people. You cannot even segregate water for drinking purposes or agriculture purposes. If you undertake this kind of project, all the necessary procedures need to be followed. The water should not be polluted if it is fit for charging groundwater. Is water free from odour? Stop pumping of water.”
In his PIL, R Anjaneya Reddy, a resident of Chikkaballapur, has sought a direction to review the entire project and also stop implementation of the project till the environment impact assessment /social impact assessment is prepared by an authorized agency.
Reddy has claimed that pumping of untreated water would further aggravate the problem as it would contaminate already scant groundwater which is high in fluoride content.