This story is from August 6, 2018

Bengaluru’s treated water wrecks farmers in Kolar

Bengaluru’s treated water wrecks farmers in Kolar
KOLAR: R Murugesh, 39, a farmer, remembers being a happy man on June 2 this year. He had joined hundreds of his colleagues who travelled from different parts of Kolar district at Lakshmisagar lake. The area wore a festive look and the farmers were thrilled as they waited for water from the Koramangala-Challagahtta Valley (KC Valley) project to flow into the tank. The initiative promised to fill 121 tanks — water bodies that had never been filled in a decade — in the district with treated water from Bengaluru.

Two months on, things have changed for the worse. When TOI met with Murugesh in his fields in Narasapura, located downstream from Lakshmisagara lake, he appeared irritable. His crop of radish, spread over an acre, was ready for harvest, but Murugesh wasn’t happy. He showed why when he pulled one of the roots up and broke it in half. It was rotting from the inside. An adjacent field of carrots was rotting too.
“It happened in the third week of July when the authorities increased supply of water under the KC Valley project,” Murugesh said. “Narasapura lake overflowed and water entered our fields. Initially, we thought it would help increase the yield, but we soon realised the water was filthy and the plants began rotting. Then water in the Lakshmisagara lake began frothing. My family and I have lost more than Rs 5 lakh which we had invested in these crops and now we are worried about what the polluted water will do to the fertility of the land.”
Sheep fall sick
Murugesh’s case is only an example. Many villagers around Lakshmisagara, Udupanahalli, Jodi Krishnapura and Narasapura lakes, the four water bodies that received water from the KC Valley project, say the treated water is toxic.
At Lakshmisagar and Udupanahalli, some villagers revealed their sheep fell ill after drinking water from the lakes. “In the absence of a river source, we are entirely dependent on lakes and borewells,” said Lakshmi N, another farmer. “Now we are apprehensive about the quality of water from the lake. Local politicians are aware of these problems but they keep defending the project.”

The Narasapura gram panchayat has already warned people not to ingest lake water after lab reports confirmed it is not fit for consumption.
Controversial project
The KC Valley project, which was floated to improve ground waterlevels in Kolar by filling tanks, was dogged by controversy from inception. In 2015, a year before the project was launched, IISc experts, who had studied the projects reports, had raised doubts about the process of treating sewage water. A number of organisations, including the Shashvatha Neeravari Horata Samithi, had opposed the project claiming that the arsenic content in poorly treated sewage water would adversely affect the health of people and cattle. But the government was unmindful of their concerns, they alleged.
R Anjaneya Reddy, president, Shashvatha Neeravari Horata Samithi, said it is an irony that the KC Valley project — the first major irrigation project in Kolar district since Independence — is turning out to be a disaster.
“We are not against the project,” Reddy said. “We only want the authorities to conduct tertiary treatment of water to cut down risk of contamination. Authorities claim they are applying secondary treatment. Given the incidents of froth and the effect the water has had on cattle and plants, we feel that even primary treatment was not done properly.”
Reddy said groundwaterin the district, which had fallen to 1200ft, is already contaminated and the project in its present form will only spell disaster.
“We will not allow water to enter Kolar unless it undergoes tertiary treatment,” said V Puttaraju, a farmer-activist. “There should be a monitoring committee to check the quality of water. Agencies such as BWSSB (which treats the water), minor irrigation department (in charge of supply), KSPCB and Central Ground Water Board (both monitoring agencies), should own responsibility and work together for the good of the people. More importantly, authorities should show the same enthusiasm they did in laying the pipeline, to desilt and rejuvenate lakes and canals in the Kolar.”
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