Vijayapura reeling under water crisis; homes to get supply once a week

 With water bodies going dry, Vijayapura is facing a severe scarcity of drinking water.
Water level at Bhutnal lake has hit rock bottom   | Express
Water level at Bhutnal lake has hit rock bottom | Express

VIJAYAPURA: With water bodies going dry, Vijayapura is facing a severe scarcity of drinking water. The Water Board has decided to supply water just once in a week from Wednesday, across 13 of the 35 wards in the city. The drought and soaring temperatures have dried up many water bodies across the region. Even Bhutan lake has almost dried up, with hardly 1.6 feet of water remaining. Water Board officials found that the lake is not fit to supply drinking water, as even after purifying it, there are contaminations.

Authorities supply drinking water to over 50,000 families living in the 35 wards, whereas 11 wards have a 24x7 drinking water connection. Since Tuesday, authorities have stopped using drinking water from the lake after they received a report that the water is polluted. It was after this the authorities decided to supply drinking water once in a week. 

With water level at Almatti Dam depleting due to paucity of rain, 13 wards are getting drinking water once in a week and 11 wards on alternate days. Speaking to TNIE, Ashok B M, executive engineer of the Water Board, said, “At present, the only source for drinking water is Almatti Dam. Earlier, we used to get 8 MLD of water from Bhutanl lake, but the little remaining water in the lake is contaminated. To maintain a balance, we have changed the drinking water schedule for 24 wards, with the remaining 12 wards getting 24x7 water supply.”

5 days till water runs out at Baje dam
Udupi: The water storage at Baje dam may last for just five more days as it is evaporating fast. Udupi CMC is contemplating to bring down the water supply quantity to 3 MLD from the present 5 MLD, sources said. Sources in CMC said that in order to ensure that water is supplied till it rains, the administrators are planning to decrease the hours of pumping of water from 8 hours to 5 hours.  

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