Date:10/05/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/05/10/stories/2004051008680300.htm

Karnataka - Bijapur

Water crisis may soon end in Bijapur

By Our Staff Correspondent

Welders work on the water storage tank in Bijapur, which is likely to be commissioned next week.

BIJAPUR, MAY 9. The water crisis plaguing the city is likely to be mitigated as the second storage tank being built at the Jalanagar water distribution centre here is scheduled to be commissioned some time next week.

The 12 lakh gallon capacity tank is almost ready. The erection of the inlet and outlet pipelines has been completed and the plastering of the tank is in the final stages.

The Executive Engineer, Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board, A.C. Chamaraje Gowda, told The Hindu that if everything went according to the Board's plan, the tank would be put to use from May 15.

With this, the gross storage capacity of water would increase to 24 lakh gallon, he added. Owing to the lack of adequate storage facility, the pumping of water from the Krishna had been restricted to five or six hours a day, he said.

In fact, the storage tank being built at an estimated cost of Rs. 1 crore should have been commissioned last year. But owing to the delay on the part of the city municipal council in providing the second instalment to the Board, which oversees the construction, there was a delay in completing work on the tank.

So far, the municipality has paid the Board Rs. 80 lakh. However, according to Mr. Gowda, the arrears will not come in the way of commissioning the tank. Until now, the municipality, which is responsible for water distribution, used to supply water once in five days. Further, fluctuations in power supply to the pump house located at Kolhar village on the banks of the Krishna, aggravated the water crisis. As a culmination of all these factors, people used to get water once in a week or some time once in eight or nine days. The Buthanl Tank located on the outskirts of the city, from where water was pumped to around 20 per cent of the city area, has gone dry owing to lakh of rainfall. His has placed additional burden on the Kolhar pump house.

However, the President of the municipality, Gajanan Choudhary, is optimistic that the water supply will improve once the tank is commissioned.

He told The Hindu that water would be supplied once in four days from next week. The frequency could further be increased once when the water distribution re-modelling project costing Rs. 21 crore would be implemented, he added.

Besides, 10 lakh gallons of water was being supplied from water sources within the city, Mr. Choudhary said.

The municipality had been maintaining 452 borewells, of which 160 had been fixed with motor pumps. Apart from this, 12 open wells in the city had been deepened, he said and added that they were yielding good quantity water.