Go for drinking water rationing if required, Dinesh Gundu Rao tells MCC officials
Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada in-charge Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Saturday asked officials to go for rationing of drinking water if required.
Chairing a meeting of officials to review preparedness to face the water scarcity in the district, Rao said: “You all have expressed hope of meeting the drinking water needs in the urban and rural areas of the district for the next three months. We will all be busy with (Lok Sabha) elections. You should respond in the right way to water supply problems. There should not be any failure (on the part of district administration) in supplying water. The failure can be blown up during the election campaign,” he said and added: “Go for rationing if need be and do not allow unnecessary wastage of water.”
Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner C.L. Anand told the meeting that the present water level at the Thumbe vented dam will meet the drinking water requirements for the next 45 days. The 164 million litres of water per day (MLD) drawn from the dam met the drinking water requirements of Mangaluru City, Ullal City Municipal Council limits, Mulky Town Panchayat, and en route gram panchayats.
Representatives of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited and Mangalore Special Economic Zone Ltd. said they have been drawing the minimum quantity of water from the vented dam of AMR Power Pvt. Ltd. on upstream of Thumbe vented dam to meet their requirements. While MRPL was drawing six million gallons per day, MSEZ was drawing eight million gallons per day.
MRPL and MSEZL officials said in the last 15 years, the district administration, on three occasions, restricted water supply to the companies from the AMR dam. While informing MRPL and MSEZ about likely restrictions this time too and asking them to cooperate with the district administration, the Minister directed district officials to give prior intimation about the restrictions if any.
The district officials informed that water at the Harekala-Adyar vented dam was at a height of two metres. Water was also available at the Biliyoor vented dam in Belthangady. Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer K. Anandh said 1.5 metres of water was available at the Maravoor vented dam, which was serving the drinking water needs of Bajpe, Malavoor, Permude, Moodushedde, Yekkar, Bala, Soorinje, and Jokatte gram panchayats.
Additional Deputy Commissioner G. Santosh Kumar said bids have been floated to supply water to the problematic areas in tankers. All borewells in the city and rural areas have been mapped and readied for use. Another official said a fodder bank has been set up in 20 goshalas and the available fodder will meet the requirement of 2.5 lakh livestock for 17 weeks.