BENGALURU: Residents in the city have been crying about a shortage of water this year. Last year, when residents were anxious about water shortage and their borewells were drying up,the city’s corporation Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had opted to dig up more borewells to solve the problem.
This year,however, residents have been forced to buy water from private tankers to get through summer.
Lingarajapuram resident Sreejani Bhat recalled her plight. “I was about to take a shower and then realised that we are out of water. I had to walk to a grocery store and buy bottles of drinking water so I could take a bath before heading for work,” she said.
A resident from Kumara Park West, Chitra Venkatesh, said the water quantity had reduced and two apartments in the area she lived in had started buying water from private tankers. Another resident, Priya Kumari, said, “In Bellandur, private tankers have hiked their prices from `50-`100 more than the usual rate for 600 litre and a 1,200 litre water tanker.”
BWSSB chairman Tushar Girinath said they have provided 68 water tankers but revealed that there is no particular plan to tackle water shortage. “Wherever we have failed to provide water, there are water tankers for backup. If there is a temporary breakdown, such as the pumping machine was affected three times last month and a transformer got burnt, etc, we will rectify that. When the pump gets affected, 500-600 MLD does not get pumped and that affects the pattern. The last disruption was on February 16. It is expected to return to normalcy by March 3-4,” he said.
BBMP commissioner N Manjuntha Prasad was unavailable for comment.