BENGALURU: To cater to the increased demand for water due to heat conditions and the need for extra hygiene due to the COVID-19 surge in the city, the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has broken all its records on supplying Cauvery water to the city. Beginning Tuesday (April 6), a quantum of 1468 to 1475 Million Litres Per day of water was being pumped.
Speaking to TNIE, BWSSB Chief Engineer, Cauvery, S V Ramesh, said, "The heat is more intense than previous years and there is a sudden surge in demand due to the COVID spike too as people take additional baths as well as regularly cleanse hands. Hence,we decided to operationalise our sixth pump."
The BWSSB was pumping water to the tune of 1140 to1142 MLD from the Thoraikadanahalli reservoir until last week. Water is being despatched from a distance of over 90 km from Mandya district to the City. The highest ever quantity of water sent to the City in the past was 1452 MLD.
"It is a big challenge and risk that we have taken to boost the water supply. Only five of our pumps were used all along. The water is being sent wherever our water network is there in the 110 villages which were added to form BBMP," he said. The water was also being sent to some areas in the City where the demand was high, Ramesh added.
The design of the pumps was such that an additional 10% of water could be pumped. "We are now pumping only 16 to 18 hours to supply this quantum-like a trial run. After some time, we will be pumping 24 hours and this will boost water supply by another 10 to 15 MLD. That would be sustained in April and May," the Chief Engineer said.
Chairman Jayaram said that the interesting aspect was that the existing infrastructure itself had been fully exploited to create the extra water supply.
Hemanth Kumar, Executive Engineer, Cauvery, said this was being done under the BWSSB Stage IV Phase-II Scheme. "We had five pumps sending water from TK Halli to Harohalli and Tataguni and the City with five of them as standby to be utilised during emergencies. We have used one of the stand by pumps now," he said.
There were demands from K R Puram and Yelahanka for additional water and that has been catered to now, the Engineer said.