HUBBALLI: Feeling sorry for yourself that you get water once in five days? If it will make you feel better, people in the twin cities of Gadag and Betageri get water once a month. Somewhat like a salary.
Of course, some lucky localities do get water once in 25 days, but at the oddest of hours.
So life for the citizens of Gadag and Betageri revolves around the pot of water. Homemakers stock up using all possible vessles: buckets, pots, pitchers, barrels, even glasses and tumblers.
You won’t find a single plastic bottle in the street: people grab them to store water.
Hemalatha, a home-maker, says members of her family take turns fetching water, taking care not to spill a drop of it. “All our talk revolves around water these days,” she says.
Gadag resident Shivayogi H says water conservation plans are announced in all solemnity every summer, and forgotten the moment the monsoon sets in. “It is the same story year after year. Gadag has water problems even during the non-summer months,” he said.
The Krishna river lies about 60 km from the twin cities but the best-laid plans of the town elders have all come to nought.
The Hammigi reservoir was planned when the population of Gadag was less than one lakh. Today, the twin cities have a population of about two lakh.
The pipeline that carries water from the Hammigi reservoir to Gadag often springs leaks along the way and the 17 villages located along the line help themselves to the spill. The people of Gadag and Betageri are none too pleased by this theft of ‘their’ water, particularly by the people of Naragund town.
At least some of the leaks aren’t accidental, and the engineers of the Gadag municipality are kept busy plugging the leaks.
“The twin cities require about 25 million litres of drinking water per day (MLD). But they are getting just 10 MLD. Due to water pilferage, only about 6-7 MLD is reaching us,” said Mansoor Ali, commissioner of the Gadag-Betgeri City Municipal Council (CMC).
And so another plan has been made. Another reservoir will be built at Hammigi at a cost of `250 crore. When it is completed, there will be water round the clock, and on all days of the week. Typical of the summer plans of Gadag and Betageri.