BENGALURU: Come August, city’s treated water will flow to one of the tanks in Kolar. This is expected to recharge the groundwater level in Kolar. Kolar is one of the districts that does not have any river and it receives an average of 690 mm rainfall annually.
In 2015, the state government came up with the proposal to send Bengaluru’s treated sewage water to the parched tanks of Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts that could be used for agricultural purposes. Bengaluru produces 1,500 million litres of sewage water per day (MLD).
At present, there are sewage treatment plants (STP) that can treat only 720 MLD of water. BWSSB Chief Engineer (Waste Water Management) Ramakrishna S M said it is feasible to send the treated water from Koramangala - Chalaghatta Valley and the surrounding areas to Kolar.
While Chalaghatta Valley has an STP with 248 MLD capacity, another STP with 60 MLD will be ready by February. This apart, STPs with capacities of 50 MLD and 90 MLD will be set up by July in Kadubeesanahalli and Ammanikere respectively.
Prabhakar H Chini, Secretary to Department of Minor Irrigation, told Express that through the project they aim to fill 126 tanks, of which 121 are in Kolar and the remaining in Chikkaballapur. This is a two-year project and the construction work for these started eight months ago.
It is expected to be completed in 2018.“We are getting water pipes from Hyderabad. At present work on 10 km of line is complete. The remaining will be completed in the next few months. We are expected to send treated water by August 2017, he said To begin with, around 400 MLD of sewage water from Chelagatta valley in Koramangala and surrounding areas will be sent to Narasapura tank of Malur taluk in Kolar.