BENGALURU: Residents of a layout in Haralur in Bellandur claim they are desperately struggling for Cauvery drinking water, but the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is insisting that the layout has no issues and receives water regularly. The irony is that this was the first village to be supplied water to 110 villages as part of a special scheme, for which a grand inaugural ceremony was held in January 2019.
The Rs 5,500-crore Cauvery Water Supply Scheme Stage V project aims to supply 775 MLD (million litres per day) by March 2023. The villages are spread across Mahadevapura, Dasarahalli, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Byataranyanapura and Bommanahalli.
Unlike the reluctance shown by numerous households across villages to pay the required deposit amount for a Cauvery water connection, the 80 houses of Royal Paradise Phase-I have paid the required sum. A peculiar problem here is that most of the houses are located above the Ground Level Reservoir, which is supposed to supply water to them, which necessitates pumping of water to them.
A pressure pump has been readied by BWSSB, and electrification too is in place but it has not been made functional. Meanwhile, households spend anywhere between Rs 1,200 and Rs 2,000 every month on drinking water.Kiran Patil, a resident who routinely attends every ‘Jalaspandana’ organised by BWSSB to solve water problems, and has visited Cauvery Bhavan a number of times requesting water for their area, said, “The pump is located around 2.5km from our layout. Another 500 dwellings around will benefit if water is supplied.”
Among the better placed ones are a few houses at the ground level. Lokanandan Radhakrishnan, a co-founder of the residents’ association said, “My house and a few others were receiving water once a week last year, as was promised to us. However, from January this year, we are receiving it only once a month. No one knows when water is supplied and we are completely reliant on tankers.”
His family buys two tankers a month, which works out to Rs 1,200, he said. BWSSB Additional Chief Engineer, Bellandur, Rajiv claimed that there was no water problem in Haralur. “We promised them water once a week and they continue to get water once a week. There is no water problem at all in the area,” he said.