BENGALURU: Activists for water-related causes and farmer leaders met Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot and appealed to him to direct Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Urban Development Department and Minor Irrigation Department to ensure tertiary treatment of sewage water, before filling up minor irrigation tanks in Kolar, Chikkaballapur and Bengaluru Urban districts.
Activist Anjenaya Reddy from Shashwata Neeravari Horata Samiti said the farmers of Kolar and Chikkaballapur will soon term Siddaramaiah as “Poison Ramaiah”, as the water from the BWSSB has allegedly polluted water bodies and groundwater, affecting the health of locals.
After handing over the memorandum to Gehlot, Reddy said, “In its effort to recharge the ground water-table, the state government in 2018 started filling up a few select water tanks by pumping treated drain water from the Hebbal-Nagawara Valley (HN Valley) and Koramangala-Challaghatta Valley (KC Valley) in Bengaluru, to tanks in Kolar, Chikkaballapur, and Bengaluru Rural districts, causing irreversible damage to the lives and health of people and livestock, since the groundwater was poisoned.”
The activists added that the erratic sinking of borewells by farmers has made water unfit for drinking, as well as for irrigation. “There is a presence of fluorides and nitrates, traces of uranium and arsenic particles that could permanently disable people and livestock, besides poisoning the crops,” stated Reddy. It is in this backdrop, activists sought the governor’s intervention in directing the CM and ministers to ensure that funds are allocated to set up STPs with tertiary treatment facilities on a priority basis to aid these districts.