BENGALURU: Here’s a story of how sewage produced by you is helping lakes and borewells spring back to life in parched Anekal taluk. The State Government’s ambitious Koramangala-Chalaghatta Valley (KC Valley) lift irrigation project was envisaged with an aim to supply treated water from Bengaluru to neighbouring dry districts of Bengaluru Rural, Kolar and Chikkballapura.
The Minor Irrigation Department, that was given the task of implementing the KC Valley project, also took up a 260-crore project to supply 120 MLD of treated water from KC Valley to Anekal in Bengaluru Urban district and parts of Kanakapura in Ramanagara district. Earlier, the groundwater level at Anekal had dropped to alarming depths of 1,300-1,400ft. And, then came the KC Valley project and like a saviour has improved the groundwater level and now, water is available at a depth of 400-500ft.
The KC Valley project’s 120 MLD of treated water is being pumped to four link lakes connected to 60-odd tanks downstream in Anekal. According to officials and the residents, nearly 4,000 acres in Huskur and surrounding areas are already seeing an increase in water table. Also, 1,00,000 lakh acres of land in Anekal is expected to witness an increase in groundwater level.
According to Captain J Manjunath, Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner, the project faced hurdles as the stormwater drains were encroached. Only after identifying major encroachments, drives were conducted every Saturday from last several months and after clearing a 5-km stretch of the drain connecting four link lakes, water is flowing at the maximum capacity into five lakes in the region.
“120 MLD of water is supplied to the 75-acre Ghattahalli lake at survey number 62 of Sarjapur Hobli and from there, the water flows downstream into the 110-acre Huskur lake. The water then reaches the catchment area and then enters the stormwater drain which connects to Singena Agrahara lake which is 125 acres and from there it enters Muttanellur-Sarjapura Hobli. From Ghattahalli to Huskur lake, 2 km of the drain was encroached and from Huskur to Singena Agrahara and from there to Muttanellur, 3 km was encroached,” said Manjunath.
Echoing similar sentiments, Captain Santosh Kumar, a lake activist, said apart from clearing encroachment in lakes and drains, saplings of fruit-bearing trees have been planted along lake bunds in Anekal. “The idea is to ensure that the boundary of lakes is clearly identified with a bio-fence. With restoration of drains, we have achieved the target of groundwater table increase. From digging 1,300 ft to get water, now it has come down to a maximum 500 ft. The water table in 4,000 acres in and around Huskur has tremendously increased and once 200 lakes in Anekal get water supply for 365 days through this project, the water table in 1 lakh acres will surely increase,” he said.
A happy farmer
Srinivas Reddy, a farmer from Solepura in Muttanellur in Sarjapura Hobli, says that in the last 20 years he has not seen water in his borewell and with treated water entering the lakes, he now gets water at 100 ft. “I had drilled a borewell and after it stopped yielding water I never expected that I would be able to see water in it again. The project has really helped farmers like me and we hope to increase our produce in the coming years,” Reddy said. The 120 MLD of water is pumped using four big motors with 750 HP capacity at HSR Layout in Bengaluru and is sent to Ghattahalli. Five more pumps have been installed at Muttanellur lake from where it is pumped into drains connecting to other lakes.