The deaths of six people due to water contamination in Vijayanagara district have revealed that mere availability of water cannot be a goal. Water consumption-related deaths, despite Karnataka receiving abundant rains this year, indicates that the state needs to focus on ensuring quality water supply to people for consumption.
The deaths occurred over two weeks between September-end and October first week at a time when the State Government is implementing the Centre’s Jal Jeevan Mission – an ambitious project to provide safe and pure drinking water through Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) in rural Karnataka under the ‘Mane Manege Gange’ (‘Ganga to every household) project.
The project aims to provide functional tap connections to each household — ensuring water sustainable sources to provide 55 litres per capita per day (LPCD); putting in place an effective waste water management system; testing and monitoring drinking water quality; ensuring proper operations and maintenance; and using new and proper technologies to ensure pure water for drinking purposes.
However, TNSE found the state’s mechanism to be lacking on many fronts in its efforts to achieve the objectives of the ambitious Rs 52,000 crore Central Government project that assures Karnataka funding of Rs 7,524 crore up to 2025-26 for its implementation in the state.
The lack of efforts resulted in the tragedy that affected 150 people of Makarabbi village in Vijayanagara district, which preliminary investigations have revealed to be the result of sewage contaminating drinking water lines. Besides, last month, two women in Kamalapur taluk of Kalaburagi district died due to gastroenteritis while 50 were admitted to hospitals. There too, consuming contaminated water is said to be the reason for the deaths.
The problem of contamination by sewage or high fluoride/nitrate content in water seems rampant across the state. With no perennial rivers in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts – in the vicinity of Bengaluru – and with no alternatives to access water, people are completely dependent on borewells. In several taluks of the two districts, including Bagepalli, Chikkaballapur, Chinthamani and Srinivasapur, people are drawing borewell water with fluoride and nitrate content from depths of 1,000-1,200 feet.
Following continuous failure of rain over the past few years, almost all 4,000 lakes in the two districts dried up. To recharge the groundwater table, the state is tapping the Koramangala-Chellaghatta ( KC Valley) for Kolar district and Hebbal-Nagawara (NH) project for Chikkaballapur to fill up the lakes with treated water.
But, according to R Anjaneya Reddy, president, District Neeravari Horata Samithi, the works are being carried out in a shoddy manner with not enough water being filled in the lakes, and the water not being treated scientifically, leaving people vulnerable to its adverse effects.
In Mysuru district too, frequent complaints of water contamination surface. Although Vani Vilas Water Works, which conducted a bacteriological analysis of borewells near Krishnaraj Sagar reservoir, found 50 of 139 not potable and made alternate arrangements, residents continue facing contamination issues. Also, as industrial effluents from industrial areas of Mysuru go to villages in and around Srirangapatna taluk from Virija canal, there are reports of skin diseases and fish deaths. Tests for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) showed high concentration of dissolved substances in water, proving the presence of harmful pollutants. But no measures have been taken up yet to remedy the situation.
TECHNOLOGY, BUT NO SOLUTIONS?
It is not as if technological solutions are not available. Even those available are not being utilised properly. Last year, it was found that of the 11,000 Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants handed over to the Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd (KRIDL) and installed across the state, 2,274 were not in working condition. This was just before the pandemic struck.
A committee on Local Bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions, headed by BJP MLA Araga Jnanendra (now Home Minister), in its report, highlighted many loopholes in the works of the KRIDL and blamed it and its contractors for the mess. The RO plant is crucial for making water available for various uses, including drinking.
But the crisis is not behind us yet. Team TNSE found Pavagada in Chitradurga – the place boasting of the largest solar park in India – as one of those plagued by the high fluoride crisis. Many senior citizens are found to be suffering, not just from skeletal fluorosis but also several water-borne diseases, including typhoid and cholera.
A doctor at a Pavagada public health care centre says, “With water availability still an issue, lack of toilets and hygiene leaves them with water-borne infections, including typhoid and cholera, which usually come due to lack of good hand hygiene.” With many RO plants in village panchayats non-functional, the ordeal for villagers, especially the women, of having to walk kilometres to get drinking water, continues.
In Kyataganacharulu village, an RO plant was set up, but it is non-functional. There are many such villages in the taluk where RO plants are kept ready for inauguration, but not opened for use. Official sources say some are not functioning as borewells linked to them don’t have enough water or the contractors have not finished the works.
Inhabitants of the Dalit Colony at Vallur still have to walk a kilometre to get drinking water. “We have no toilets in our village. With no taps, we have no option but to store water. By doing this, mosquitoes breed and unhygienic practices bring houseflies. Cholera, typhoid and dengue are common in our colony. We have lost many loved ones too,” Eeshwaramma says. Over 10 per cent of water sources in Kalaburagi district are non-potable, highlighting the importance of functional RO plants.
A survey conducted in the district found that of the 997 water sources in the district, 124 are non-potable. Over 100 sources are found with nitrate content. The survey to determine fluoride and nitrate content in water is still under way. However, of the 446 RO plants, 355 are functional. There are over 1,500 RO plants in rural areas of Bagalkot and Vijayapura districts, of which 30 per cent are permanently shut. “That is because of high maintenance costs. The plants are being operated only in villages where proper water sources exist. This problem is not only here, but across Karnataka,” a Water Resources Department official says.
In Udupi district, although there are no cases of water contamination, absence of RO plants is a danger as lesser effective water purifier plants (WPPs) are installed. According to sources in Udupi Zilla Panchayat, there are 18 WPPs across the district, which to an extent contribute to quality potable water. Sources in the district administration admit that if RO plants are installed in the district, especially to source water with salinity from backwaters to convert to potable water, it would serve a better purpose.
BELAGAVI — A CASE TO CONSIDER
The State Government (during B S Yediyurappa’s term as CM) implemented one of the biggest rural drinking water projects at Athani to ensure drinking water supply through taps to lakhs of people in 72 villages of the taluk. According to sources, the Multi-Village Drinking Water Project, which covers 90-sqkm area in Athani taluk, is the biggest rural water project in Karnataka. Drinking water storage and treatment plants have been set up to ensure supply of potable water to rural folks.
Twenty-four villages in Athani taluk on the Maharashtra border were facing acute scarcity of drinking water for over six decades and the government even supplied drinking water to the people by trains when S M Krishna was CM.
Rural drinking water supply in several areas of Belagavi district is being improved by implementing water projects under various government projects. As far as urban drinking water supply is concerned, Belagavi is set to become the first city in the state to have drinking water available round-the-clock as the government has awarded the expansion project of the World Bank-funded 24/7 water supply scheme to Larsen & Tubro (L&T) Construction. The company will take up the work in three phases.
Drinking water at their doorsteps by 2024: Eshwarappa
Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa said they have now directed all Gram Panchayat members to repair and maintain RO drinking water units in villages. The CEOs of zilla Panchayat have been given responsibility of providing clean water to villages. Regarding the Jal Jeevan Mission, the minister said the CM recently released Rs 2,000 crore for the drinking water project. “We are committed to providing clean drinking water by 2024 to all villages”, he added.
(With inputs from Chetana Belagere & Ashwini M Sripad in Bengaluru; Naushad Bijapur in Belagavi; Karthik K K in Mysuru; Prakash Samaga in Udupi; Ramkrishna Badseshi in Kalaburagi; Divya Cutinho in Mangaluru; Mahesh Goudar in Vijayapura & V Velayudham in Kolar)