BALLARI : The summer season has adversely affected the famed jeans industry here again. Over 100 jeans units have shut, though temporarily, as a severe shortage of water has hit the industry hard, leaving hundreds of people unemployed.
The problem has been persisting for over a month and the units that are still running are using tanker water, which is expensive. The industry association has requested the administration to provide sufficient water to run the units.
Ballari district is the jeans capital of the country and 732 units are located in and around the district. Though water shortage occurs every summer for the last ten years, no solution has been found, and repeated requests by the industry association has been ignored by administration officials and leaders of political parties.
Especially jeans washing units need more water and they have increased their prices by 30-40%, which is also one of the reasons for the units to shut down, the association said. Water tankers too have increased the prices, putting a burden on these washing units.
An owner of one of the units told The New Indian Express that this year, the summer started 15 days early, putting pressure on them.
732 jeans factories depend on 15 washing units
All the 732 jeans factories in Ballari depend on 15 washing units to finish their products.
“Instead of waiting and paying more money to wash jeans products, some owners have shut their units for four to five months.
This has left a large number of people unemployed. We have requested the administration a number of times, but we have not received good response. We hope
that the apparel park planned by the Karnataka State Government will solve the problem, and the industry will get water from a dedicated pipeline from the Tungabhadra dam,” an owner of one of the units told TNIE.