The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has requested the Director of the Mines and Geology Department to provide details of areas where the groundwater is contaminated in the city.

BWSSB Engineer-in-chief T Venkatraju said, “The high court has directed us to provide clean drinking water through public taps to areas where the drinking water is contaminated. We have written a letter to the Director of the Mines and Geology Department seeking details. We will prepare an action plan as soon as we get the details.”

According to sources, the BWSSB is already supplying Cauvery water to all the areas where the contamination levels are stated to be high in a report submitted to the high court by a private agency, as these areas fall in the core area of the city. It is preparing a report on supplying water through public taps to areas where the groundwater is contaminated in the six municipal corporations and one town municipal corporation limits that were added to the city limits, after obtaining details from the Mines and Geology Department.

As the BWSSB is not supplying drinking water to the 110 villages that were added to the city, it is likely to request the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to supply clean drinking water to them.

The court had taken suo motu cognizance of the high contamination levels in groundwater in different parts of the city and had directed the BWSSB to provide clean drinking water to areas where the groundwater is contaminated. The court had also directed the BWSSB to submit a report about the steps initiated by it to provide clean drinking water to these areas, when the case comes up for hearing on August 8.