The New Indian Express 03.11.2010
No tap water and hapless residents
“We have almost forgotten that we have water supply connections in our houses,” said a resident, Jagadish.
Jagadish said they had been approaching various officials for the last eight months, all of whom promised one thing or the other, but to no avail. “I think we are destined to suffer like this,” he added.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) executive engineer, A Mahendra, said they had sunk a borewell in the area and laid pipeline to supply water to the households. But the borewell had now dried up. He added that the BBMP could not source water from nearby borewells because they too did not have surplus water.
For four months now, the BBMP is not supplying water in the area through private tankers either.
“We are unable to supply water through tankers to these areas because we have not cleared the water suppliers’ bills in the past few months,” Mahendra added.
Jagadish said the residents had to spend extra money to buy water for daily use. He added that they had to shell out money even to approach the officials to draw their attention to the problem. Another resident, S Nagaraj, said most of them were buying water from private suppliers at an inflated price and had to wait till the suppliers send tankers at their convenience.
“I wonder if this ordeal will really end,” Nagaraj added.
The residents are left high and dry even as Mayor S K Nataraj and the BWSSB Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu had assured all the corporators that the government would supply water through the tankers to the areas that do not have proper supply.
The BWSSB has said it cannot supply water to these newly-added areas until 2011, when the Cauvery IV Phase II Stage drinking water project is completed.
