The New Indian Express 13.12.2010
Panel formed to find water for Bangalore
The committee will have to find new sources of water to meet the drinking water needs of the city for the next 40 years.
Retired chairman of the BWSSB B N Thyagaraja will head the committee and the BWSSB Chief Engineer (Cauvery) will be its coordinator.
The other members of the committee are retired director of Mines and Geology Department R H Sahukar, retired chief engineer of the BWSSB K R Narayan Iyyangar, professor S Mohan Kumar of IISc Civil Engineering Department, technical expert of the BWSSB Dr D N Ravishankar, the engineer-inchief of the Water Resources Department and that of Hemavathy South, Tumkur, chief engineer of Water Resources Department and one nominated member each from the Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industries and the Urban Development Department.
Source drinking water
“Members of the committee are very knowledgeable and familiar with the city and sources of water around it,” said P B Ramamurthy, the chairman of BWSSB. “They will have to explore the practical aspects of exploiting those sources,” he said.
He said the committee would submit the complete the task assigned to them at the earliest.
With the completion of Cauvery IV Stage II Phase Drinking Water Project, all the sanctioned and available sources of water would have been exploited.
According to the water experts, the city will start facing water scarcity in another five years if alternative sources of drinking water is not explored at the earliest.
TASK CUT OUT
Explore and prepare a report on how to supply drinking water till 2050 To asses the growth of the city and increase in population in the next ten years and to prepare a report on how to augment water supply To organise meetings with all the departments concerned to collect data To visit places that have the potential to supply drinking water and to prepare estimates for exploiting such sources To analyse the financial and technical aspects of the projects that are supposed to be undertaken To suggest different means to effectively utilise rain water, conserve water, prevent leakage and utilise the available sources effectively
