The Hindu               16.05.2013

City has water enough for just 20 days

Afshan Yasmeen

Bangaloreans, prepare to face severe water shortage in the coming weeks. The existing live storage level at the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) dam — which stood at 1.03 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) as on Wednesday — is just enough to meet the city’s drinking water needs for the next 20 days.

Plummeting levels

Following plummeting levels, water drawn by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) from the Cauvery has also fallen by 100 million litres per day (mld) in the last 24 hours as of Wednesday evening. BWSSB was drawing 1,150 mld till Monday. “We had to cut the drawing limit to maintain the levels in our reservoirs. This is the first time we are facing such a severe scarcity since BWSSB’s inception in 1964. Only rain can help resolve the situation,” said a top BWSSB official.

Hemavathi problems

Following BWSSB’s request, Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd. has been releasing an average 800 cusecs for the last few days so that the storage level at KRS can be maintained. “As this too is not enough, a total of one tmcft has also been released from the Hemavathi in the last four days. But all the water has not reached the dam because of sand mining and encroachments along the river line. Although we had requested more water, the Irrigation Department stopped release of water from Wednesday,” said an official in charge of Cauvery projects.

Although water shortage is routine every summer, the official said the release of 2.4 tmcft water to Tamil Nadu following the Supreme Court’s directions in February has turned out to be disadvantageous to Bangalore.

CM briefed

Predicting that the city will plunge into unprecedented water crisis if it doesn’t rain in the next few days, the official said at least 2.6 tmcft water is needed to cope till the monsoon arrives. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has also been briefed, the official said.

“If more water from the Hemavathi is not released, we may have to draw water from the dead storage. This requires preparation and precautions as it will be the first time that the dead storage will be touched,” the official said.

Pointing out that Bangalore needs 1,250 mld, he appealed to people to use water judiciously. “We also want people to come up with suggestions on how to manage the situation,” he added.

Bangalore stares at drought-like scenario.

The Times of India                16.05.2013

New water supply network for Pandesara Industries to be set up

SURAT: Tender scrutiny committee (TSC) of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) approved the proposals to set up water distribution network for providing potable and treated water to industrial houses of Pandesara.

For providing drinking water to these industrial houses , a new network of pipelines would be set up that will cost SMC Rs 6.25 crore . It will also set up separate network for providing treated water from Bamroli Tertiary treatment plant that is likely to start functioning in coming six months.

SMC plans to provide 40-45 MLD of treated water that is blended with other 50 MLD of potable water to more than 120 industrial units of Pandesara from it's tertiary treatment plant to fulfill their water requirements . By doing this it will save that much of potable water for other use of the city population .

At present , SMC supplies nearly 55 MLD of potable water to these industries at the rate of Rs 23 per kilo liter against their total requirements of 100 MLD. Industries buy remaining water at present from private tankers.

" We plan to complete laying the network of both types of supply by September so that we don't have to wait even for a day once Tertiary treatment plant becomes operative ." said Jatin Shah , city Engineer , SMC.

Once 100MLD of blended water is supplied to the industries , their potable water requirement of 5 MLD would be simultaneously taken care by separate line.