Bangalore: The areas of Bangalore that are yet to be covered by the BWSSB can hope to get water from the new Stage V of the Cauvery Water Supply Scheme. Chief Minister Sid­daramaiah mentioned about the proposed Cauvery Stage V during the assembly session at Belgaum. He said this during a discussion on a report submitted by an expert committee in this regard in October.

There are 110 villages that are now part of BBMP and require 500 MLD water and they would be most likely get water from the proposed Cauvery V project. Some of the erstwhile CMC and TMC areas that have now been merged with the BBMP and are not served by Cauvery Stage IV Phase II will also come under Cauvery V.

Bangalore has exhausted its current share of Cauvery water allocation with the last project, Cauvery Stage IV Phase II. For a new project, the city would need a fresh allocation from Cauvery waters. Therefore, the mention of a new Cauvery project indicates that the state government is considering the BWSSB’s long pending demand of allocating some more water to them to serve new areas.

The erstwhile CMC/TMC areas were to be served under the Cauvery Stage IV Phase II, but the available water is not enough to serve the core areas and newly added areas for more than two years.
According to a submission made by the BWSSB to the High Court of Karnataka earlier this year, the BWSSB needs at least 10 TMC of water to be able to supply water to 110 villages.

This information has been submitted in response to a direction from the High Court that the civic authorities in Bangalore should ensure water to these areas. The submission by the BWSSB is yet another attempt to push their request, pending before the state government, to allocate extra water to Bangalore.

The BWSSB has written to the state government stating its requirement of additional 10 TMC of Cauvery water for Bangalore city. This 10 TMC is out of the 17.64 TMC of water that is Karnataka’s share and is not allocated for any purpose as yet.

Bangalore needs additional 8.19 TMC of water to meet its demands till the year 2021. This proposal is based on a recommendation of the Thyagaraja Committee which was tasked with finding alternative sources of water for the city, and which recommends drawing more water (up to 15 TMC out of 17.64 TMC) from the Cauvery. The 17.64 TMC of unallocated water in Karnataka’s share is meant to take care of any future use and can be decided by the state considering its priority.

An extra share in Cauvery water seems like the only option for the BWSSB to serve the 110 villages as the BWSSB-BBMP plan of making available water from 599 borewells that exist in these areas did not work out. Tests showed that the water from the borewells was contaminated. The state government too has been pushing the Union government to revise its share in Cauvery waters.