Bengaluru

Mahadevapura

water shortage

private water tankers

borewells

Bangalore

Zone has no Cauvery water, pvt tankers to stop supplyIn east, areas like Panathur and Varthur in thezone are about to face acutefrom Monday if the owners ofstick to their decision of not supplying water.With no Cauvery water supply, the residents have been depending on private water tankers. Mosthave dried up in and around Varthur and the private water tankers fetch water from borewells in Kotur, Harohalli, and Mutsandra villages of Anugondanahalli hobli in Hosakote taluk.On March 9, the Hosakote tahsildar has issued an order banning private water tankers from collecting water from borewells for commercial use. The tahsildar said that the decision was taken based on a complaint from residents and gram panchayat members of Kotur village. On March 13, a senior geologist submitted a report on groundwater depletion due to indiscriminate digging of borewells in Hosakote taluk.“Police are not allowing us to fill the tankers and our vehicles are being seized. TheElectricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom) authorities have disconnected power lines to these borewells on the instructions of the Hoskote tahsildar,” said Bengaluru East Private Water Suppliers’ Association president RVN Babu.He said that the association has no other option but stopping supply of water. “We have decided to stop water supply from Monday till our demands are met,” he said.Many apartment associations in Panathur and other areas have appealed to Mahadevapura MLA Aravind Limbavali to fix this problem. They said that the residents of Mahadevapura have been facing acute water shortage during the summers for the last three years. “We are now in a spot as the owners of private water tankers have decided to stop supplying water from Monday onwards. We can’t survive a single day without water,” said the managing president of SV Brindavanam Association.Appealing the MLA to do the needful at the earliest, residents of Chourasia Manor Phase 1 Apartment said that they are dependent on private water tankers for all their daily needs due to the scarcity in borewell water scarcity.Berating the authorities for not taking precautions to avoid a water emergency, Jagadeesh Reddy of Varthur Rising said that the authorities have allowed the construction of residential and commercial complexes without considering the availability of water in the area.“The authorities have not taken measures to supply Cauvery water to this area. They haven’t even bothered to mandate rainwater harvesting for all residential and commercial complexes to improve the groundwater table,” said Reddy.