Water Shortage in Bidar.

Two monsoon seasons with scanty rainfall and delay in the completion of a 24x7 water supply scheme have resulted in a severe drinking water scarcity in Bidar.

Water supply has been disrupted in the city for over a month now.

The city municipal council has rationed water supply down to once every three to four days.

Bidar gets an annual average rainfall of 900 mm, according to the Agriculture Department. But there have been long dry spells this year. Rainfall in the arriving and retreating monsoon seasons did not cross 600 mm. This has pushed down the water levels and most open wells are drying up.

This is significant as around 10,000 of the 22,000 houses in the city, depend on open wells. Only around 12, 000 houses have taps.

The residents’ woes are compounded by the fact that the 24x7 water supply scheme started two years ago is not complete yet.

The scheme implemented by the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation aims to provide 40 lakh litres of water fromt the Karanja, purified and supplied through a network of overhead tanks and pipelines.

Officials say some technical snags in the last phase of the project are delaying the supply of water to the city.

A project of this scale needs a variable water pumping motor. But the initial design approved by the State-level technical committee included a constant flow motor. “We are trying to change it,” a senior official said.

“We would be able to resume daily supply once the technical issues are resolved,” Deputy Commissioner P. C Jaffer said.

He inspected pipeline laying works on Friday and said that he has asked the engineers to complete the work in three days.




--> Bidar gets an annual average rainfall of 900 mm


-->Rainfall in the arriving and retreating monsoon seasons did not cross 600 mm





Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/water-shortage-in-bidar/article6774071.ece