An MGP team consisting of Prof. R. Chandra Prakash, V. Mahesha and myself visited Hongalli water plant near KRS dam today (11-5-2013) to find first-hand what is being done to solve the worst water crisis Mysore has faced in decades. What we saw reminded us of the adage of digging a well when the house is on fire.
Hongalli plant can pump 90 million liters per day (MLD) when water flows through Varuna and Right Bank Lower Level canals. But the water level in KRS is now too low to feed these canals and the plant can pump only water from the river bed. Even though there are two pumps (housed in the building shown below), only one of them is working now with a capacity of 35 MLD. However since the last two days (that is from 8-5-13), they have started installing the needed equipment (wiring and pipe line) to increase the capacity by another 15 MLD. It is surprising that the authorities did not anticipate the crisis earlier and waited this long
.
Sethukatte is the barrage which feeds water to Devaraya Canal to Belagola from where more water (capacity 52 MLD) is pumped to Mysore. Unfortunately without informing Mysoreans it was decided to open the sluices in Sethukatte to supply water to Bangalore for the last few days. This has resulted in Belagola not getting any water. Sadly no one knows about this. It seems efforts are made now to close the sluices. In addition there is complete breakdown in law and order. Farmers are using powerful pumps to pump water before it reaches Belagola. It seems even police cannot control them.
The only silver lining is that the government has released one TMC of water from Hemavathi dam and there was copious showers in Kodagu district and another TMC water may be released from Harangi reservoir. But if the water level goes below the dead storage level of 60 feet, there will be no water to Mysore from Kaveri. We will have to do with Kapini water (which serves only the southern part of Mysore) and borewells. If only they had done some scenario planning, Supreme Court could have been convinced not to release Kaveri water toTamilnadu.
Pipeline being constructed to increase the pumping capacity of the Hongalli plant.
There seems to no planning and everyone seems to be passing the buck. VVWW puts blame on Mysore City Corporation. MCC blames Karnataka Urban Water and Drainage Board. They in turn blame either MCC or the irrigation department or both. In MCC, our elected corporators blame JUSCO or the Commissioner (who are transferred at the drop of a hat) or VVWW. Citizens blame every one excepting themselves.
It is sad that Mysoreans were not given the true dimension of the crisis. We were assured that under any conceivable situation there will be no need to worry. We were even told that most areas will get water supply on alternate days. In reality, many areas have not received water in 5-10 days.
We have learnt that Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board has submitted a project to install jackwells upstream from Sethukatte bypassing Belagola to supply water directly to Mysore by laying a shorter and more efficient pipeline which cannot be tampered by the farmers. This project should be implemented on a war footing before the next major water crisis hits us.
Dr.Bhamy Shenoy, MGP