ZP takes steps as Mysuru, Chamarajanagar face acute water shortage

MYSURU: With shortage of drinking water staring in the face ahead of the approaching summer season, zilla panchayat officials have initiated measures for the supply of drinking water to the residents in the twin districts of Mysuru and Chamarajanagar.
ZPs have asked officials to list out villages and towns facing acute scarcity of water.
Though the twin districts are blessed with Cauvery, Kabini, Suvarnavathi and other water resources, which meet the drinking water supplies of most of the villages and towns, the urban and rural areas face water shortage in peak summer.
As many as 13 villages in Mysuru district are facing acute shortage of drinking water as per initial reports in the second week of February. This number may increase in the coming days.
Though many major and minor lakes, ponds were filled with water due to the implementation of water to lakes by the lake filling project, implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission like providing tap water connection to most of the households in the district, Multi-Purpose Drinking Water Supply project, setting up over 600 reverse osmosis plants for supply of pure drinking water, improvement of ground water level has eased most of the drinking water supply problems in the last few years, but still there are some villages facing drinking water issues, said Mysuru ZP deputy secretary Dr M Krishnaraju.
However, the ZP gave instructions to all taluk panchayat executive officers, gram panchayat PDOs, to take steps to resolve complaints related to drinking water problem on priority, besides to list out the villages facing shortage of drinking water during summer, he said.
He also asked the people to immediately report to the local tahsildar and the executive officers any problem that may arise while calling for precaution against drinking water shortage during the summer.
In Chamarajanagar district, villages coming under the limits of Ponnachi gram panchayat of Hanur and Raghavapur gram panchayat, forest fringe villages of Gundlupet taluk face drinking water problems, including few wards of Chamarajanagar, Kollegal and Hanur urban local bodies areas.
All PDOs have been instructed to prepare the list of villages facing acute drinking water crisis from the last three years, so that it helps ZP to take early steps to take mitigatory steps during this summer, Chamarajanagar zilla panchayat CEO S Poovitha said.
She said directions were also given to executive engineers of rural drinking water supply and sanitation department to take up works such as drilling of new borewells, hydro fracturing and deepening of borewells by utilizing Calamity Relief Fund.