Karnataka: With dirty plates, can caterers serve?

Mangaluru: The water shortage is literally robbing Mangaluru of all joy this summer as weddings and parties are now having to go without caterers, who are not able to do business as usual despite April and May being their busiest period.

“You need lots of water for cleaning and cooking and so the acute water shortage in Mangaluru has hit the catering sector hard. Some of them have already stopped taking new orders,” says Mr Chandrashekhar, who runs a catering business here, revealing that only on Tuesday, a famous catering firm rejected an order for want of water.

"The  Mangaluru City Corporation(MCC) provides water once in two or three days and it is difficult to get tanker water too. So we have no choice,” the caterer adds.

He himself is booked till May 10 , but has no idea how he is going to meet his commitments. “Many events have been  booked in advance and cannot be cancelled now. We are managing with a lot of difficulty,” he reveals.

The hotel  industry too is in trouble.“Hotels with their own water sources are able to function normally. But those which depend on the MCC are having a serious problem. Tanker water costs them between Rs 1,000 and  Rs 1,500, which small hotels find hard to pay. If this continues many  may have to shut down,” warns  former president of the Hotel Owners' Association , Harikrishna Punroor.

Quenching your thirst with some refreshing sugarcane juice is also proving difficult with the drought in places like Hassan and Mandya leading to a shortage of sugarcane in Mangaluru and a steep hike in the price of the juice. “Despite the demand for sugarcane juice in summer we are not able to meet  it,” laments a shopkeeper in Yeyyadi.