Bengaluru: Wednesday morning was not usual for many sectors of HSR layout. The residents woke up to a shocker and chaos as taps went dry in many areas.
The residents gathered in front of the BWSSB office and protested against the water crisis, as the area never had run short of Cavery water. Water board officials blamed the extreme summer this year for the scarcity and said that water is not being released to all the sectors at the same time.
Left with no option, the residents had to get water from private water tankers. Mr Shekar R., a resident of HSR Layout Sector 7, said, “Around 8 am, I observed that the force of water had gone down. I went to switch on the motor, but within 15 minutes it stopped working as the water level in the sump was too low. That is when I realised something was wrong. When we understood that Cavery water had not been released, we called up a private supplier.”
Many women, who were protesting in front of the BWSSB office, said many of them had to skip work and their husbands went late to offices.
Ms Ranjitha K. said, “There should be some warning or notice about such situations so that we can be prepared. We had to come all the way from our houses to get answers from these officials.”
A BWSSB official, on condition of anonymity, said, “The process of supplying Cavery water to various localities has changed. In some sectors, we are releasing water early in the morning and in some areas, at night.”
Many residents prefer HSR Layout over Koramangala and Indiranagar because of better planned infrastructure and lack of water issues. Ms Krishna Kumari, who used to stay in Koramangala, said, “I moved from my earlier place only because of water issues. I was told by my neighbours here as well as my owner that they never had any water issues in the last ten years. But I am again in the same place after a year. The water problem seems to be following me everywhere.”
BWSSB Chairman Vijay Bhaskar said, “We are pumping more water than usual because of summer. Normally, we pump 1350 mld, now we are crossing 1400-500 mld. During summer the demand is more. Sometimes, due to power shutdown or pipe repairs we stop releasing water temporarily.
Since we supply water once every two days, if an area misses supply in one cycle, it gets water next only after four days. That is when inconvenience is caused and these are only temporary issues.
Also, because of new connections across the city, the demand has also gone up. Naturally, the supplies to areas that got more water earlier have gone down.”
