Mangaluru: The coastal city – most unlikely of all cities across the board is now facing water scarcity. Even while the city there are talks of supplying 135 litres per capita per day in Mangaluru, the Mangalore City Corporation appears to be lagging behind in meeting that promise.
The summer has just begun and the city is already feeling the heat of impending water scarcity. A hoard of complaints received at the water distribution counter of the Mangalore City Corporation is an indicator of the difficulties of the people to get water. Complaints from places like Valencia, Sooterpet, Jeppu, Morgans gate, Ashoknagar, Gori Gudda, Mangaladevi, Kadri, Mallikatta, Upper Chilimibi and many other places have stated that taps go dry very often and in some houses there was water coming only once in a week.
The Corporation water distribution department was now looking towards regulating the water usage and creating awareness about conservation of water in the city.
According to the officials of the Mangalore City Corporation all the leaks in the city more or less have been plugged though new leaks were being reported day in and day out and special gangs were attending to every complaint of leaks as soon as possible.
One of the major leaks that was reported from the vented dam has also been fixed. To ensure the smooth water distribution in all the 60 wards the Corporation has cleaned the jack-wells on the river bed.
To further ensure water reaches every house in the Mangalore City Corporation area several old pipelines have been replaced and the consumers have been asked to check up on any leaks in their premises and get it fixed without delay. The clarification plant at Bendoor has also been readied with some repair works.
The city will however stick to the two-day water release system. This will ensure the availability of water to all subscribers in the city throughout the summer. One comforting aspect was that the vented dam continues to get inflow at the rate of 500 cusecs per day which was healthy comparing the situation in the corresponding period last year. The Corporation water has now a subscription of 69,000 in the city and the demand for the tap water has been going up constantly.
But given the efficiency level of the Mangalore City Corporation water distribution system, every citizen of Mangalore should brace himself for some level of water problem during this summer.