Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has plans to eliminate drinking water supply through borewells across its jurisdiction by January 2023.
The civic body has already decommissioned about 400 borewells in Mysuru, and has plans to decommission about 300 more in the coming months.
But, it will retain around 300 borewells as a back-up in case of any emergency, besides to meet water requirements of gardens and parks.
MCC Commissioner Lakshmikanth Reddy said that decommissioning of existing borewells will also mean augmenting the existing piped water supply by about 20 MLD per day.
Civic officials went for a spot visit on November 17 to review the progress of the work at Bidaragodu near Nanjangud where a project to draw raw water from the Kabini river has been taken up, and is already supplying 60 MLD of water to the city. Mr. Reddy said work is under way to augment water supply from Kabini from 60 MLD to 120 MLD.
Krishnaraja MLA S.A. Ramdas, who was part of the team that visited Bidaragodu, said the project was working at 50% of the installed capacity, and pumping about 60 MLD of water. Once the second phase is completed, supply will be augmented by 60 MLD. This will neutralise the reduction in supply owing to decommissioning of the borewells.
The MCC Commissioner said there is no problems with regard to availability of water as far as Mysuru is concerned, and borewells are supplying about 20 MLD of water in various parts of the city.
But, once the Kabini second phase is completed and an additional 60 MLD is supplied to Mysuru, the MCC would use only about 20 MLD to meet the shortfall owing to decommissioning of borewells. The remaining water 40 MLD would be diverted to meet the drinking water requirements of areas that are outside the MCC limits, but abut the city, and are part of the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
Mr. Reddy said the contractor has promised to complete the work by the end of December, but it is likely that the project would be completed by January 2023.
Mr. Ramdas said the work should have been completed by September2021 but was delayed due to various issues and is now gaining traction. He said 70% of the work is now complete, including 40% related to installation of rapid sand filter bed.
He claimed that 18 MLD of additional water will be supplied to areas coming under his constituency where maximum number of borewells have been decommissioned.