Come this summer, water to be rationed

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Bengaluru: Get ready for the next stunner from the state government: rationing of water!
With reservoirs in the Cauvery river basin drying up and the monsoon still a good six months away, the government is contemplating rationing drinking water supply in Bengaluru city in the summer months. Revealing this, water resources minister Basavaraj Bommai said a plan is being worked out to ensure there is no severe shortage of drinking water in the summer months.
“We anticipate a shortage of water during summer. There may be a need to ration water supply as well as mix groundwater with river water to ensure people get enough water in summer,” he said.
The water level in KRS dam stands at 80ft now. Once it falls to 61-62 feet, water can no longer be pumped out. “I have convened a meeting of engineers of all reservoirs in the Cauvery basin as well as BWSSB officials on Tuesday. We will know the actual position after the meeting,” he said.
The state government is also planning the desilting of major reservoirs, where the water level has gone down alarmingly. “We are working out a plan to desilt the annual silt accumulation in these reservoirs. Our earlier efforts to desilt reservoirs with the help of private agencies, did not yield results. This time, we are seeking the cooperation of the Centre to desilt the reservoirs,” he said.
KRS-Kabini: Crisis deepens
With the water crisis worsening in the Cauvery basin and the outflow from the Krishnaraja Sagar( KRS) reservoir failing to fill up the river, the Kabini reservoir has begun releasing 500 cusecs of water to Bengaluru since 10am Sunday.
While the Supreme Court has given the Cauvery River Authority a deadline to come out with its final verdict, the decrease in outflow from KRS, has left the river with insufficient water to meet the requirements of the BWSSB and the irrigation department.
Kabini which supplies 2.8 TMC of water to Bengaluru every year, usually releases it by February, but has begun releasing the water early this year on account of the falling storage at KRS. Its supply could meet the needs of Bengaluru till April, when the pre- monsoon showers set in, according to sources.
Bengaluru needs 1.5TMC of water a month.
KRS , which has just 3.8 TMC of live storage and 8.48 TMC of dead storage, has stopped releasing water for irrigation since December 31 despite the demand from sugarcane growers. The worry is that if water is supplied for irrigation, it will touch dead storage in a week to 10 days. “We have entirely stopped supplying water for irrigation.We have informed farmers that there is no water for the summer crop," said KRS officers
The good news is Mysore is not in for a water crisis, even if the water level at KRS drops below the dead storage level of 74 feet, as there are six emergency pumps at the centre of the reservoir to pump water to the city, say sources. Also around 100 cusecs of water will be released to Mysore from Kabini for the new Kabini drinking water project likely to be launched in February.
BWSSB swings into action mode
The BWSSB is worried over an impending crisis of drinking water in Bengaluru soon. Taking this into account, the BWSSB has written to the state government to ensure that Bengaluru gets 1.5 TMC of water from the Cauvery every month.
However, going by the water levels at reservoirs in the Cauvery basin, procuring this quantity might be difficult. The last time Bengaluru faced such a water crisis was in 2004. There are some who fear that this time around, it might be worse.
The BWSSB draws Cauvery water from T Narasipura, which is replenished by water from the Kabini and KRS reservoirs. Every reservoir has seen a huge dip in the water level from the corresponding levels last year. A dip of even a foot means a huge loss of stored water to the TMC.
The water level at Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) on Monday was 83.19 feet, which is much lower than the usual January levels and 35.7 feet lower than last year. Last week, the water level had dropped to as low as 82 feet, which is the lowest since 1931. The water level at Kabini was 2256.42 feet, against the full reservoir level of 2284 feet and 15.07 feet lower than last January.
Bengaluru needs around 1.5 TMC of water every month. Going by this, the City would need around 7.5-9 TMC water between January and May-June when the next spell of rains are expected.
After a bad monsoon, the Cauvery catchment areas also missed the usual good spell of rains in October-November. If there are no rains, which is very likely, (till March-April), Bengaluru might face an acute shortage of water.