Kolar's Cry For Water Turns Specific: Send It Clean, After Bengaluru's Treated Water Froths In District's Tanks

India is facing an acute water crisis. There is a huge deficit of clean drinkable water in the country. A recent report by NITI Aayog has highlighted the gravity of India's water situation. According to the report, if no action is taken to address this, the demand for water would far outstrip its supply by 2030. In fact, even by 2020, it is expected that 21 Indian cities will run out of groundwater. In the coming days, Indiatimes will bring you the stories from across the country, focussing on the water bodies and the ground reality of the situation. The following is the first story:

When farmers in the arid Kolar district of Karnataka asked the state government to resolve the water woes in the region, little did they know that the solution would trigger a series of other problems.

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On July 19, farmers and environmentalists were in for a shock when the treated water used to fill Lakshmisagar Lake near Narasapur in Kolar district resulted in the formation of froth in the waterbody. Protests were staged and many even threatened to supply the foamy water to elected representatives in tankers.

¡°Groundwater gets polluted if the government continues to supply the secondary water into the irrigation tanks. We demand clean water in the irrigation tanks and not untreated water from Bengaluru,¡¯¡¯ said Kurubarapet Venkatesh ¡ª a member of the Neeravari Horata Samiti, a committee seeking water to Kolar district.

Y Maheswara Reddy

According to the Mysore State Gazetteer, Kolar district in 1968 had about 4,500 irrigation tanks, but only 126 irrigation tanks are currently functional, and not one of the thousands of open wells in the district are use due to declining groundwater level. The farmers of the district are thereby dependent on borewells for irrigation and to obtain drinking water. In order to bring this to the attention of those in power, they organised protests in 2017 demanding the state government to find remedial measures.

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The-then Congress government, led by Siddaramaiah, announced a Rs 1,342-crore project for setting up sewage treatment plants (STPs) near Bellandur and Varthur lakes in Bengaluru to fill 126 irrigation tanks in Kolar with the secondary treated water piped through Koramangala Challaghatta (KC) Valley.

HC hearing on petition adjourned till 16 Aug

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On June 2, the state government organised an event to celebrate the commencement of supplying the treated water to Lakshmisagar Lake. Karnataka Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar, who represents Srinivasapura in the Assembly, became emotional while witnessing the secondary treated water flowing into the lake.

Kolar Cry For Water

The farmers, too, were initially happy to see water in the lake and thought the state government had found a permanent solution to the water crisis.

¡°Many farmers offered poojas at temples thanking the Almighty. Farmers from other districts told us that we too can earn income on par with them since irrigation tanks, dry all these years, are set to be filled with water,¡¯¡¯ recalled Kurki Prasad, honorary president of Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha, Kolar taluk.

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The Karnataka High Court has directed the state government not to release treated water to Kolar district till August 16. The High Court also expressed dissatisfaction over the negligence of the officials for not taking precautions to prevent the entry of untreated sewage water into Lakshmisagar Lake. During the hearing scheduled on August 1, advocate general Uday Holla appearing on behalf of the state government submitted that untreated water had gushed into Lakshmisagar Lake due to failure of system component.

Anjaneya Reddy R ¡ª president of Shashwata Neeravari Horata Samiti ¡ª had filed a public interest litigation in Karnataka High Court on June 18 stating that the KC Valley project was implemented without any scientific studies and the secondary water contains large amount of industrial effluents with heavy metals.

Y Maheswara Reddy

¡°The state government had requested the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to prepare a report on the quality of secondary water that is to be supplied to irrigation water tanks in Kolar district. The team submitted the report on August 28, 2015 stating that supply of contaminated water ¡ª with rich nutrients and heavy metals ¡ª will lead to the weed infestation in agriculture fields and contamination of groundwater. However, the government ignored the report and went ahead with the project,¡¯¡¯ Reddy said.

Environmental activists are shocked over the perfunctory attitude of the concerned authorities in protecting the lives of gullible farmers vulnerable to health hazards. ¡°Who will be responsible if an innocent farmer, not aware of the poor quality of water in the lake, happens to drink this water?¡± asked Ahinda Manjunath, a water activist from Kolar. ¡°There have been no awareness programmes for the farmers over the quality of the water in Lakshmisagar Lake. The authorities have not even put up a banner near the lake cautioning them against it.¡±

'Meant for irrigation, industrial use alone'

C R Manjunath, Kolar district environmental officer, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), said he had collected water samples from 10 borewells in the vicinity of Lakshmisagar Lake to investigate if groundwater was polluted due to the release of secondary treated water into the lake. ¡°We sent the water samples to a laboratory. We are expecting to get the report on the water quality by Wednesday,¡¯¡¯ he said. Repeated attempts on August 1 to get his response about this report on condition of groundwater around Lakshmisagar Lake went in vain.

Y Maheswara Reddy

When questioned on the lack of awareness programmes, Manjunath said KSPCB has nothing to do with such programmes. ¡°Our responsibility is to monitor water quality. The implementation of the project is between the Minor Irrigation Department and the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB). The agreement is to supply 310 MLD treated water from KC Valley,¡¯¡¯ he added.

Executive Engineer of Minor Irrigation Department, S N Krishnappa said that treated water is only meant for irrigation and industrial purposes and certainly not for drinking purposes. When asked about the safety of farmers and animals due to the poor quality of water in Lakshmisagar Lake, Krishnappa said, "All farmers use potable water for drinking purpose. No farmer will drink this water. Nothing will happen if animals drink this water. There are many fish and water birds in the lake. It indicates the quality of water,¡¯¡¯ he said.

Kolar MLA Srinivas Gowda said he found nothing wrong with the water in Lakshmisagar Lake and criticised the farmers and environmentalists for staging protests. He even offered to consume a bottle of water from Lakshmisagar Lake to prove his point. When this correspondent asked him to comment on the issue, he pretended to be busy in a meeting. ¡°You have to come to Kolar to discuss this issue. I can¡¯t discuss it with you over the phone,¡¯¡¯ he said before disconnecting the call.

Maheswara Reddy is a Bengaluru- based freelance writer.