Many wards in the city now face irregular drinking water supply, councillors cutting across party lines complained at the monthly meeting of the Mangaluru City Corporation council on Wednesday, January 31.
The former Deputy Mayor and councillor of Central Market ward Poornima said some houses and establishments in her ward had not got water for a week. “Since my ward is in the central business district area, open wells are contaminated due to leakage of sewage from the underground drainage network. Hence, people are not in a position to use well water. Water supply from the corporation is irregular,” she said.
Ashraf from Bajal ward said Jalligudde area was facing irregular water supply since two months.
Protest
The former Leader of the Opposition in the council Naveen R. D’Souza from Bendoor ward said that after his ward was selected as the pilot zone for supplying water round the clock under the Jala Siri project, water supply has been reduced from 10 hours a day to one hour a day. People in Vas Lane, Shivabagh, and Athena Hospital area are fed up now. “My ward never faced such a scarcity and irregular supply earlier,” he said and rushed to the Well of the council hall and slept there for some time as a mark of protest. Opposition Congress members also joined him in the protest, which was withdrawn later.
Responding to it, an executive engineer in charge of the Jala Siri project told the council that 3.2 MLD of water is required for supplying to the Bendoor pilot zone. The required quantity of water is not available. Hence water is being supplied through the newly laid network of pipelines for an hour for about 500 houses. Earlier Bendoor ward was getting water through the old network of pipelines for about 10 hours a day.
A.C. Vinayraj told the council that the entire Jala Siri project is in shambles. Senior officers in charge of the project and the project consultant are not bothered to complete the project on time with the deadline now being extended till May 23, 2024. “The project authorities have still not identified 58 water supply zones. The three pilot zones under the project are supposed to get round-the- clock water supply by now. But where are the pilot zones?” he questioned.
Mr. Vinayraj said that unless the project was hastened and it becomes a reality, no payment should be made to the project-related authorities. He sought a change of guard at the top level of project implementation unit.
The whip in the council and former Mayor Premananda Shetty too concurred with Mr. Vinayraj.
When other councillors also spoke, Mayor Sudheer Shetty Kannur agreed that many wards in the city faced irregular water supply.
The Mayor said that he would call a meeting on February 8 specifically to discuss the progress of the Jala Siri project. The authorities should submit the progress report at the meeting.
Published - January 31, 2024 09:23 pm IST
