Mangaluru : The officials must make arrangements to supply drinking water whenever people are faced with shortage of water, It is the duty,  problem should be dealt seriously,  warned Minister for Forest, Ecology and District In-charge B Ramanath Rai.   

He was chairing the meeting convened at the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Wednesday, April 1 to discuss about the drinking water problem in the District.

Referring to water issues in rural areas, Mr. Rai instructed officials to drill borewells as an immediate measure. He also suggested to study whether existing water supply pipelines could be extended to areas where there was scarcity.

J.R. Lobo, MLA, Mangaluru City South, on Wednesday suggested fixing meters to illegal water connections along the main supply pipes between Thumbe and Padil and supply water for a fixed time in a day to those areas.

At a meeting, the MLA said that round-the-clock tapping of water through illegal pipes should be stopped immediately to ensure that the city got more water in summer when water consumption was more.

Earlier, an official of the Mangaluru City Corporation told the meeting that though water was being pumped into two 18 million gallon a day capacity main pipes from Thumbe vented dam, it was not reaching the city in full capacity due to illegal tapping from the main pipes, an issue not addressed for decades.

As a result, the civic body was not able to supply water to some high reach areas in the city as people consumed more water in summer.

Supplying water to such areas would not be a problem in monsoon when people consumed less water. Mr. Lobo suggested stopping round-the-clock water to illegal connections under the gram pachayats of Thumbe, Pudu, Adyar and Arkula as an immediate measure to augment water supply to the city. Meters should be fixed and water supplied at a given time.

Health minister U T Khadar urged people to be proactive and bring any matter concerning water scarcity to the attention of the officials concerned. “Do not wait till there is acute water shortage. 

An official of the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat told the meeting that a Rs. 23-crore project had been prepared as a permanent solution to end the illegal tapping issue. Water would be supplied to the gram panchayat areas from on old 2.5 MGD capacity main pipe .