Mangaluru : The District Magistrate and Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim has asked Mangaluru City Corporation to draw the entire quantity of water being supplied by Lakhya dam to the KIOCL Limited here, so that it can be provided to the people in the city for drinking. The arrangement will be till this month end.

In an order issued on May 10 and released to the media on Wednesday, he directed the KIOCL Limited to cooperate with the corporation.

He said the scope of the order is limited to drawing water only for drinking purpose, as it is an emergency; and the corporation cannot claim its rights over the water.

His order is subjected to the decision of a case pending before the Supreme Court.

KIOCL Limited gets 2 million gallons a day (MGD) of water daily from its dam at Lakhya, Kudremukh in Chikkamagalur district, it said.

The order said the government, through a circular on April 20, 2016, said water stored in reservoirs should be drawn only for supplying for drinking.

It said water from Lakhya could be supplied to people in Panambur and Surathkal areas.

The order said about five lakh people live in the jurisdiction of the corporation. In addition, about one lakh people live in Mulky and Ullal areas.

All of them get drinking water mainly from Thumbe vented dam.

As inflow in the Netravathi has stopped water level at Thumbe dam has been nearing the dead storage level.

The KIOCL Limited said the District Magistrate has directed the company to allow utilising 2 MGD of water that KIOCL is getting from Lakhya Dam Kudremukh, said a release on Wednesday.

“However, utilising the water of Lakhya Dam water from Kudremukh for drinking purpose of Mangaluru city, is purely a government decision and KIOCL shall only be facilitating its pipeline. Further, KIOCL is abiding all the directions of the government to mitigate the water crisis of Mangaluru,” the release said.