Water woes are draining the city yet again -Bangalore-Cities-The Times of India

Water woes are draining the city yet again -Bangalore-Cities-The Times of India

Bangalore : Water woes are draining the city yet again. This time, water is being lost to contamination and breakage of pipes during drain work.

For more than a week now, residents of Kaval Byrasandra and Devarajeevanahalli wards have been suffering from not just inadequate supply, but also contamination of water by sewage. "Even today, we collected samples of foul-smelling and mildly grey water,'' area MLA B Prasannakumar told The Times Of India. He also expressed unhappiness over the lack of action by BWSSB officials, despite repeated complaints throughout the week.

According to him, these areas perennially suffer from such water and sanitation issues. He attributes much of the board's inability to the shortage of staff, including assistant engineers and valve men.

A resident of ST Bed Layout, Koramangala, has also been suffering with no drinking water since Sunday. Her drinking-water line was moved during drain work in front of her house. "There was no pipe to be found here on Sunday, only water draining out on the street. We've been suffering as a result,'' she told TOI. With no help from local BWSSB engineers, she approached the contractor in charge of the drain work, only to get a demand for bribe in return. "He asked me for Rs 2,500 to re-lay the line, for no fault of ours,'' she said.

BWSSB sources say they are working on detecting the source of contamination at Kaval Byrasandra and Devarajeevanahalli. Water supply to to these areas has been stopped till the contamination point is identified, they said.

Several parts of the city will have no water from 10 am to 8 pm on Wednesday and Thursday due to maintenance work at the pumping stations in TK Halli.

Affected areas include :

East : HRBR Layout, HBR Layout, Kalyan Nagar, Chikka Banaswadi, Dodda Banaswadi, Kammanahalli, Lingarajapuram, HAL II and III Stage, Indiranagar I and II Stage, Murphy Town, Tippasandra, Byappanahalli, Pillana Garden, Jeevanahalli, Gandhinagar, Frazer Town, Coles Road, Vivekananda Nagar, CV Raman Nagar, Kaggadasapura and surrounding areas.

North : Malleswaram, Seshadripuram, Kumara Park, Jayamahal, RT Nagar, Sanjaynagar, Sriramapura, Yeshwantpur and Hebbal.

South : Banashankari, Padmanabhanagar, Girinagar, Hanumanthnagar, Srinagar, Basavanagudi and Chamarajpet.

West : Magadi Road, Rajajinagar 6th Block, Bhuvaneshwarinagar, Padarayanapura, Annappa Garden, Mysore Road, Kasturba Nagar, Bapuji Nagar, Manjunatha Nagar.

Central : Shivajinagar, Vasanthnagar, Gandhinagar, Cubbonpet and Cottonpet.

South-East : Jayanagar 1st to 3rd Block, parts of 4th T Block, Wilson Garden, Bangalore Dairy, Shantinagar and parts of Koramangala 2nd Block.

BWSSB sources said no alternative arrangements will be made. "With water supply dwindling and considering the number of areas to cater to, it's impossible for us to consider making alternative supply while performing annual maintenance work,'' a BWSSB spokesperson said.