Severe water crisis awaits Mangaluru as Thumbe dam has water only for 18 days

[email protected] (CD Network | Suresh Vamanjoor)
April 24, 2016

Mangaluru: Apr 23: Any further delay in pre-monsoon rains in coastal Karnataka will surely push Mangaluru into deep water crisis as water at Thumbe vented dam, on which the city is dependent, will last only for next 18 days.

TumbeDam 6

The Thumbe dam, which had enough water during the same time last year, is now facing severe shortage of water and its level is decreasing with every passing day.

On Saturday, when Mangaluru Mayor Harinath, along with other corporators, officials and representatives of industries visited the 13-foot high vented dam, the level of water storage stood at 7.9 feet with inflow of water reaching zero-level.

Speaking to media persons, the mayor called upon the citizens of Mangaluru to use water judiciously. He said that water storage at the Thumbe vented dam was enough for only 18 days' supply. “The water from AMR Hydro Power Project dam will be sufficient for an additional four to five days. The MCC has already initiated measures to supply water to the citizens on alternate days,” the mayor assured.

He said that farmers will be persuaded not to use the pump sets upstream. “A team, led by executive engineer Linge Gowda, has been constituted, and a drive will be started to check the use of pump sets. The team will ensure that water is not wasted. The Corporation has already stopped supplying water to construction sites. Water should not be sprinkled on the road to check dust,” he insisted.

The Mayor said that if there was any problem of shortage of water or case of water being wasted, then the public can contact the executive engineers, assistant executive engineers and junior engineers.

Speaking of supply of water, he said that the number of tankers to supply water to the areas that fail to get water has been increased from three to seven. The houses situated on narrow roads will get water in tankers mounted on three pick-up vehicles. Measures will be taken to supply water through tankers at the areas situated at elevated places, he assured.

“There was deficit in rainfall in Dakshina Kannada in 2015. Its impact is being felt this year. The district normally receives pre monsoon showers in April. This year, however, pre-monsoon shower too has failed. Last year, with the pre-monsoon shower, the water-level at the dam was overflowing on April 25. The water-level at Thumbe vented dam declines by three inches if the water is pumped once to supply to the citizens of Mangaluru,” Harinath explained.

The Mayor said that the MCC has initiated measures to drill six borewells in the areas where there is acute shortage of water. Two borewells have been completed at Vamanjoor and Pacchanady. “If the situation aggravates, then water will be drawn from all private borewells and other water sources within the city limits to supply it to the citizens of Mangaluru. The supply to industries will be stopped fully. In case of necessity, the district administration will be asked to make arrangements to release water from the dams situated at Subramanya, Hosmat and other places,” Mayor said.

The MCC supplies 2 MGD water to gram panchayats that are situated between Thumbe and Padil. The MCC is planning to purify the water to hand it over to the gram panchayats to take over the maintenance of water supply to Adyar, Pudu and Thumbe Gram Panchayats. 

TumbeDam 3

TumbeDam 4

TumbeDam 5

TumbeDam 2

Comments

Abdul Vadood
 - 
Sunday, 24 Apr 2016

ONLY ALLAH CAN SAVE US.

NOOR
 - 
Sunday, 24 Apr 2016

Only ALLAH can save us from drought...
Dear Muslims....
I suggest to ask your local masjids to pray for rain...
ASK with ALLAH alone and never give any attributes to his CREATION.
ALLAH is the owner of this earth & ask with ALLAH as per the teachings of Prophet Muhammad pbuh... ALLAH is able to do all things. if he says BE and it will be... Dont look at the situation... Lets trust and ask with ALLAH in Full TRUST.

As QURAN says : It is ALLAH who sends the winds which stir up clouds which He spreads about the sky however He wills. He forms them into dark clumps and YOU see the rain come pouring out from the middle of them. When He makes it fall on those of His servants He wills, they rejoice. - QURAN 30:48
Lets PONDER on What QURAN speaks and THINK deeply about OUR CREATOR who sustains us by giving life on EARTH with his rainfall.
Subhanallah... Praise be to ALLAH.

Mohan P
 - 
Sunday, 24 Apr 2016

here mangaloreans dont have water and congress want to finish yethinahole protect. if this succeed forget about the rain in coastal karnataka,

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 17,2020

Mangaluru, May 17: A team of staff and students from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, NMAM Institute of Technology, Nitte, have designed and developed a simple and cost-effective touch-less hand sanitiser dispenser kit at Research and Innovation Centre, Nitte.

According to a release here on Sunday, NITTE said that the most effective medicine for Covid-19 is social distancing, frequent use of sanitiser, and washing hands regularly. In work areas, many people sharing common sanitiser might lead to issues.

The developed product dispenses sanitiser upon sensing the presence of the hand. The product has features like automatic hand detection, indication for power, and sanitiser quantity in the system.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 29,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 29: There was no shortage of masks and testing kits for detecting coronavirus cases in Karnataka and the government would import them if a need arose, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Sunday said.

Apprising leaders of political parties on measures taken by his government to combat spread of coronavirus, he also told an all-party meeting that the government has decided to provide life insurance cover to police and civil workers and has taken extra precautions to maintain supply of food grains.

"There is no shortage of testing kits, medicines and masks. If there is need, we will import more... We will distribute testing kits to all the district and Taluk hospitals," he was quoted as saying in a government release.

The state has so far reported 76 COVID-19 cases including three deaths and five discharges.

At the meeting held in the Vidhana Soudha here, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah said there were shortcomings in the screening of passengers coming from abroad and stressed on the need to maintain supply of essentials.

Yediyurappa said supply of foodgrains would be made through Public Distribution System and the government had taken extra precautions to avoiod any difficulties.

He told the leaders that there was no restriction on agriculture activities in the state.

"I have been regularly holding meetings since March 13 regarding the measures taken to contain the transmission of COVID-19," the chief minister said.

Health Minister B Sriramulu, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, IT-BT Minister C N Aswath Narayan, Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, Siddaramaiah, JD(S) MLAs H D Revanna, D K Shivakumar and former speaker K R Ramesh Kumar attended the meeting.

Yediyurappa said a task force comprising of ministers and officials has been formed to oversee the implementation of the government orders in view of the 21-day lockdown.

He highlighted the prevailing situation across the globe saying normal life has been paralysed everywhere.

The chief minister also brifed the leaders about the number of clinics all over the state, availability of medicines and protection gear for the doctors and in quarantine rooms in the state.

Flagging concerns over screening process, Siddaramaiah said around 4,500 people were yet to be tracked, which need to be taken up on a warfooting.

"The government is saying that we have not reached the third stage but in Nanjangud, a person contracted the disease though he does not have any travel history. This must be probed," he said.

The former former chief minister asked the government to make sure that the free distribution of food grains to weaker sections take place without any difficulty from April 1, as announced by the Central government.

He objected to police 'excesses' while enforcing lockdown.

Siddaramaiah also asked government to bring the police personnel under special insurance cover.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Ram Puniyani
January 9,2020

‘Go to Pakistan’ has probably been most often used phrase used against Muslims in India. Recently in yet another such incident the SP of Meerut, UP has been in the news and a video is circulating where he, Akhilesh Narayan Singh, is allegedly using the jibe ‘Go to Pakistan’. In the video he is seen shouting at protestors at Lisari Gate area in Meerut, “The ones (protestors) wearing those black or yellow armbands, tell them to go to Pakistan”. His seniors stood by him calling it ‘natural reaction to shouting of pro Pakistan slogans. Many BJP leaders like Uma Bhararti also defended the officer. Breaking ranks with fellow politicians, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi of BJP, criticised the said officer and asked for suitable action against him. Interestingly this is same Naqvi, who earlier when the beef related arguments were going on; had stated that those who want to eat beef can go to Pakistan.

Interestingly this is probably the first time that any BJP leader has opposed the use of this jibe against the Indian Muslims. True to the dominance of trolls who support divisive politics, Naqvi has been trolled on the issue. As such vibe ‘Go to Pakistan’ has been a strong tool in the hands of aggressive elements to demonise Muslims in general and to humiliate those with Muslim names. One recalls that when due to the rising intolerance in the society many eminent writers, film makers were returning their awards, Aamir Khan said that his wife Kiran Rao is worried about their son. Immediately BJP worthies like Giriraj Singh pounced on him that he can go to Pakistan.

The strategy of BJP combine has been on one hand to use this ‘go to Pakistan’ to humiliate Muslims on the other from last few years another Pakistan dimension has been added. Those who are critical of the policies of BJP-RSS have on one hand been called as anti National and on the other it is being said that ‘they are speaking the language of Pakistan’.

Use of Pakistan to label the Muslims and dissidents here in India has been a very shrewd tool in the hands of communal forces. One remembers that the ‘cricket nationalism’ was also the one to use it. In case of India-Pakistan cricket match, the national hysteria, which it created, was also aiming at Indian Muslims. What was propagated was that Indian Muslims cheer for Pakistan victory and they root for Pakistan. There was an unfortunate grain of truth in this as a section of disgruntled, alienated Muslim did that. That was not the total picture, as most Indian Muslims were cheering for Indian victory. Many a Muslim cricketers contributed massively to Indian cricket victories. The cricket legends like Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Irfan Pathan, and Mohammad Azaruddin are just the few among the long list of those who brought glories for India in the field of cricket.

Even in matters of defence there are legions of Muslims who contributed to Indian efforts in the war against Pakistan all through. Abdul Hamid’s role in 1965 India Pak war and the role of Muslim soldiers in Kargil war will be part of Indian military history. There have been generals in army who contributed in many ways for the role which military has been playing in service of the nation. General Zamiruddin Shah, when asked to handle Gujarat carnage, does recount how despite the lack of support from local administration for some time, eventually the military was able to quell the violence in some ways.

During freedom movement Muslims were as much part of the struggle against British rule as any other community. While the perception has been created that Muslims were demanding Pakistan, the truth is somewhere else. It was only the elite section of Muslims who supported the politics of Muslim League and later the same Muslim League could mobilize some other section and unleash the violence like ‘Direct Action’ in Kolkata, which in a way precipitated the actual process of partition, which was the goal of British and aim of Muslim League apart from this being the outcome of ‘Two Nation theory’.

Not much is popularized about the role of great number of Muslims who were part of National movement, who steadfastly opposed the idea and politics which led to the sad partition of the subcontinent. Few excellent accounts of the role of Muslims in freedom movement like Syed Nasir Ahmad, Ubaidur Rahman, Satish Ganjoo and Shamsul Islam are few of these not too well know books which give the outline of the great Muslim freedom fighters like Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Ansari Brothers, Ashfaqulla Khan.

Immediately after partition tragedy the communal propaganda did the overdrive to blame the whole partition process on Muslim separatism, this totally undermined the fact that how poor Muslims had taken out massive marches to oppose the Lahore Resolution of separate Pakistan moved by Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The whole Muslim community started being seen as the homogenous, ‘The other’ and other misconceptions started against the community, the one’s relating them to atrocities of Muslim kings started being made as the part of popular folklore, leading the Hate against them. This Hate in turn laid the foundation of violence and eventual ghettoisation of this community.

The interactive-syncretism prevalent in India well presented by Gandhi-Nehru was pushed to the margins as those believing in pluralism did not actively engage with the issue. The economic marginalization of this community, coupled with the increasing insecurity in turn led to some of them to identify with Pakistan, and this small section was again presented as the representative of the whole Muslim community.

Today the battle of perception is heavily tilted against the Muslim community. It is a bit of a surprise as Naqvi is differing from his other fellow colleagues to say that the action should be taken against the erring police officer. The hope is that all round efforts are stepped up to combat the perception constructed against this religious minority in India. 

Comments

Prakash SS
 - 
Thursday, 9 Jan 2020

it is very much understandable if Pakistan is bad country our PM Namo would never visited without any invitation, that time Pakistan was good he prised their Mutton biriyani and Karak chai in pakistan. we feel something is wrong with our PM and his chelas. 

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.