Mandya:  One would get an impression that water flows continuously in Mandya as the district houses the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) Dam and has a lot of lakes, streams and rivulets. But forget continuous water, people are facing severe scarcity of drinking water in this Sugar Bowl of Karnataka. And worse is, the temperature is rising by the day with heat becoming unbearable and groundwater sources drying up.

More than 600 villages in Mandya, K.R. Pet, Maddur, Malavalli, Nagamangala, Pandavapura, and Srirangapatna taluks in the district are facing severe drinking water scarcity for several days now. Facing severe water crunch, some of the villagers, who know a bit of English, have migrated to Bengaluru and are working as security guards.

To make matters worse, Mandya supplies water to Bengaluru and several other districts in Karnataka, apart from Mettur and some towns in Tamil Nadu. Although the Cauvery and its tributaries — Shimsha, Hemavathi, Lokapavani and Veera Vaishnavi — flow in Mandya, villagers are now being forced to buy water from suppliers.

Worst affected villages

The worst affected villages are Dudda, Keregodu, Basaralu, Doddakothagere, Mole, Chakanahalli, Shivapura, Challanayakanahalli, Kikkeri, Kallanakere, Sasalu, Sollepura, Lakshmipura, Manganahosahalli, Kodimaranahalli, Ummadahalli, Dinka, and Ainorahalli where residents standing before dry taps are a routine affair. They desperately wait for water tankers from Gram Panchayat and the water supply is hardly enough even for a   family of three.

Dry borewells

Depletion of groundwater levels, plummeting water level in KRS Reservoir, stoppage of water flow to canals owing to ongoing repair works, borewells and tanks running dry and frequent power cuts are the reasons for the problem. The crisis has been forcing villagers to buy water from tankers or fetch water from hand pumps in neighbouring villages.

Though the District Administration has initiated measures, including release of special grants, to mitigate the problem, the problem is compounded by non-availability of water for even Panchayats to supply as borewells have gone dry. There is little scope to dig new borewells as water has gone below  1,000 feet.

Mandya city also hit

In Mandya city, if people get water once in two days in some areas — old planned areas — water is supplied only once in five or six days in new, private layouts. Those who can afford have sumps and overhead tanks and manage with whatever little water they get. People have to go in search of borewells far away from their homes for water.

Villagers migrate to cities

Shockingly, owing to water crisis, many people in villages who know to converse in English are migrating to cities in search of greener pastures. With water level depleting and supply shortage, they see no future in agriculture at least till the next season. So to temporarily manage their families, they are working as security guards in cities including Mysuru, Bengaluru and Mumbai.

Before leaving villages, they are selling their livestock for whatever price available. Uday Kumar, a villager who has migrated to Bengaluru to work as a security guard said that he has studied SSLC. “I depended on agriculture for 30 years and I have given up. There is no water and moreover, there is no good price for our produce. Even my wife goes to a garments factory and somehow we are pulling on,” he said.

He added that he has a loan of Rs. 5 lakh on his head and he is paying some interest with the Rs. 10,000 he gets as a security guard. “With my wife’s salary, we are managing three meals a day,” he said and added that life in Bengaluru too is difficult.

District Raitha Sangha President and green activist Shambhunalli Suresh said that the District Administration should take the blame for people migrating from villages. “Already from Shambhunalli, 164 villagers have migrated to Bengaluru in search of jobs and manual work. Likewise, hundreds of villagers are migrating to cities from other villages too. The government has not taken basic steps like releasing water from KRS to tail-end farmers or filling lakes and tanks. In this situation, how can you expect farmers to continue with agriculture,” he said.