Drinking water crisis looms large

Mysore/Mysuru: With monsoon playing truant, the water levels in KRS and Kabini Reservoirs are dipping at an alarming rate, thus posing a threat even to the drinking water needs of Mysuru and surrounding districts of Cauvery basin.

As on Thursday, the water-levels in both the dams were just short of reaching the dead storage level as the arrival of monsoon is getting longer. The low level of water in the two major dams may severely disrupt water supplies to Mysuru, Bengaluru and other cities of the Cauvery basin.

In the past several years, the monsoon used to normally arrive in the first week of June on a full-scale with Kodagu getting copious rainfall and as a result, the KRS and Kabini Dams used to get heavy water inflows from catchment areas, by the end of June itself. But now, there is no clear picture on the arrival of monsoon and Kodagu district, the catchment area for KRS Dam is yet to receive monsoon showers. Similar is the case of Kabini Dam, which get its water from Wayanad in Kerala, which is also awaiting monsoon just as Kodagu.

The maximum water level of KRS Dam is 124.80 ft. and the level today stood at 78.02 ft. The dead storage level of the dam is 60 ft. and only 17 ft. remains for the dam to reach its dead storage level. The inflow to the Dam today is 671 cusecs and the total outflow is 309 cusecs.

The situation at Kabini Dam is no different.

The water-level in Kabini Dam today stood at 2,251.26 ft.  as against the maximum level of 2,284 ft. The dam is just 29 ft. short of reaching the dead storage level of 2,221 ft. The inflow recorded today is 1,266 cusecs, while the outflow is 300 cusecs.

At present, the 17 ft. water in KRS Dam and 29.ft water in Kabini Dam is said to be  enough for drinking water needs of Mysuru for just about 25 days. But if the monsoon gets delayed further, then the city may surely be staring at a water crisis, lest the authorities do something for meeting the drinking water needs of the city after a month.

Meanwhile, MCC Commissioner G. Lakshmikantha Reddy said that a decision will be taken in the coming days if Cauvery River catchment areas do not get copious rainfall and the water level in KRS dam dips further.

Asserting that there is no crisis as of now, he appealed the people for judicious use of water.