Netsol Water Solutions

BANGALORE: After house rent, it's now water rent. That's what desperate residents of Rajagopalnagar, Peenya second stage, pay their more fortunate neighbours to access drinking water. "Our borewell dried up five years ago and we don't get Cauvery water supply on this street. The house beside mine has a borewell which still yields good quantities of water. So we have a mutual agreement - we pay the owner Rs 150 per hour as rent to get drinking water from their well," said Choodamani Chikkegowda, homemaker and resident of 6th main Rajagopalnagar. This is nothing new here. A helpless Choodamani has been paying her neighbour for drinking water for about a year now. The house, which is not occupied by the owner, has been put to commercial use. The tenant, a hardware shop operator, refused to speak to TOI. The whole street depends on this borewell for drinking water. Another resident of the same area, Chandramma R pays Rs 2 per pot of drinking water from private tank

BANGALORE: An acute water crisis looms over Bangalore city. For, not a drop of water will flow out of the Krishnarajasagar, the city's major source of water, towards Bangalore as the water level stood one feet below the dead storage level of 65 feet on Tuesday. Confirming this, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) said as on Tuesday it was receiving 110 MLD of water. BWSSB officials explained this was the water that had been released from the KRS two days back. They are unclear the same amount of water will reach the city on Tuesday. "The situation is grim and we are in constant touch with the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam to release enough water to KRS dam and further to our charging lines. We have also requested the irrigation department to compensate us with whatever amount," said T Venkataraju, engineer-in-chief, BWSSB. Though the crisis has been on the horizon for some time, the BWSSB has no contingency plan to mitigate the acute water scarcity staring