Citizens pay 'water rent' by the hour in dry zones
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