Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, May 10: The city corporation here, which is faced with the unenviable task of satiating the water needs of the citizens here, has taken initiatives to get water from Lakya dam, which was once used to pump iron ore mined by Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd (KIOCL) to the port here.

A team led by city mayor, Harinath, comprising some city corporators and officials, visited Lakya dam site on Monday May 9 and conducted inspection. Lakya dam, which is owned by KIOCL, has a sizeable water storage. Harinath said that at present, 2 MGD of water is being pumped through gravitational power to the plant of the company in the city.

"Because of severe drought-like situation, there is provision to bring water from Lakya dam to the city. By using pump, about 6 MGD water can be brought to the city, which would be sufficient to meet drinking water requirement of Panambur and Suratkal areas," he explained.

Chief whip of the ruling party, Shashidhar Hegde, who was a part of the delegation, said that water is planned to be pumped to Panambur from Lakya, from where the water would be diverted to water storage units for being supplied to Panambur and Suratkal areas.

Chairman of standing committee of the city corporation on town planning, Lancelot Pinto, corporator, Muhammed, city corporation commissioner, Dr H N Gopalakrishna, officer of KIOCL, Vadiraja Rao, city corporation superintending engineer, Shivaswamy, and executive engineer, Ganesh, were part of the team which visited Lakya dam.

MLA, B A Mohiuddin Bava, said that chairman of KIOCL, Malay Chatterjee, with whom he had a discussion, had agreed to pump 0.5 MGD water from Lakya dam to the plant of KIOCL at Panambur. He said that this water can be pumped to the city corporation's pump house at Panambur. "As Kudremukh happens to be a national park, Supreme Court has restricted use of Lakya dam water only for the purpose of KIOCL activities. In view of water shortage, temporarily, till the monsoon begins, 0.5 MGD water has been permitted to be pumped," he explained.

In the meanwhile, dredging work has been undertaken at Thumbe vented dam. Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner, A B Ibrahim, visited the site on Monday and conducted inspection. It is believed that silt up to a height of three feet has got accumulated at the dam. Since the last three days, water level at the dam has stood at 4.7 feet.