Udupi (The Hindu): The issue of drinking water scarcity in rural areas dominated the proceedings of the general body meeting of the Udupi Zilla Panchayat (ZP) here on Monday

Raising the issue, Janardhan Tonse, member, said there was acute water scarcity in Uppoor and Kallianpur in his constituency. Despite the officials saying that all steps had been taken to solve drinking water scarcity, people were facing hardship.

The Multi Village Scheme (MVS) for Drinking Water had not been implemented in Kallianpur, though it had been announced many years ago. The officials had said that they had spent Rs. 7 lakh for digging an open well in Tonse hamlet, but there was no water in it, he said.

The meeting was told that though the well had been dug, it had to be abandoned as diggers came across hard stone. Mr. Tonse said that the department should choose a proper site for digging wells. The officials responded by saying that wells were being dug on government land hence the question of a suitable site did not arise.

Pratap Hegde, member, said that instead of first finding the source of water and then building infrastructure to supply it, the officials went in the reverse direction. In his Mandarti Zilla Panchayat constituency, three over-head tanks had been built, but there was not a single drop of water in them because there was no water source nearby.

He suggested that water from the Varahi river should be linked to the Sita river near Aavarse village. All it required was digging of a canal to a length of one kilometre. This would help provide drinking water to eight villages in the vicinity, he said.

However, officials said linking of Varahi with Sita was difficult as the latter was located higher than the Varahi and water would have to be lifted. It was finally decided that the engineers would examine the issue.

Intervening, Shobha Karandlaje, MP, said the ZP should prepare a five-year action plan to construct check-dams and dig percolation pits at vital locations in Udupi district. This would help in recharging the groundwater table, she said.