Depleting water level at Hemavathi reservoir raises water shortage concerns in Hassan

HASSAN: Amid the sweltering summer heat, the lifeline of the district, the Hemavathi reservoir at Gorur near here is slowly drying up with no sight of rain in the coming days. This has led to concerns about a possible shortage of drinking water in the days to come.

About 30 million litres per day (MLD) of water is supplied from the reservoir to the 35 wards in the city. Currently, the resevoir has about 10 tmcft of water of which 4 tmcft is dead storage and only 6 tmcft of water is available for use.

With the Sun blazing down and the water level receding, the backwaters are witnessing massive fish deaths every day. So far, no region in the district has recorded any rain.

For the first time, Javagal in Belur taluk and Ramanathapura in Arkalgud taluk had recorded a maximum temperature of 40.1 degrees Celsius recently. The rising heat has led to concerns that the city could face drinking water crisis if there is no rain in the next 15 days.

The Hemavathi reservoir has a capacity of 37.103 tmcft with a maximum water storage level of 2,922 feet and the water leve on Saturday was 2881.77 feet. On this day last year, there was 19.902 tmcft of water and the water level was at 2,900.33 feet.