BWSSB says 110 villages in Bengaluru's periphery to get Cauvery water by September 2024

Bengaluru: After a long wait of nearly 15 years, the 110 villages in the city’s periphery will finally receive Cauvery water by September, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has confirmed.

On Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar launched the “Cauvery at your doorstep” campaign to get more people to apply for water connections from the 110 villages. Speaking to DH, BWSSB Chairman Dr Ramprasat Manohar V confirmed that the works and testing of the Cauvery Stage V project was completed and the project will be commissioned within the next 10 days. 

“We have completed the project. However, there are few formalities pending such as intimation of completion to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and we are working on completing those formalities. The project will be commissioned within the next ten days,” he said. 

Once the project is commissioned, those who have already paid up for connections will be serviced on priority and eventually all the areas will be covered, Manohar said. 

However, the residents of these areas are not convinced of the BWSSB’s claims and have demanded transparency in work. 

“They have been announcing dates but nothing has changed on ground. Water has not reached the Ground Level Reservoir (GLR). No testing has been done locally. The water lines in many of our areas were laid nearly five years ago and none of them have been retested. We do not see any hope on ground,” said Kochu Sankar, president, Trinity Enclave Residents’ Welfare Association in North Bengaluru.

A few of the residents had paid for water connection back in 2019 and are yet to receive water supply. Owing to delay in the commissioning of project, residents of the area have not shown much interest in applying for the connection and this has forced BWSSB to launch the ‘Cauvery at your doorstep’ campaign to attract connections. According to sources, only close to 48,000 households of the 3.5 lakh households in these villages have applied for the connection.