MCC ignores wastage of water from tanks

The city is bracing up for a scorching summer, however, there are heavy leaks from the water tanks maintained by the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC).

The Corporation has been preaching on the judicious use of drinking water, but is clueless about plugging leaks from its tanks.

50 lakh litres

Water from the Thumbe dam, after being made potable at the water purification plant is stored in tanks before being supplied to houses. Activist G K Bhat told DH that water from two sumps of 50 lakh litres capacity each and located near the Horticulture Department, Bendoor, is pumped to different tanks of the Corporation.

Activists have accused the City Corporation of repeatedly failing to address the leakage of lakhs of litres of water from the tanks. As a result, water from the Thumbe dam, which has been made potable at the cost of the public exchequer, is flowing down the drains on a daily basis.

“With the MCC failing to address the leaks, water is being wasted in such a manner for the past 30 months,” Bhat charged.

MCC junior engineer Richard, when contacted, admitted that the Bendoor sump, which is almost two decades old, has a minor leak.

‘Only 5% leak’

“The quantity of leak, however, is merely around 5% of the total quantity of the water in the sump,” he said, dismissing charges that lakhs of litres of water are being wasted.

The junior engineer also said that the water sump could not be shut down as there is no alternative facility to store water. “If the pumping is stopped, the water supply to many regions will be affected. It will take another three to four days to restore the water supply to the houses,” he explained.

Speaking further, Richard said, “An additional tank of equally large capacity is required to effectively address the issue of water leak.” He admitted that expert assistance has been sought to deal with the issue.