Minister for Water Resources Govind Karjol on Wednesday expressed concern over the pollution of waterbodies such as rivers, dams and lakes in the State.
Speaking at a programme organised to offer bagina at KRS reservoir near here, he regretted the discharge of effluents and other pollutants into river, reservoirs, lakes, streams and other waterbodies. With rivers and reservoirs becoming polluted, it has become difficult to provide clean and pure drinking water, he lamented.
Mr. Karjol, who was accompanying Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai at the function, also criticised the rampant encroachment of lakes and river banks. “Due to man’s greed, lakes and river banks are being encroached”, he said while giving a call for saving them for future generations.
He pointed out that all the four dams in Cauvery basin in Karnataka – KRS, Kabini, Harangi and Hemavathi – had reached their full reservoir level in July and added that it was an auspicious sign. Water from the reservoirs irrigate about about 15.5 lakh acres of land and provide clean drinking water to a large number of people. Though the water from the reservoirs helps the farmers to grow crops and lead a happy life, the people have forgotten their responsibilities and duties towards protecting natural resources like rivers. “Let us all make efforts to protect the rivers and other water bodies”, he said.
Mr Karjol also pointed out that the canals of the reservoirs in the Cauvery basin that had been built about 80 years ago needed immediate repairs and the State Government has taken up the work.
He also referred to the work taken up by when Basavaraj Bommai was the Minister for Irrigation in the erstwhile B.S. Yediyurappa government to replace the old crest gates of KRS. A lot of water was passing through the closed crest gates, which had become old. Already about 69 crest gates had been replaced, said Mr Karjol, who had conducted an inspection of KRS last week and found no leakage of water from the closed crest gates. “The remaining crest gates will also be replaced when the water level in the reservoir goes down”, he said. The government has also taken up work on modernisation and dam safety, he added.
