Haveri faces acute water shortage

haveri: yet another summer is upon the district of haveri even as the citizens are trying hard to exorcise the images of last year''s drought that nearly made a cinder of their crops and forced the farmers to run on empty. with the mercury shooting up and the first monsoon showers nowhere in sight, the citizens have been hard-pressed to get drinking water.the problem is very acute and common to all seven taluks of the district. life will be anything but easy for the people in the district up till june 7 when the rainy season is expected to begin. last year, the situation was worse in shiggaon and savanur. angry citizens vent their anger against the apathetic government by targeting its offices and damaging ksrtc buses. but the government remained as mute as ever. the citizens are not expecting any fireworks from the government this year and will be shocked out of their wits if some action is taken before the failure of rain translates into drought. the people are already fed up with the district administration for not ensuring enough drinking water to slake their thirst even at the start of summer. to get a pot of drinking water, the residents will have to trek at least a kilometre distance. ninety per cent of borewells are dry due to dwindling water resource. some borewells are defunct. the only source of drinking water, karjagi barrage across the varada river, is dry. the municipal authorities have thrown up their hands stating both river and barrage are dry and they can''t do anything. the zilla panchayat has recognised more than 70 villages of the district as facing acute drinking water problem. for the last one week, the district administration is making an attempt to provide at least two vessels of water per family through tankers. ``that won''t suffice,'''' the citizens said. the number of tankers pressed into service are just not enough and more are needed. the situation threatens to aggravate further in shiggaon, savanur, bankapur and ranebennur taluks. what needs to be done on priority is to seek special grants from the government to sink borewells more deeper and set right the defunct ones. and this is a crucial test for the district administration. ``something needs to be done. but when and by whom is the question,'''' the angry citizens asked. for, they know well how indifferent the elected representatives could get during times of crisis. the story wasn''t any different last year too.