Morab villagers begin to refill lake with canal water

HUBBALLI: People of Morab in Navalgund taluk of Dharwad district who had refused to drink water from the village’s lake after finding the body of a HIV positive woman in it, completely drained the lake on Tuesday evening.
Villagers started the process of refilling the lake with water from the Malaprabha Right canal on Wednesday. The 36-acre Morab lake is one of the biggest lakes in district and is the only source of drinking water for the villagers.
It is said that the woman had committed suicide by jumping into the lake last week and her body was found on November 29. Villagers stopped drinking water from the lake from that day itself, fearing that the water was contaminated.
Morab gram panchayat member Laxman Patil told TOI that the lake was the only source of drinking water, villagers had refused to drink the water and had demanded authorities to drain the lake and fill it with fresh water.
The authorities buckled under pressure and started draining the lake last week. “We deployed four motors and 20 six-inch pipes to pump out water from the lake on November 30. We took nearly 10 days to completely empty the lake,” said Patil.
Basavaraj Melavanki, GP water man of Morab said, “Villagers are still fetching water from Malaprabha right canal by trekking 1-2 km daily. They have remained adamant and have not even touched the lake water. More than 50 persons were involved in the task of pumping out water from the lake.”
“On Tuesday evening we completely emptied the lake and started the process of refilling it on Wednesday morning. We had discharged the water to a nearby stream. Some villagers used this water for their fields. Now, water is flowing into the lake from the Malaprabha right canal and it will take about 5-6 days to refill it,” added Melavanki.
Navalgund tahsildar Naveen Hullur said, “When all our efforts to convince the villagers about using the lake water went in vain, we extended our full support to the villagers to drain the lake. Once the lake is filled in a few days, villagers can start consuming the like before.”
Villagers have now appealed to the GP and taluk administration to depute one or two security guards at the lake to prevent people from jumping in to the water to commit suicide and contaminate the water.
MLA Shankar Patil Munenkoppa has already demanded the district administration to deploy security guards at Morab lake and other waterbodies in the district to avoid a similar situation, during a recent drought review meeting in Hubballi.