Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (MS)
Mangaluru, May 11: The water level in the Thumbay vented dam is depleting by the day. The acute water shortage has affected industries that are dependent on the precious liquid supplied by MCC.
Out of the water that is supplied to Mangaluru from Thumbay and AMR dams, 18 MGD goes to industries. MCF gets two MGD, NMPT 0.5 MGD and other industries are getting 1 MGD. From the AMR dam, 6 MGD and 8 MGD of water is supplied to MRPL and MSEZ respectively. If there is a shortage of drinking water in Mangaluru, then water from the AMR dam is used as there is no other option. During this process water to industries cannot be supplied. Traditional industries like fishing, home industries and ice plants are already facing the brunt of shortage of water.
At present, water is supplied through tankers to ice plants which supply ice to boats that go for deep sea fishing. Earlier MCC used to supply water to fishing port at Bunder. Water was made available then at every diesel pump for boats. However, recently, the same has been stopped and water is supplied through tankers. It has become an additional burden for the fishermen as the price of water from the tanker has also gone up.
As most of the wells in and around the city have dried up, ice plants are procuring water by paying the tankers. There are 65 ice plants in Mangaluru. The owners of these ice plants are suffering huge losses and are planning to even temporarily shut down the units.
Mohan Bengre, leader of fishermen, said, “In October we faced drought of fish. Around 70% of boats were anchored in the port itself. The ice plants did not have work. Now fishing boats are going for deep sea fishing. They consume 10 to 15 tonnes of ice while going for deep sea fishing. One ice plant requires five to eight tankers of water. The price of one tanker of water is around Rs 1200. This means that the ice plants are spending Rs 8,000 everyday on water. This has increased their burden. Fishing boats that go for deep sea fishing require 6,000 litres of water. Earlier, MCC used to supply the water. Now they are also dependent on water tankers.”