Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru

Mangaluru, May 7: As temperatures continue to soar, the drinking water crisis across the district is worsening day by day. Water flow in Dakshina Kannada (DK) district’s lifeline rivers — Netravati, Kumaradhara, Phalguni, Shambhavi, and Payaswini — has almost come to a standstill. Water levels in reservoirs supplying drinking water to various parts of the district are steadily declining. All outflow gates of these dams have been closed.

In Bantwal taluk, water storage in the reservoirs of the AMR, Thumbe, and Jakribettu dams built across the Netravati river has fallen below maximum levels. At the Thumbe reservoir, which supplies water to the city, the water level dropped to 3.75 metres on Wednesday.

The Jakribettu reservoir has a storage capacity of 10.21 crore cubic feet (102.5 Mcft), of which only 8.215 crore cubic feet of water is currently available.

At the Harekala dam reservoir in Ullal taluk, water storage is only about half of its maximum capacity. The reservoir has a total storage capacity of 66 crore cubic feet (660.1 Mcft), while only 36.50 crore cubic feet of water is presently available.

The dam across the Phalguni river at Malavoor in Mangaluru taluk has a storage capacity of 4.40 crore cubic feet of water. However, only 3 lakh cubic feet of water remains in the reservoir.

Meanwhile, the Biliyooru dam in Bantwal taluk and the Soham dam at Irvail in Moodbidri taluk, both of which have a maximum storage capacity of 20 crore cubic feet, are currently the only reservoirs that remain full.