The drought that gripped the State owing to failure of both the southwest and northeast monsoons in the previous season has posed drinking water problem in 2,207 villages, according to RDPR Minister Priyank Kharge.
In an official release on Saturday, he said the government had taken measures to ensure that there was no shortage of drinking water in these villages.
“As many as 548 villages are being provided drinking water through 846 tankers and the remaining 1,659 villages are supported by getting 2,098 private borewells on hire basis,” the Minister said.
To mitigate the problem of drinking water in rural areas, grants available under SDRF were utilised on priority, he said.
In addition to this, grants were also released from the Department of Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation for supplying drinking water in rural areas. Also an amount of ₹20 crore was released during the current year (2024-25) from RDPR to take up works related to water supply in the affected taluks, he explained.
“A total of 480 Multi-Village Schemes spread across various districts are functional, supplying drinking water to 6,828 villages. Most of these schemes are river based and are sustainable to the extent, where water is drawn from upstream of the reservoirs. In case of schemes drawing water from downstream of the reservoir, the water has to be released through reservoirs”, he said.
An analysis of data received from districts shows that in 37 Multi-Village Schemes covering 413 villages, the source is dried up in the last 7 days. These villages are being catered through tankers and hired borewells, he said.
“Karnataka is basically a drought-prone State and falls in an arid region. Drought condition this year has a high impact on the drinking water situation,” he observed.
At the same time, action is being taken to monitor the drinking problem on a daily basis and the RDPR Department has taken steps to carry out drinking water works on priority to provide drinking water to the people of rural areas, he said.
