Residents gripped by water woes

BANGALORE: The predominant issue in many  residential areas in the city currently is the existing water worries that has transformed the once peaceful localities into war fields. With the summer soon approaching, the lack of continuous water supply has replaced the earlier problem of load shedding and bad electricity shortage.In areas like Residency Road, Frazer Town, Benson Town, Wilson Garden, Sampangiram Nagar, Double Road, Indiranagar, CMH Road, HAL, Seshadripuram and over 30 other areas in the city, water supply has been limited to only twice a week.This lack of supply for daily chores has disrupted domestic work in households and has increased fights between neighborhoods. “We get water supply only twice a week and we have to stock up water for the rest of the days. This is completely unhygienic and unjustified, especially when we have been paying the water bill consistently,” said Hameed Khan, a resident of Malleshwaram. Adding to their woes is the unresponsive system at both the Bangalore Water Supply Sewerage Board (BWSSB)and the Bruhat Banagalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). “No one has any answers about the lack of water supply. Officials have turned insolent and do not care about our problems."When we call the local corporator, he blames the BWSSB and vice versa. “What is worse is that, many parts of our locality get enough water supply all through the week and in result we have to suffer. When we protested about this, the officials told us that ours was a low lying area,” said Govind Kapoor, a resident of Tannery Road.Meanwhile, many corporators have complained that apart from working on their daily routine, they have to heed to the solve problems among the families in their area. “There are so many fights every single day because of water shortage. When I go out for rounds in the evening to all the parts of the ward, I see people arguing and fighting. This water shortage has caused a lot of troubles. Peace has been lost from people’s lives and the BWSSB is to blame for this,” said a corporator on conditions of anonymity.Meanwhile, the senior BWSSB officials remained unavailable for comment on the existing problem, but other officials assured that water supply would be restored for the summer season. It now remains to be seen if the water supply board will heed to their promise.