From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Jul 24: Work on the Rs 12,912 crore Yettinahole project aimed at solving the drinking water problesm of the people of five districts – Kolar, Chikballapur, Ramangar, Tumkur and Bangalore Rural – would be implemented after the rainy season.
The project aimed at utilising the Nethravathi river water going waste into the Arabian sea would be implemented in five packages, Karnataka’s Water Resources Minister M B Patil informed the State Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
Replying to the debate on the demands for grants pertaining to his department in the House, the minister said the State Government was ``committed to completing project without any delay.”
Though the Yettinahole project, which was inaugurated on March 3 this year, is basically aimed at solving the drinking water needs of the water parched districts in the State, the minister said it would also help in filling the irrigation tanks along its path.
Patil said the Yettinahole project, which had evoked widespread protests and even district-wide bandh in the coastal Dakshina Kannada district, was not a project for diversion of the Nethravathi river water but was intended to utilise the excess water that was going waste into the Arabian sea.
He said the State Government is planning to implement a comprehensive plan to bring the highly water consuming Sugarcane cultivation under the micro or drip irrigation system in the command areas of all the dams.
"Drastic programmes are needed for conservation of water in agriculture as all the dams would turn into drinking water schemes in the next 20 years due to the fact that drinking water gets top priority over any other needs. We have to prepare ourselves for such an eventuality,” he said.
The minister said the Government has formulated a five-year plan to bring the entire Sugarcane cultivation in the command areas of dams under micro irrigation system.
The plan would not only help in saving huge quantum of water being used for sugarcane cultivation but would also enable the government to bring more area under irrigation, save power and meet the drinking water needs of the growing population.
He said the project would be implemented in association with a reputed company from Israel, which has expertise in dry land farming, and the sugar factories.