Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada district in-charge Minister U T Khader visited the Thumbe vented dam on Sunday, April 28, and decided not to resort to water rationing for another two days. He informed that a decision on water rationing will be taken on April 30.

Khader visited and inspected the water stored at the Thumbe vented dam along with MLC Ivan D’Souza, former MLA J R Lobo and former mayors Shashidhar Hegde and Bhaskar K among others. As the water storage level has reduced to 4.9 meters, he informed that it would be sufficient till May 28 without water rationing.

“If we continue the existing system of water rationing such as providing continuous supply of water for four days and cutting the supply for the remaining days, then the stored water can be utilised up to June 15. We need to adopt water rationing to prevent a drought-like situation in our district. However, such a decision will be taken after examining the water level on April 30,” he informed.

In the meanwhile, Khader has requested the people to cooperate with the district administration in their water management efforts. “People should use water carefully and make sure not to cause wastage. The Thumbe vented dam has a storage capacity of seven meters, but we are storing water up to six meters only. If we store seven meters of water, more land will be submerged. Hence, we will convene a meeting shortly with those families who will lose their land, to convince them with proper compensation,” Khader added.

Precautionary measures to be taken to prevent floods

Khader also informed that several areas have already been identified in the Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu districts, which are likely to be hit by heavy rains. “As the people in the Kodagu district suffered heavy losses due to the rains last year, a meeting will be convened in Sampaje shortly, in order to decide on precautionary measures to be taken. We have already informed the Natural Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to be prepared to face possible floods,” he informed.