Chikkaballapur, 7 April

Hundreds of people took out a huge procession on the streets of Chikkaballapur demanding tertiary treatment of water under the KC Valley and HN Valley projects.

The protesters, under the aegis of Jala Jagruthi Vedhike and led by Harisha K Reddy, held placards seeking clean and pure water to water bodies in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts.

Harisha said that the water coming from the KC Valley and HN Valley projects was not safe.

“Even after secondary treatment, the water contains certain affluents which may cause danger to underground water,” he said. “The crops that are grown by using the water are being affected.”

Hence, he said, the government should implement a tertiary treatment facility.

Harisha said a memorandum would be submitted to all the concerned ministers, including the Prime Minister, the Water Resource Minister and the Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The Koramangala-Challaghatta (KC) Valley and Hebbal-Nagawara (HN) Valley projects pump secondary treated sewage water from Bengaluru to rejuvenate tanks and recharge groundwater in the drought-prone Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts.

Earlier, JD(S) MLC Govinda Raju informed the Legislative Council that even vegetables grown by utilising the water are getting rotted early due to the low quality of water.