Mangaluru: The Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) is planning to store half meter of water in addition to the existing six meters of water, in the Thumbe vented dam in order to ensure availability of drinking water for the residents during the summer.
Even though the Thumbe vented dam has a storage capacity of around seven meters, the MCC has been storing only six meters of water till now. If it stores seven meters of water in the vented dam, the agricultural land of the nearby areas will get submerged and the MCC will need to shell out more compensation to the landholders. To avoid this, the MCC is planning to store only half meter of additional water, based on the findings of a survey that is currently underway.
If the water storage is increased by another half meter, then the total amount of water stored in the Thumbe vented dam will be around 12.5 MCM (Million Cubic Metres). Now, the existing water level is six metres which means that there is around 10.71 MCMs of water in the dam.
MCC Commissioner Ajith Kumar Hegde informed the media that measures would be taken to increase the water level phase by phase. He also informed that in order to store another half meter of water, a survey is being done which will be completed within a weak.
Sources from the Mines and Geology Department informed that, in order to increase the Thumbe vented dam’s water storage capacity, dredging work is in progress. As much as 50 per cent of the dredging work has been completed and a total of 42 tonnes of sand has been lifted from the site of Thumbe vented dam, sources informed.
