A bleak summer 2018, forebodes Dakshina Kannada, ZP

A bleak summer 2018, forebodes Dakshina Kannada, ZP

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Aug 15 2017: Months before India Meteorological Department is yet to issue  official notices, on South West monsoon, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat has already sounded alarm bells about impending water shortage in summer of 2018.

This irony could not be worse  for Dakshina Kannada district accustomed to copious rainfall and comes on back of state government declaring Mangaluru and Bantwal taluks as drought affected for the first time this year.

Laying accent on water conservation at the monthly KDP review meeting held at zilla panchayat was M R Ravi, CEO of DK Zilla Panchayat.

His message to panchayat development officers was clear - start water conservation activities in every gram panchayat in the district and augment potable water sources - in right earnestness. This warning stems from fact that DK is facing an 820mm shortfall in rain compared to normal average rainfall this year till date.

Describing the situation as "likely (to be) precarious", ZPs Ravi told media that instructions have been issued to PDOs to take up water conservation activities by building traditional dykes across running streams under the MGNREG scheme. "We have received more than 500 such proposals under the scheme thus far, and gram panchayats have been instructed to take up such activities on a priority now itself rather than get in to fire-fighting mode during summer," he said.