Data collected by the census department under the category, `Main Source of Drinking Water for Households’, indicate that residents of these towns were dependent on untreated water they gathered directly from the source for the greater part of the year. Sub-cate gories of sources include tap water from treated source, tap water from untreated source, covered well, uncovered well, hand pump, borewell, spring, river canal, tank pond lake, etc. “We don’t have data on whether the water is good or bad. The source of tap water could be a borewell or any other source mentioned above,” said an official.

NJ Devaraj Reddy, hydrologist and water conservation expert, said he didn’t find this surprising.”These are districts where surface water sources are facing a crisis.It’s obvious that the authorities themselves are struggling to get good quality water. In places like Kolar and Tumakuru, the water table has gone down to such an extent that one needs high quality equipment to treat available water,” he added.

Adding that there was no alternative but to treat used water, Reddy called for installation of effective rainwater harvesting mechanism to mitigate the crisis.