Temporary bund created to reduce leakage of  water at Baje dam

Udupi: The Udupi municipality has constructed a temporary bund near the gate of a mini hydel dam, following leakage of water here since last few weeks. The mini hydel dam is located 40 meters below the dam, built to meet the drinking water needs of the people of Udupi city. 

Baje has two dams, of which one stores water to meet the city’s drinking water needs while the other dam, located just below had been constructed for a mini hydel project. The leakage was found in one of the gates on it.

One of the officials of Udupi municipality, K.Raghavendra said that in order to arrest the leakage of water, a bund of sandbags had been put at the spot for the last two days. However, the repairs have not been done by the municipality as it was owned by the private concern. 

Since the inflow into the river Swarna was decreasing, it was very much essential to store the water in the dam. Normally inflow stops in February or sometime in March or by the end of January itself depending on the climatic conditions.

The height of the Baje dam constructed to meet the drinking water needs is actually 4.9 meters. But the gate of the dam of the hydel project is six meters high. It is sort of advantageous for the municipality to the store water to the level of the gate of the dam below.

It is said that the water stored in the space between those dams was enough to meet the drinking water needs of Udupi for over 30 days. Moreover, due to this, it was possible to store the river water backwards in the reservoir up to six km. This was quite enough for the city to overcome the scarcity issues that trouble it in the month of  April and May.