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Contributor,
Ganesh Shanbhag
Software Engineer by Profession,
EcoFriend by passion!!
Ganesh Shanbhag
Software Engineer by Profession,
EcoFriend by passion!!
You all might have seen panicking and flashy media reports saying, ‘Bengaluru is heading towards doomsday’, ‘Bengaluru set to be another Cape Town’, ‘Bengaluru – ZERO water city’ etc etc. These are really good TRP items for Media but what is the reality? Bengaluru – known as Garden City of India, is it heading towards becoming ZERO water city? If the British liked this city and made it their home in the past, why is the present state of our beautiful city so pathetic? Is there a ray of hope despite all negative media coverage?
I think it was half a century back, before 1974, Bengaluru as a city used to get piped water supply from local lakes. Like Subramanyapura lake used to supply water to Uttarahalli neighbourhood. In that way, the lakes were maintained clean and used to store only rain water coming via ‘Raja Kaluves’ built by our visionary kings. However, in 1974, the Urban Planners of Bengaluru decided to lift water from Kaveri Basin to Bengaluru 100 kms away and 1000 feet higher in altitude and cut supplies from lakes altogether. This was the first nail on the coffin. Bengaluru switched to ‘Long Distance Water’ and this led to negligence of Lakes in Bengaluru. Slowly, the Lakes which were once the only source of Drinking water to this beautiful city started becoming dump yards of Garbage & Sewage and also rampant encroachment. Lakes were killed in the name of development as they were no longer drinking water sources. One of the largest lakes became Majestic Bus stand, other became National Games Village. Bengaluru, once a city with over thousand lakes, is left with a few hundred now and only less than five deemed fit for potable uses.
Killing of lakes also contributed to depletion of water table and this coupled with over-extraction of ground water lead to the state where we are today, ‘No water in Borewells’. Bengaluru as a city needs about 400 crore litres of fresh water per day, but Kaveri will only suffice about 180 crore litres on any given day. Kaveri basin is a finite water basin, and cannot expand based on the needs of Bengaluru which is ever expanding.
However, there are rays of hope. Bengaluru is one of the wettest metropolitan cities in India. It receives over 1100 mm rainfall annually on an average. Harvesting this rain should suffice more than half of Bengaluru’s requirements. Apart from that, Bengaluru as a city generates about 300 crore litres of sewage per day and this enters all water bodies at present. If this sewage is processed into health grade water (Yes, technology is available) and can be supplied to industries and agricultural activities brings down the fresh water requirement by almost half. Even the health grade water can be used for consumption as well; Singapore does it in the name of Neu Water.
Also, civic authorities should revisit the decision of switching entirely to Kaveri based water supply and start augmenting water from lakes. This would ease the burden on Kaveri pumping infrastructure as well. Switching from long distance water to locally supplied water will reduce power usage as well, thus reducing carbon footprint.
Also, civic authorities should revisit the decision of switching entirely to Kaveri based water supply and start augmenting water from lakes. This would ease the burden on Kaveri pumping infrastructure as well. Switching from long distance water to locally supplied water will reduce power usage as well, thus reducing carbon footprint.
“Definitely, Bengaluru is not a ‘ZERO water’ city as is being projected. But due to mismanagement of water resources, it is being led into this state. Ofcouse, let’s not talk about corruption at all.”
