Since late 1990s, Bengaluru has been playing a heavy price for its success since marketing itself as a prominent tech hub. And pretty much because of that image, rapid urbanization came into picture, adding to that is the straight-up increase in population of the city. This has in fact, contributed to mismanagement of several vital resources such as water.
Officials admit that town authorities, unprepared for the speed of the city’s technical boom, didn’t adequately set up for Bengaluru’s increasing water needs.
The size of town has over tripled in only over a decade to 800 sq. kilometer (198,000 acres) – nearly the scale of London – by swallowing dozens of settlements and villages. Bengaluru’s population has over doubled to twelve million since 2001 and is foreseen to hit 20 million by 2031.
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is the main agency that manages drinkable – but it can provide it to only about 60% of the city. With land for water reservoirs and other infrastructure difficult and expensive to acquire “there is some challenge to (get to) those areas – but we are trying” Each day, Bengaluru pushes one.4 billion litres of water through its pipes – however still falls 800 million litres wanting meeting the city’s water needs. One of the largest difficulties, is that the source of water comes from the Cauvery river which is more than 100 km (60 miles) away. To reach Bangalore, the water should be pumped uphill, at a price of $6 million a month in electricity.
Then, unfortunately on the way to homes, more than 20% of water is lost to leaks from old and corroded pipes and storage units, he said.
The board is adding a fifth pipeline from the Cauvery, aiming to provide the city an extra 750 million litres a day once the project is finished in 2023, he said.
But faced with intense competition for the Cauvery’s water from other equally thirsty Indian cities, including Chennai, Bangalore is also looking for other sources of water.
The topographic setting of the city has radial slopes towards east and west with a smooth ridge running north to south; rainfall over the ridge area gets divided and flows east or west into the three gentle slopes and valleys of Koramangala–Challagatta, Hebbal and Vrishabavathi. Doddabettahalli 1,062 m (3,484.3 ft.) is the highest point on this ridge. These naturally undulating terrain of hills and valleys, lends itself to the development of lakes that can capture and store rainwater. Small streams are formed by each valley starting with the ridge at the top. A series of shallow tanks varying in size are developed. The gentle topography has also good potential of groundwater development.
Bangalore, with annual rainfall of 900 mm (3.0 ft.) with three different rainy seasons covering nine months of the year. June to October is the rainy season accounting for 64% of the total annual rainfall in the S-W monsoon period and 324 mm (1.1 ft.) during the N–E monsoons (November – December.). [10] It has a salubrious climate with an annual mean temperature of 24 °C (75.2 °F) with extremes ranging from 37 °C (98.6 °F) to 15 °C (59.0 °F). [9] [12] The streams between ridges and valleys have been dammed at suitable locations creating a cascade of reservoirs in each of the three valley systems. Each lake stores rainwater from its catchments with excess flows spilling downstream into the next lake in the cascade. The storm water runs off through drains only. These drains often carry sewage in it, which results in the lakes getting polluted. Many lakes have reportedly springs at the bottom of the lakes, some of which are stated to be choked due to silt, which also feed the lakes.
All building owners, especially the huge apartment complexes, malls, office buildings and multiplexes have to be compelled to harvest the rainwater and use solar lighting/heating systems.
One hand, Bangalore is growing in every aspect. The major growth drivers of the city are the booming IT sector that is generating numerous jobs. This has also impacted the real estate market of the city. Mahaveer Marvel is Residential property located in Bommanahalli, Bangalore. It is built by Mahaveer Group, leading group in real-estate market in Bangalore. The team of this builder group is known for its superior work and punctual delivery of high-end Residential Apartments developed precisely in accordance with the pre-defined specifications. The apartment sizes in the project range from 1125.0 sqft to 1625.0 sqft. Established in 1998, Mahaveer Group is a flagship initiative of Reddy Structures. It is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company and has built an inimitable reputation for itself for successfully delivering several prestigious projects in the southern states of India. Company’s portfolio includes residential properties such as villas, plots and apartments. Although this estate has grown tremendously for nearly 2 decades, loss of balance in ecology of the city leading to drastic weather changes took a toil on the residents this year – in the form of water crisis.
Baburao, a 50-year-old IT employee has been the resident in the apartment for nearly 7 years. He says “In our apartment, we had four bore wells for around 8 years and they have served us faithfully. 3 bore wells got dried up – then we started purchasing water. Then again, we dug 2 more bore wells, with that we are having water which is being purchased. That’s how we were managing for a while. The yielded off bore well was not sufficient – they yield got reduced. However, Since, the inception of this apartment, we have STP treatment plant which processes waste water and that water is being utilized for toilet flushing. We also had rainwater harvesting plant at the corner of the apartment. This is the prospective. Currently we are looking out to see if there’s any possibility to increase the ground water content. However, conserving water, taking care of our environment and using this vital resources in an efficient manner could solve this issue.”
A survey by the Indian Institute of Human Settlements pointed out that the per capita groundwater availability is rapidly declining – in 1951 it was 14,180 litres a day, by 2001 it reduced to 5,120 litres, and is expected to come down to 3,670 by 2025. A total of 21 major cities are estimated to run out of ground water by 2020 and 54 per cent of wells in India are seeing a fall in water levels.
Mr. Gowda, the manager of Mahaveer Marvel, opens up regarding the recurring water crisis in the neighborhood “We usually get water from the bore wells. For around 220 houses in our apartment complexes, around 1 lakh litres of water is consumed in one single day. And Cauvery river has also been another important resource for water in our apartment complex. From Cauvery, we get 3-4 lakh liter of water very month. We also process and purify the sewage water using the sewage treatment plant. Last month expense of water in the apartment is Rs 2,27,000. However, the bore wells are getting dried up rapidly, in a way that it increases the average demand of water every month. The water crisis in this apartment escalated during April and May, where the city temperatures have reached the highest record. During the time of acute water crisis, we had to buy several water tanks to ensure that the residents have access to water.”
On providing effective solutions to solve the water crisis, Mr. Gowda says “The existing greenery should be saved at any cost by proper planning instead of giving in to unnecessary short-sighted plans. It should be mandatory for Parks and apartment complexes grow trees instead of maintaining ornamental gardens and lawns which only use more water and are of no help in eco-protection. During Monsoon, collection of rainwater can be possible if there’s a proper soil surface. Every house should have at least a few meters of soil around the building to help water to percolate and improve the groundwater levels. In this way we can keep away from digging more bore wells which will otherwise make the crisis worse.”
The Residents of the apartment often gather up every Sunday in Mahaveer Marvel Owners Association (MMOA) meetings to discuss about issues and concerns in the neighborhood and often come up with solutions to tackle the issues in a convenient manner. Water crisis has been a recurrent topic in MMOA meetings. To bring out awareness in water crisis, in order to avert this issue from becoming more critical and beyond acute, several placards and explicit instructions to reduce water wastage, were put up in the notification boards of every block in the apartment. The instructions include:
- Never ever leave the tap open
- Keep the faucet turned off while performing daily hygiene duties
- Turn off the shower while applying soap or shampoo
- Reuse discarded water from water purifier.
- Please store the output water from RO unit and use it for floor and utensil cleaning etc.
- Reduce usage of washing machine / use only on full load
- Check for leaky faucets and ask for plumber to sort it out
- Educate maids on water crisis and challenges so as to reduce water wastage.
Bibliography:
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