Introduction

Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka and the high-tech city, is presently undergoing a water crisis of unprecedented nature. ‘Bengaluru's Dry Run Is a National Crisis’, as the editorial of a national daily, has put it.1 Not only this, the crisis has been creating international headlines also. According to the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr. Siddaramaiah, Bengaluru is facing a shortage of 500 million litres of water every day, which is about a fifth of the city's total daily demand.2 Not only the drinking water, the residents of relatively affluent societies are using toilets in local malls since there is no water at home. The authorities have asked the residents to use water judiciously. At the same time, they have pressed into service extra water tankers, and capped tanker prices for four months.3 The city needs 2,600 -2,800 million litres a day for its 13.5 million residents. The crisis has affected schools, hospitals, industries including the city's IT hub. The State government has decided to utilize milk tankers of Karnataka Milk Federation to supply water and take over private bore wells in and around the city.4

The Past Situation

‘Bengaluru was once known as Kalyan Nagara or the City of Lakes’, says Seema Mandoli, an Academician. She further elaborates that ‘these lakes or keres were carved out of depressions in the landscape by human ingenuity and hard labour, and rainwater was directed into these depressions via rajakaluves (channels). Lakes were constructed in a series, with overflow from upstream lakes flowing into the lakes downstream, with the wetlands around the lakes helping groundwater recharge. In proximity to the lakes were several smaller water bodies, for example, kalyanis (temple ponds), baavis (wells/stepwells), and gokattes (ponds for washing cattle). The lakes supported livelihoods such as grazing and fodder collection, fishing, and agriculture. Nagarkallus (snake stones) and shrines on the lake bund were worshipped by local communities ... .Thus, the lakes were central to the economic, cultural, and social lives of the local community.’5 In this context, it may be worth mentioning here that the first official water supply to Bengaluru city was from Hesaraghatta lake on the Arkavathi river, 18-20 km from the city; and then from TG Halli reservoir, 35-40 km away. But all this was not enough. Thus, around 1974, the ambitious Cauvery Water Supply Scheme was conceived-where water would be pumped up to a height of 490 metres and transported over 100 km. In 2010, the city's requirement of water amounted to 1,125 mld, which has now more than doubled to 2,600 mld. The Cauvery still accounts for half of the supplies. The rest comes from groundwater. Therefore, people started to dig and dig deeper to secure their water supply as the available sources could not fulfil their demands. However, with the vagaries of nature increasing every year, these sources are drying up rapidly. Now, the local authorities are banking on Stage 5 of the Cauvery project, which, according to them, will be commissioned soon.6

Current Situation

Nearly 7,000 of the city's more than 13,000 borewells have dried up.7 In 1961, Bengaluru had 262 lakes. Today, it has 81 only.8 In 2017, a two-year-long study by the Environment Management and Policy Research Institute in the city revealed that 85 percent of Bengaluru's remaining water bodies were severely polluted. At the same time, the water supply infrastructure has not improved in view of rapid urbanization.9

Causes Leading to the Current Situation

About 30 years ago, a large percentage of Bengaluru's potable water requirement was fulfilled by the city's man-made lakes. Bengaluru is, incidentally, not situated at the bank of any river or coast. With the growth of the city as the IT capital of the country, these water repositories began to vanish like thin air. Real Estate developers ruthlessly cut down green trees and hubs. Even lake catchments were turned into dumping yards for municipal solid waste or building debris. Groundwater recharge became difficult due to rapid concretisation. Moreover, the successive governments did not heed the alarm bells reflecting ground reality. Historian and author, Janaki Nair has aptly summarized the situation saying, ‘Originally catered to by the innumerable water bodies that dotted the landscape, meeting both agricultural and domestic needs, the city has lost close to 80% of its tanks, even as its population soared by 47% in the same four decades.10 

The main causes of this crisis may be enumerated as under:

1. Resource scarcity;
2. Bad water management;
3. Water-illiterate residents;
4. Contaminated supplies;
5. Leaky distribution networks;
6. Extensive urbanization; and
7. Worst drought in four decades.

Possible Solutions

This is not that the present crisis has gone out of the hands of the administration and the lawmakers. However, it needs willpower and strong determination to get possible reliefs. Some of the remedies may be underlined in this regard as such:

1. The local authorities need to induce the middle class which uses the water to the level of extravagance to reduce its water use by 25%.
2. They should also enhance the water rates and taxes to put a check on misuse of water.
3. Water awareness programmes, beginning from schools, must be rolled out as an urgent government programme.
4. The real estate developers must pay higher taxes for the groundwater they use in developing residential colonies. Moreover, they should be made accountable to limit their water use to the minimum extent.
5. No building of any kind should be allowed to come up on any waterbody. Even if such a body is on revenue records and not existing physically.
6. Since urbanization has taken a toll on a vast number of lakes and ponds, it is urgently required to find new places to dig them for the future.
7. Government and the citizens of Karnataka should immediately start taking care of basic water-saving and augmentation measures as suggested by Karnataka Water Policy 2022. The plan proposes recycling, reusing treated wastewater, rainwater harvesting and industrial water-use planning. Bengaluru should be a test case for such Policy.
8. Sewage treatment is a major step in reducing the wastage of potable water supplied either by taps or groundwater brought by tankers. Recycling of wastewater available at sewage treatment plants is a viable solution in this regard. According to the Central Pollution Control Board's 2021 inventory, the Bengaluru city has 1,167.50 mld of sewage treatment capacity. But the capacity utilization is up to 75% only. At the same time, the gap between the generation of sewage and treatment capacity has widened. With the current water demand, sewage generation would be close to 2,000 mld. Thus, the untreated sewage would be more than half.11 This needs to be addressed urgently by the authorities.

Conclusion

The extreme water crisis in Bengaluru is a mirror to other big cities in India which boast of modern amenities and a world-class urban infrastructure. Not only the surface water but also the groundwater is depleting fast and the authorities have no magical solutions. The need of the hour is to return to the basics as regards to the conservation of water. The authorities need to search new portions of land to dig ponds, lakes and wells for collecting rainwater. Moreover, the extraction of water from borewells by unauthorized dealers and the public at large should be legally prohibited. To attract rain, more and more plants should be planted in the open lands and the residential premises of the citizens. The citizens need to be taught the lesson of water conservation. They should be persuaded by the authorities to cut down their water use, at least by 25%. Water is shortly going to be the most precious commodity in the near future. This is the right time to act in tandem by all the stakeholders to avert the future water crisis in any part of the country. Necessary changes in the existing Water Act or the Municipal Bylaws must be brought by lawmakers. Recycling of water needs to be encouraged for rough use of water. That will save much of the potable water. More sewage plants should be installed to treat the sewage water. The solutions are many and doable but the political will power and citizens’ resolve to change the situation are the most important factors. Let there not be another Bengaluru in the coming years.

.    .    .

References:

1. Editorial, The Economic Times, Mar 11, 2024.
2. Amitabh Sinha, Behind and beyond the water crisis in Bengaluru, The Indian Express, Mar 20, 2024.
3. Editorial, The Economic Times, Mar 11, 2024.
4. Editorial, The Indian Express, Mar 16, 2024.
5. When the taps run dry, The Indian Express, Mar 10, 2024.
6. Sunita Narain, Down To Earth, 16-31 March 2024.
7. Editorial, The Water Warning, The Indian Express, Mar 16, 2024.
8. Editorial, The Economic Times, Mar 11,2024.
9. Editorial, The Economic Times, Mar 16, 2024.
10. Behind Bengaluru's looming water thirst, Hindustan Times, Mar 13, 2024.
11. Sunita Narain, Bengaluru today, your city tomorrow, Down To Earth, 16-31 March 2024.