India’s technology city is either looking up at the skies or awaiting tankers for water. Since Cauvery Alone cannot fulfill Bengaluru ‘s water needs, experts say the city needs an approach integrating multiple sources for long-term solutions. What happened earlier this month is just a warning
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OWN IT up
Who is in Charge of BENGALURU
Its woes begin with BBMP, which hasn’t had elections since 2020. It is run by a govt-appointed bureaucrat not accountable to voters
WHO should govern Bengaluru? Policymakers often tossed the question about but ultimately Chose to continue with the status quo.
The sheer of expansion of the once laid-back city has left urban planners gasping for breath. Its salubrious climate attracted billions of dollars of investments in the tech sector transforming it from pensioner’s paradise to a teach and startup hub.
In 2007, the state government expanded the civic body’s limits by adding eight urban local bodies and 111 village esaround the city with the city expanding to 741 sq km area, the administrators eyed higher property taxes.
this was complex enough, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), the urban regulator as well as a developer of housing layouts, has been taking the city miles beyond the civic body’s (BBMP) limits. Eyeing extra funds, the BDA has littered the city with layouts that are a haven for property brokers and speculators.
The debate around a functional governance structure for the city has cost citizens an elected body since September2020. “Even when there was an elected council, the mayor rotated every year with no power whatsoever It was a classic case of disempowering the biggest growth engine Karnataka has,” says TV Mohandas Pai, chairman, Aarin Capital Partners.
A study shows Bengaluru’s urban will expand to 1323sq km by next year. But the political class has not acted on suggestions like having an empowered mayor with authority, or breaking the civic body into three. The previous BJP regime decided to increase the number of municipal wards in the city from 198 to 243, but the present congress regime wants the number cut to 225.The consensus between them, however, is to retain the single, bloated body.
Which takes the city’s administration back to square one.
Bengaluru needs to build its knowledge of groundwater. Right now. it’s like the Wild West. Water is an economic good and one needs requisite skills to deal with it, not just a supply body
VISHWANATH SRIKANTAIAH
(Water activist & erector Biome)
If we take an integrated “approach where we combine an understanding of rain imported water. and surface water and make management much more decentralized. down to the ward level well to a lot or city’s needs
SHARACHCHANDRA LELE
(Distinguished Fellow. ATREE)
If cities like Mumbai and Chennai with ample Rainfall are facing a crisis of drought in the summer – it’s clear sign that we are not building around water, instead are building blind to water. And cities like Hyderabad and Jodhpur, which are similar to lore, will be subject to greater challenges in future
HARINI NAGENDRA
NEED OF THE HOUR
‘Corporates, Please Adopt Lakes in Your Vicinity’
Social worker-turned-MP Sudha Murty says both individuals and businesses can help government
Bengaluru is staring at a harsh summer…
We usually get to see signs of impending water crisis when the monsoon fails. We must preparations without losing time. First and foremost, we must desilt the lakes that have survived in “Bengaluru. The city once had about 400 lakes, but several of them have made way for residential layouts and other developments. I am not an expert. but with my limited knowledge from developing three lakes. it is important to desilt our water bodies if they must stay alive.
What has been your experience with lake conservation?
At Infosys Foundation. We successfully redeveloped the Hebbal lake in Mysuru by Rs 107 crore. In Melukote, we revived the historic temple tank at a budget of Rs 10 crore. We similarly Spent about Rs 9 crore on another historic tank at the Vasantha Vallabha temple in Bengaluru. Today, they are full of life, brimming with water.
As an author and social worker. what’s your advice to the people of Bengaluru?
We must learn to use quantities of water in our daily J was 12 years Old when the Indo-China war and my mother asked me to use lights as minimally as could. It became habit for us. It extended to water, too. In fact, (Narayana) Murthy uses very little water, just half a bucket of water for bath. need to make simple changes to our lifestyle and cut our water use. Every drop counts.
As a member of the Rajya Sabha, what would you ask the government?
I have only one request to the government: please don’t allow residential layouts or other real estate development in catchment areas. Encourage builders to use rainwater harvesting technology. I also appeal to business houses and corporates: please adopt the lakes in your vicinity It will your biggest contribution to society.
When Rimmi Kumari, a technical engineer, moved to Bengaluru in 2016 for better work opportunities, she was unsure of what to expect. But after spending a couple of years, she was so charmed by the city’s pleasant weather and general air of youthfulness that she decided to make a downpayment for an apartment in KR Puram, in the north-east of the city “I wanted to have my own beautiful home before anything else – that Was my dream,” says Kumari, 30, the daughter of a farmer and homemaker from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand and the first woman in her family to buy a on her own. But of late, she’s Been having second thoughts. “First it was the flood, in 2022. Now, there’s a Water crisis. If things don’t improve in the next 3-4 years, I’ll have to look at other options. ”
Kumari might well be voicing the thoughts of tens of thousands of residents of a city struggling to come to grips with a water crisis even before the of summer. Over the last couple of weeks, the country’s tech and startup hub’s water have dominated the headlines.
While every big Indian city has its own problems, the water crisis in Bengaluru, though restricted of a city struggling to come to grips with a water crisis even before the onset of the peak of summer. Over the last couple of weeks, the country’s tech and startup hub’s water woes have dominated the headlines.
While every big Indian city has its own problems, the water crisis in Bengaluru, though restricted to certain parts of the city, sits at odds with the city’s reputation as a tech powerhouse and a crucial part of India’s growth story. Home to the maximum number of unicorns (startups with a valuation of over $1 billion), its latest big-ticket investments include a commitment for $2.7 billion by Taiwanese iPhone- maker Foxconn, which is setting up a 300-acre campus. But a crisis like a major water shortage, if unresolved, could well cast a shadow on a city globally known as India’s Silicon Valley.
Historically, Bengaluru’s water needs used to be met by surface water sources such as tanks, lakes, wells and canals. Starting in the 19th century, the city began to receive piped water supply. Currently, it receives about I, H) million liters a day (MLD) of piped water from the Cauvery.
Cauvery water meets only about half the city’s needs, according to an estimate by research body WELL Labs, while the rest is met by groundwater, pumped from borewells, supplied by water tankers or both. Much of the newer parts of the city on the periphery, which are also home to tech parks and its employees, is dependent on groundwater and it is these very areas that are the brunt of the current water shortage. The older, central parts of the city are largely immune.
The government insists this a crisis caused by a natural calamity (the monsoon) on deficit, leading to a drought) and not mismanagement on the part of the administration. But experts in ecology and urban planning disagree.
“Desilting of some major lakes and several minor ones should have been done. two years ago, instead of now. If lakes had been desilted and filled with rainwater. Aquifers would have been recharged and the crisis could have been averted,” says S Vishwanath, director, Biome Environmental Solutions.
Then there is the planning – or lack of it. Despite groundwater being the primary source of water for large parts of the city, the Bangalore water supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) Does not take it into account. “BWSSB does not acknowledge that 40% of the city’s water needs is met by groundwater and therefore does not integrate it into planning and thinking. It effectively thinks of itself as a ‘Cauvery water supply board’ but they should look at meeting the needs of all Bangalores, using Whatever means available,” says Sharachchandra Lela, Distinguished Fellow in environmental policy and governance, Centre for Environment & Development, Atree, Bengaluru.
Lele was part of a task force for water part of a task force for water policy set up by the Karnataka Knowledge Commission to draw up a new water policy for the state. The report, which suggested a more integrated approach to water supply and management with ward-level planning and storage, was submitted to the government in 2019.Lele says nothing much came of it.
BAND-AID OR SOLUTION?
The State government respond to the crisis with a string of announcements, from trying to regulate water tanker supply via mandatory registration and a price cap to banning sinking borewell without government permission and threatening fines for using potable water for Swimming pools.
But these are not the long-term measures that ecologists recommend for the city’s water security. “We can’t see these-Cauvery water, Water tankers as solution but as emergency measures. Solutions have to be sustainable When it comes to resources like water. The things to do are repeated ad nauseum-rainwater harvesting, recycling water, reusing water, protecting water bodies recharging wells, “says Seema Mundoli, senior lecturer at Azim Premji University and, along With Harini Nagendra, coauthor of “Shades of Blue: Connecting the Drops in India’s Cities”.
So far, no major corporate that has made Bengaluru home has Commented on the impact of the water crisis on operations. Many already had water Conservation measures in place, helping them tide over the crisis.
The hope is that the government gets its act together and that the crisis will below over. Says Vishwanth: “This Crisis can be a huge opportunity to showcase how Bengaluru will take a hit”. It may also cause more residents like Rimmi Kumari to rethink options. “I love the city and want to continue living here. But if the government does not resolve these issues, I don’t Know how I Will.”
CITIZENS SPEAK UP
The Fine Art of Disempowering a Growth Engine!
TV Mohandas pai
BANGALORE is one of India’s richest cities, but it suffers from a totally inadequate governance structure. There’s only one city corporation for a population of 1.2 crore. The broken governance structure, Where the city lacks an empowered mayor or administration, has had disastrous consequences on the quality of life for for the city’s residents. It is a classic case of disempowering the biggest growth engine the state of Karnataka has. Bangalore also generates massive revenues but the government of the day uses the revenues of the city, which is 50-60% OF the state’s total, to pump into areas outside to gather votes to rule the state, depriving the citizens of the city of their rightful share.
Today, Bangalore faces two existential crises: the first is mobility, the second a lack of water While we live in hope that the metro expansion to around 300 km by 2030 would alleviate the mobility problem, the water situation deserves greater attention.
The city gets around 1450 million liters a day (MLD) of Cauvery water while consumption requirement is around 2500 MLD. It also gets about 650 MLD from borewells, many of which have dried up. The city to have over 150 lakes Which to take care of the city’s water needs though there was no water source close by. But many lakes have become sewage dumping points, been encroached upon or have disappeared over time due to corruption and bad management.
What Bangalore needs today is better governance to manage mobility and water supply. As far as water is concerned, we need a 20- year plan projecting the population and boiling the necessary infrastructure and storage facilities to supply piped clean water of at least 150 liters per day to all residents. We also need water for all Commercial enterprises because Bangalore has one of the highest stocks of grade A office space in the world and the city is home to many multinational corporations Who come here to tape into the rich human talent.
If the city’s issues are note solved on a war footing, the brand image of India, Karnataka and Bangalore will suffer irretrievably. We cannot afford to let that happen.
Water Crisis is a Global Issue. Here’s How to Address It
Prashanth Prakash
INVEST IN WATER INFRA: The current crisis has hit mainly Bengaluru’s tech hubs that are dependent on ground water and tankers. Also, Water leakage is a larger concern in our cities Where 39 % of the water supply is lost before it reaches homes. Urban utilities need to invest, ahead of time, on water infrastructure piped water supply, smart meters to track usage and efficient distribution to curb leakages.
SUSTAINABLE GROWTH PUSH: Bengaluru’s population surged from 4.1 million in 2001 to 14.4 million in 2020.This relentless growth has led to depletion of groundwater and drying up of bore-wells. While policies around rainwater harvesting etc. have been around, what is required is a strong concerted effort to go beyond lip service and tokenism and lay thrust on outcomes and impact.
RESTORING WATER BODIES: The city of lakes has seen its water bodies encroached, vanish or misused. It is critical to rejuvenate them. Efficient treatment and recycling of waste water critical. Activists and NGOs of Bengaluru have been working tirelessly to restore and revitalize the city’s lakes and recharge the groundwater. Policy makers must join forces with such partners to amplify reach and efforts.
DATA & TOOLS: Globally, water saving techniques like calibrated pressure management in water pipes have delivered impressive reduction in demand. In the digital era, where data is available on tap, it is important that real time data on water consumption and water reserves are important to equip both consumers and water utilities for efficient management and governance of water.
BEHAVIOURAL NUDGES: Behavioral economics makes a strong case for pushing for positive nudges to co-opt citizens as important stakeholders in water conservation. For example, in cape Town digital mapping allowed households to track water consumption in real time. A big thrust on transparent public communication right from water levels in dams to advertisements to conserve water created citizen awareness too yielded good results.
Vardhman Envirotech
India’s Passionate rainwater company
This article is published in: THE ECONOMIC TIMES, 21 March 2024
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