Editorial: Bengaluru: Dazed and parched

Amid drought and water crisis being reported in parts of Karnataka, Deputy CM DK Shivakumar asserted that Cauvery river water will not be released from the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) dam to Tamil Nadu. Some water was being discharged to replenish the Shiva Balancing Reservoir at Malavalli from where it is pumped to Bengaluru. Over 7,000 villages, 1,100 wards, and 220 taluks in Karnataka are now faced with a water crisis.

While Bengaluru might be ground zero, the issue stems from the districts of Mysuru and Mandya, home to KRS Dam as well as a critical Cauvery river wellspring, that serve as major sources of water for Bengaluru. The crisis was attributed to the under-nourishment of the Cauvery, a result of insufficient rainfall last year, which occurred on the back of a surplus in 2022.

The demand for freshwater outruns the supply in Bengaluru. The city requires close to 2,632 mn litres per day (MLD) of freshwater, which is significantly higher than the daily supply fulfilled through the Cauvery and groundwater avenues. Of this, the contribution of the Cauvery has surged from 940 MLD to 1,460 MLD during the aforementioned period. After taking into account the proportion of loss in transfer, the river serves only half the city’s demand. The other source, groundwater, of which Bengaluru takes up 1,392 MLD is under pressure as recharge rates fall short of extraction rates by a huge margin.

Experts warned that as the city grows further outwards and faster than the natural resources can cope, the first casualty would be water supply. The city’s population had spiked from 8.7 mn people in 2011 to about 12.6 mn in 2021, and a majority of this growth was recorded in the peripheral regions. The drop in rainfall has affected the groundwater levels, which in turn has precipitated borewell failures in the peripheral areas of Bengaluru, which do not have access to piped water supply. However, the problem facing the city is not just a rainfall-centric or climate change-induced phenomenon.

Researchers blame deep-rooted mismanagement by the urban local bodies for the problem. The city has done away with its numerous lakes and wetlands – replacing them with gated communities and shopping malls. It also fails to reuse grey water and tut-tuts the government mandate of rainwater harvesting. There were as many as 1,490 open wells in central Bengaluru, less than 50 remain, with most of them in disuse. Apart from the Ulsoor lake, none of the region’s irrigation tanks (or keres) have withstood the steamrolling of urbanisation. The site of the Sampangi lake has now made way for Kanteerava Stadium while the Shoolay Tank has been drained to prop up Garuda mall. This encroachment has also aggravated the risk of flooding during monsoons. The reckless dumping of sewage from buildings into lakes and stormwater drains prevents them from being used to capture rainwater or stormwater.

The Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewage Board has now introduced a Rs 5,000 fine for misuse of potable water i.e. its use for non-essential purposes like washing vehicles, gardening, and in entertainment (water fountains, maybe even Holi). Having said that, Chennai’s sister city’s woes offer us a cautionary tale. Temperatures are already peaking, and power outages threaten to rob us of a good night’s sleep. But if the elixir of life runs in short supply, we will only have ourselves to blame.