Bengaluru Water Crisis: Failed Monsoon, Desilting Lakes Leave The City Dry

India’s Silicon Valley is facing an unprecedented water crisis as borewells dry up, leaving tens of thousands of residents in a fix.

“The situation is very bad,” Maya Kumar, an IT professional told NDTV Profit. “We are unable to get tankers to deliver water to the housing society now that the government has taken over the private tankers. We don’t know what to do.”

A failed monsoon and draining of lakes for desilting has caused this scarcity. Bengaluru, with a population of 1.3 crore, gets water from two major sources: 1,450 million litres per day from the Cauvery river and another 700 MLD from around 14,700 borewells.

The Cauvery river lies at a level lower than the city and is pumped upwards to a height of 1,500 feet, at a distance of 85 kilometres from TK Halli in Mandya district.

Water levels in the Cauvery basin reservoirs are at crisis level. Harangi is at 39.5% of capacity while the Hemavathi reservoir is at 35% and the Krishnarajasagar dam is at 31.7%. This data is from March 7 and is recorded in the Water Resources Department portal of Karnataka.

While the core city still manages to get water supply from the Cauvery river, the outskirts, especially the areas where IT professionals reside, are parched. Borewells here have run dry and private tankers are charging upwards of Rs 3,000 per load of 12,000 litres, from the original rate of Rs 600 to Rs 800.

“I am very very very seriously looking at it, I had a meeting with all the officials,” reassured DK Shivakumar, deputy Chief Minister, Water Resources and Bengaluru Development and Town Planning & Bengaluru Urban District Incharge Minister told mediapersons on Wednesday.

“We are taking over all the tankers. We have identified the points where water is available. 270 taluks have been dried. More than 3,000 borewells have been dried in Bengaluru," he said. "Whatever water is coming, it is coming from Cauvery. The fifth stage will be completed only by May end. By May end, it will be completed, we are at it."

"We will see that we provide water at a very reasonable rate to all the people. We are concerned about it. Because all the borewells have been dried, including my house borewell also has been dried,” said Shivakumar.

The fifth stage of the Cauvery project is expected to add 775 MLD of water to the city. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had, in his budget speech last month, announced that 110 litres of drinking water would be provided to 12 lakh people daily at a cost of Rs 5,500 crore through the fifth stage of the Cauvery project.

One solution to the water crisis in the city, which has been suggested to the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, is to release tertiary treated water from Sewage Treatment Plants into the Bellandur and Varthur lakes.

“Bellandur and Varthur lakes have been drained for desilting and have been this way for the past four years, so no recharge of groundwater has happened,” said S Vishwanath of Biome Trust, who works closely with the BWSSB.

“All they have to do is release the tertiary treated water from STPs into these lakes. The hydrostatic pressure will push water into the ground and recharge the aquifers in a 10 kilometre influence zone and borewells will have water again,” he said. "This move is capable of recharging 102 million litres of water per day. Bellandur alone can recharge the equivalent of 5,500 tanker loads of 12,000 litres of water per day."

Bellandur and Varthur are not the only lakes which have been drained for desilting. There are at least 20 lakes that have been drained in the city and this has prevented recharging of the groundwater table.

Vishwanath said that this suggestion was put forth to the BBMP and they are likely to attempt this solution soon. BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath did not respond to requests for a comment.

The state government has allocated Rs 556 crore for dealing with the water crisis, of which each MLA representing Bengaluru has been allotted Rs 10 crore to resolve water scarcity in their constituencies.