Subir Roy: Barely a drop to drink

OFFBEAT

This is what Bangalore weather used to be like most of the year, said my neighbour and long-term resident, pointing to the overcast sky, the slight nip in the air and showers every so often. I couldn't agree with him more. But what neither he nor I could figure out was why there should be such an acute water shortage even when we are in the middle of a monsoon that has arrived on time and is behaving so well.

There is an easy correlation between the rains and water supply in Karnataka which lives by its reservoirs. When these are doing fine life is bountiful. As the dry months inch towards the arrival of the monsoons, water in the reservoirs is preserved and taps run dry. Nobody complains as instead of saving for a rainy day, you are readying for the day when the rains may fail.

But when it is raining so good, the reservoirs are approaching their high water mark and even neighbouring states are getting their share of the river water without any shouting, why on earth should water supply be so appalling? The answer is simple. Leaving aside inefficiencies and leakages (deliberate and accidental), there are simply too many people needing too much water.

What has made things worse and what indicates that we are going down the road to perdition is the issue of ground water. My neighbour tells the story of the unfortunate person down another road who bored a well and failed to get any water. In some areas in the city now, you have to go down to as much as 700-800 feet to get water and then hope it will last for a few years.

But in some areas like Koramangala you can still get ground water at less than 100 feet, says my neighbour, ruing his luck in being in the wrong neighbourhood. Thereby hangs the most calamitous tale. What was a low lying water body has been drained out, courtesy a modern drainage system. The water body which played its role in recharging ground water is now host to a built-up neighbourhood whose postal address is Sarjapur Tank Bed!

Wells earlier served both the poor and the better off. In some poor areas the municipal corporation sunk wells and ran mini water-supply schemes. Now many of those wells have gone dry, courtesy the falling water table. The city is currently pinning its hopes on a massive new water supply scheme which will cost nearly Rs 3,500 crore and bring water all the way from the Cauvery rive nearly 100 km away after having to lift it a thousand feet. This is the fifth such scheme since the '70s on which till now nearly Rs 1,500 crore have been spent.

Such is the pace and depth of urbanisation that by the time the latest scheme is completed, there is sure to be too little water to go round. As the rain water floods the streets, creates misery for those who live in low lying areas and then goes to waste, we seem to be missing an obvious solution. Catch that water, shove it into the ground and then draw it according to need, creating an endless cycle of recharge and drawal of aquifers which never run dry.

But for that you need very large water bodies and strategically dug wells for recharging. Where is the space for that in an already developed urban agglomeration? Here is how. Use satellite imagery to identify existing aquifers and watersheds. Spend the next Rs 5,000 crore on acquiring land in low lying areas and along watersheds where you can have water bodies and wells to recharge the aquifers. And then levy a fee for drawing this ground water. This will be both self-financing and sustainable.

subir.roy@bsmail.in