In the recent years, Bengaluru has seen water scarcity as a major issue every summer. A report by IISc stated that Bengaluru is on the brink of becoming inhabitant by 2025.The rise of privately owned tankers delivering water has become a common sight as the borewells have run dry and most people are forced to pay four to five times the price of water and wait for a long time for the tankers to arrive.
As the Silicon hub has developed, the population has exploded to nearly four times in the 90’s. People have settled here in pursuits of a good career and the mild climate of Bengaluru along with the scenic lakes and greenery gives it the touch of perfection. Many eminent and prestigious institutes and colleges have also become the reason that it attracts a lot of students from the entire world and as we move on towards globalization, this will continue to grow.
But it seems that amidst all this development we have forgotten that the nature wouldn’t adjust to our needs. Since Bengaluru doesn’t have any running water bodies in a periphery of 100km around, our only source of water comes from the lakes which collect water during the monsoon. These lakes were made very strategically- they are all interconnected so that water is spread in the entire city and flooding doesn’t occur even when one part of the city receives more rainfall, which is very common here. However, with the increase in population, the privatization of borewells and inadequacy in maintaining the water sources, problems have started to become more prominent.
The reason for the increase in groundwater usage in India can be attributed to technological development in the last 50 years in the construction of deep tube wells, water pumping methods and has made large scale exploitation both economic and possible. At the same time as the agricultural uses have expanded, the support from government in the form of free electricity for pumping and easily available credits to set up tube wells has only increased the problem. Rapid urbanization and land use changes has decreased infiltration of rainfall and deforestation has also led to soil erosion instead of percolation of rainwater.
Karnataka in particular has been facing an issue of late monsoon and deficit water table throughout the year and the Cauvery water that was diverted to Bengaluru for household uses has been a source of discontent to the farmers residing in the other parts of the state as they haven’t been able to fulfill their agricultural needs and are demanding that something is done for them as the economy and their lives depend on their crops. The climate change has had such an impact on the monsoon that this year the rains arrived late and when they did, the rainfall recorded was five times than what it normally would rain in a day result of which was flooding in various parts of the state and a significant loss of lives and livestock. This did make up for the depleted water tables but with a very heavy price.
In this scenario Bengaluru is still suffering from less water availability. The poor standard of the drainage system in the city is to be blamed majorly for this. A lot of industrial waste discharge directly into the lakes resulting in polluted water which is neither fit for consumption nor for any other use. The problems are further aggravated when this water reaches other lakes due to the connected system and pollutes them as well. The foaming of the Bellandur lake is very infamous scenario in Bengaluru. While many citizens have become aware and are doing their bit, one can’t help but think why the authorities have been almost reluctant in stopping these industries from further polluting the lakes and why any initiatives are not being taken to clean our lakes and preserve them?
As a citizen of this city I feel that now it’s time we go back to the foundations that our forefathers laid and mix those ideas with scientific innovations from today to protect ourselves from this great catastrophe that we are encountering.
Stone inscriptions from as early as AD 600 have cited that kings used to spend a significant amount in construction of the ponds that helped the people throughout the year. With natural filtering many wells provided clean drinking water. Even today more than 50,000 wells are found in the country. Rooftop recharge of water is another common phenomenon seen in rainwater deficit areas of India.
Artificial recharge is a planned activity designed to replenish the water sources underground. Although its primary use is to preserve the water, it can also prevent surface runoff and disposal of flood waters, storage of water to reduce pumping costs, water quality improvement by filtration through the soils to remove suspended solids etc. In Karnataka, porosity in the coastal soil and connection to the sea means that less water is available than was injected. However, Bengaluru’s problems can be solved by these methods to a very large extent.
Some direct ways of recharging the groundwater can be classified based on the depth at which the aquifer is located. If the depth is shallow, water spread over a large field can easily percolate and get filtered through the various layers of soil and increase the groundwater. If aquifer is at a considerable depth, use of flooding pits and dug shafts can be beneficial. And if the depth is very high, injecting surface water directly into aquifer using borewells will be beneficial. Recharge through wells can be applied to all hydrological situations but the cost will be high and this will also require a lot of technological help. This is where the government can step in and allocate funds for these developments.
The role of percolation ponds has been appreciated in the farming community greatly and this is highlighted by the increased use of this technique.
Studies have highlighted that in the urban area almost all water needs are met with groundwater so it is almost impossible to ignore this aspect. While planting trees not only will help in avoiding runoff of water and increase surface water availability, they also help in transporting this water into the earth and fill up the water table. Water collected from rooftop harvesting can be transferred to a well below that will be a good source of water for the summer and avoid the running out of bore well water that again helps the rainwater to percolate and refill the ground water levels. Various apartment buildings can easily avail this method by a combined collection of money and setting up such tanks that cost around 5 lakhs.
In 2018, a project called ‘A Million Recharge Wells’ was launched by the Biome Environmental Trust and citizen network Friends of Lakes that aimed at rainwater harvesting and natural recharging of groundwater that can provide up to 400 million liters of water per day. This also aimed that increasing the water that reaches the aquifer from 10% to 60%. Such projects where the citizens and government collaborate can prove to be the ultimate solution of majority of water needs.
Rainwater harvesting can also help in reviving the dried-up lakes in Bengaluru. A strict law implementation can prevent the discharge of harmful pollutants into the lakes and make the water consumable. Also, flood pits can collect a lot of rainwater that will recharge groundwater effectively while avoiding losses due to flooding. Overall, even individual efforts will add up to protect us from running out of water. A proper recycling of sewage water can be an additional source of water and will benefit us. Mission Jal Shakti is based on these principles too, and its high time the matter is taken seriously in order to protect both nature and the living beings. Afterall, when we conserve water, we conserve life!
By,
Aastha Kamboj
