JOIN USSevere water crisis looms large over City
An acute water crisis looms large over Bangalore this summer, if the monsoon fails again as the levels of reservoirs that supply water to the City have depleted dangerously due to last year’s scarce rains.
The warning comes from the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), despite the Board’s delivery of an additional 500 million litres (MLD) of water to the City daily, under Cauvery IV stage II phase, last year.
Bangalore needs nearly 1.2 tmc (thousand million cubic feet of water) of water per month, which includes evaporation and transmission loss. By this calculation, the board has estimated a requirement of nearly eight tmc of water for Bangalore till June.
BWSSB sources told Deccan Herald that a letter elaborating on the City’s current water supply and the requirement till the monsoon has already been dispatched to the Centre, to alert them on the grim situation.
A series of meetings are also being conducted at the board level to find ways to meet the increased demand for water, particularly this summer. Although the board might be able to meet the drinking water needs, creating awareness on judicious use of water would be a priority, the sources said.
The BWSSB draws water from the KRS (Krishna Raja Sagara) and Kabini reservoirs to supply water to the City. On Friday, the water level at the KRS was recorded at 83.06 feet as against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 124.8 feet. The Kabini’s level was even lower at 56.46 feet as against the FRL of 2,284 feet.
The BWSSB has already exhausted the total drawal from the Cauvery basin last year after commissioning the new water project. It had to discontinue drawing water from the Tippagondanahalli (TG halli) reservoir, the other source which used to supply 30 MLD of water, owing to the depleting reservoir levels.
The BWSSB is now completely dependent on Cauvery water. It draws 1,400 MLD of water per day to over six lakh consumers having authorised connections. With the commissioning of the new project, the BWSSB has proposed to increase the water connections to eight lakhs this year.
Dr V S Prakash, Director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre, warned that with such dismal reservoir levels, the situation is certainly not looking bright this summer.
“Drinking water may not be a problem as far as Bangalore City is concerned, but water is also used for many other purposes by industries and other manufacturing sectors. With over 40 per cent reduction in the reservoir level, agriculture sector will definitely be affected,” said Prakash.
He said once the water crisis surfaces, the blame game will certainly begin, which will never solve the problem. “Individual introspection is required to acknowledge that water is precious and should not be wasted,” he added.