In the throes of water woes...

For decades, the residents of Whitefield and its surroundings basked in the past glory of the 18th century Eurasian settlement, taking pride in nature’s bounty. But now, in the middle of another cruel summer, they are faced with a daunting water shortage. It couldn’t get any worse particularly for those living outside the gated communities and the apartment complexes.

The problem is getting acute in the villages in Whitefield area, which are part of the 110 brought under the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The water woes get worse when even the basic infrastructure is non-existent. D Venkateshiah, a resident of one such village, Ramagondanahalli, recalls how used to go with friends to swim in the Varthur Lake on Whitefield’s periphery. Today it is a cesspool.

“I have been living here for the past 60 years and have seen all the shades of this area. Water was never a crisis as it was available in abundance, catering even to the agricultural fields.  But now the same residents have to pay huge amount for a can of drinking water,” he laments.

As he informs, most for the residents here depended completely on dug wells. These wells supplied sufficient water to the population then. Now they are all gone, and even the borewells that replaced them have hit rock bottom.

With the population on the rise, the demand for water has only gone up, leading to indiscriminate sinking of more borewells. Naturally, the groundwater table has depleted to alarming levels.

But there are still a few areas, where borewells are yielding good quantity of water. This has triggered a spike in the business of supplying water through tankers to the parched areas, for a price.

How long will these borewells yield water, wonders Narayanappa, another resident of the area, as he mocks the local people’s ignorance about water scarcity. “Despite the groundwater regulations and a new rule mandating compulsory permission to sink any new borewell, people have been digging new borewells in close proximity.

The government here is also not bothered to check on the indiscriminate sinking,” he notes.The gated communities here are unaware about the water source as most of them still completely depend on borwell water.

  But there are also residents such as Cecil K Dewars, who are worried about the depleting groundwater levels and wish to replenish it in their own way.  Rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems have been installed in his house. He has also created recharge wells to put the water back into the ground.

“People are only bothered about extracting water from mother earth and not about putting it back.  If one really cares for their children, grand-children and for the next generation, it is important to replenish our aquifer,” he says.   

Residents are not the only ones facing the water crisis. At the Whitefield railway station, the taps are switched off once a train passes. All the borewells that had once met the station’s water needs, are running low. More borewells are dug. But the station master is not sure how long they will last.

In most villages that fall under Whitefield area, water pipelines are yet to be laid. Although sanitary lines were laid in certain patches, the work is so shabby that the residents have dug their own soak pits to dispose off the waste water.

Air pollution is another big Whitefield issue. The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), in its daily air pollution recording, places Whitefield and surrounding areas among the severely affected zones. KSPCB officials attribute the high air pollution level to the constant movement of vehicles. The dusty, muddy village roads, makes it only worse.