Restaurants tweak routine to cope with water crisis

Restaurants are badly hit by the severe shortage confronting Bengaluru this summer.

Business owners Metrolife spoke to said they were going all out to use water sparingly.

With tankers hiking up their prices and taking up to three days to deliver, restaurant owners are considering digging new borewells.

“Some have borewells but they have dried up. That is why they are thinking of new borewells that will go deeper,” says Madhukar Shetty, president, Karnataka Pradesh Restaurants Association.

Areas like HSR Layout, Whitefield and Devanahalli are the worst affected. They have to dig 800-1,200 ft.

Conservation steps

P C Rao, president, Bruhat Bangalore Hotels Association (BBHA), says some eateries have introduced disposable plates and cutlery.

“This concept was introduced during Covid, so we have been able to adapt easily,” he says.

However, Shetty explains restaurants under his association have not been able to make this switch. “Storage and disposal only add to our woes,” he says. Some restaurants are using water used for washing utensils to clean the toilets and water their gardens. 

Many restaurants are promoting bottled water, instead of providing customers with RO water. “We have stopped filling up glasses with filtered water as soon as customers walk in. We have also reduced the size of our glasses,” Shetty says.

Restaurants had noticed that people tend to waste water served in 300 ml glasses. So they now serve water in 180 ml glasses, he says. 

Eateries under the BBHA have set a goal to reduce water consumption by 20%. One of the ways they plan to achieve the target is by training employees to conserve water. Daily cleaning in certain areas, like the front of the restaurant, will be avoided, Rao adds.

Putting up advisories in all restrooms is a step restaurants under the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) are adopting, says H Chethan Hegde, president of the Bengaluru chapter. By dry-mopping the floors, promoting bottled water and providing house water only on request, member-restaurants hope to save water.

Many businesses are worried about maintaining their landscaping, he says.

Price increase?

Shetty says the water shortage will not result in a price hike on the menu. “This is a temporary problem and will sort itself out once the summer is over,” he says. 

Member restaurants of NRAI hiked prices just recently when liquor prices went up.