Making urban India water-secure

With an estimated population of about 14 million, Bengaluru, known as the Silicon City of India, currently faces a severe water scarcity. Amidst the threat of heatwaves, the situation is expected to worsen and is unlikely to subside soon. The ongoing water scarcity is primarily due to EL Nino, which resulted in a failed monsoon last year. The city’s water demand is around 2100 MLD, of which around 1470 MLD is met by the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewage Board (BWSSB), with the rest sourced from groundwater. As borewells and major reservoirs in the Cauvery Basin dry up, several residential communities across the city are turning to private water supplies. In the absence of adequate and reliable municipal supply, during periods of acute water shortages, the unmet demand for water is mostly fulfilled by private suppliers, usually through the informal market.

These water mafias supplying water during crises will have an incentive to maximise profit by charging exorbitant prices, leading to widespread inequality in access to the scarce resource. It essentially means that high-value consumers who can afford to pay are prioritised over poor households struggling to meet their basic water needs. For instance, a 4000-litre supply of water supplied by a private tanker costing around Rs 600 a few months ago tripled to Rs 1,800 last month, prompting the government to enforce a cap on prices charged by private suppliers and take control over private borewells. Moreover, in the absence of clear disincentives for inefficient water usage, subsidised public water supply often results in free-riding and market failure.

Over the last few weeks, the government, the BWSSB, and a few residential communities have taken several measures to curb illegal extraction and inefficient water use by penalising consumers with heavy fines of up to Rs 5,000. While the government is trying to address the situation through rationing and encouraging consumers to use water judiciously, these coercive measures
have not significantly improved the situation.

With the government declaring over 220 taluks drought-hit and as water scarcity intensifies, farmers in Cauvery catchment areas are deprived of water as the water is diverted to Bengaluru, resulting in farmers’ agitation and inter-sectoral water conflicts. Diverting irrigation water to meet urban demand would also result in food inflation. Therefore, cities need to become self-sufficient in water management. 

The government and other stakeholders should act together to make cities water-secure by adopting both demand- and supply-side measures to conserve and augment water resources. Measures to conserve and improve water use efficiency, such as the adoption of water-saving technologies, replacing bulk water metres with individual smart metres, the implementation of efficient water pricing, and the use of treated greywater for non-potable purposes, are vital. Globally, studies show significant water savings with the adoption of smart metering and water-saving technologies. A few apartment complexes in Bengaluru could reduce water consumption by up to 35% after the installation of smart water metres.

Supply augmentation measures such as the installation of rainwater harvesting, increasing groundwater aquifer recharge, protecting and desilting lakes and wetland, and large-scale implementation of decentralised STPs are essential for ensuring adequate supply. The government can take inspiration from international experiences such as Singapore and China on sustainable management of water resources. The sponge city concept in
China and the NEWater project in Singapore are great examples of harnessing rainwater and recycled wastewater to mitigate drought.

In the absence of demand-side management policies to conserve and improve water use efficiency, there is a growing consensus that predominantly supply-driven approaches to managing urban water resources have resulted in mismanagement and overexploitation. Moreover, these lopsided supply-side measures are often expensive and unsustainable, widening the demand-supply gap. Before the beginning of the century, most of the cities in India, including Bengaluru, were predominately based on nature-based solutions such as ponds and lakes to meet their water needs. As cities across India expand, it is important to understand their past to chart a sustainable water future.

(The writer is an assistant professor of economics at RV University, Bengaluru.)