Parched: Why Bengaluru is reeling from a severe water scarcity

Bengaluru is facing a major water crisis amid a drought in parts of Karnataka and declining groundwater levels. The situation is so grim that the Karnataka government had to intervene to regulate water supply.  

Bengaluru residents have been urged to use water judiciously in the wake of scarcity of the resource. Last week, Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar said the state government would take control of all private water tankers.  

Let’s take a closer look.

Bengaluru water crisis

Due to the acute water shortage in Bengaluru, the cost of private water tankers have significantly shot up. Earlier, a 5,000-litre water tanker cost Rs 500, which has now jumped to Rs 2,000.  

A 12,000-litre tanker, which previously cost about Rs 1,200-Rs 1,300, is now being sold at Rs 3,000, reported Indian Express.  

“We pay three times the price for one load of water through tankers. When we pay Rs 2,000, they arrive soon. When we negotiate to Rs 1,500, we need to wait three-four days. The problem is only worsening,” a Bengaluru resident told NDTV.  

Apartment complexes and gated societies have also been hit, with some starting to issue guidelines for the residents on the usage of water. A housing society in the city threatened to impose a Rs 5,000 fine on its residents for misusing drinking water.  

In a recent notice, Palm Meadows housing society in Whitefield alleged it had not received water from the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) for the past four days. It further said that “we have been managing with our borewells and run the risk of depletion of groundwater very soon”, reported India Today.  

Another well-known society in Kanakapura told its residents that “the RTO (Regional Transport Office) & BWSSB authorities are seizing all water tankers to ensure water delivery to areas facing severe water scarcity, where there is completely no water available.”

“As a result of this unprecedented action, our water sumps have been depleted, and we currently have no water available in them. At present, we only have water stored in the overhead tanks (OHTs), which may not last much longer.

“At most, the water supply will be available for the next one hour. Once the OHTs run out of water, there will be no further water supply available to us."

As per India Today, Whitefield, Yelahanka and Kanakapura are some of the worst-hit areas.

Many apartments in the city have also banned washing of vehicles and closed their swimming pools temporarily.  

Vikram Rai, general secretary of the Bangalore Apartment Federation, told Indian Express, “Apartments built in the peripheral areas of Bengaluru are dependent on their own borewells which have also gone dry due to shortage of groundwater resources. Overall, we are facing a deficit of 50 per cent in ground water supply. We have asked housing complexes to monitor their water consumption and explore ways in which it can be reduced.”

According to BWSSB, the situation is somewhat manageable in central parts of the city but it is serious in the outskirts of Bengaluru.  

What’s behind Bengaluru’s water crisis?

The inadequate rainfall last year led to a notable plunge in the water levels of the Cauvery River. This has hit the drinking water supply and agricultural irrigation. Many borewells in the IT city are also running dry, making the situation graver.  

According to Indian Express, Bengaluru has two main sources of water –    1,450 million litres per day (MLD) of surface water from the Cauvery and 700 MLD from borewells dug by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The BWSSB is in charge of supplying this water.  

As of 28 February, the water levels in key Cauvery Basin reservoirs, including Harangi, Hemavathi, KRS, and Kabini, were at just 39 per cent of their total capacity, Economic Times (ET) reported citing the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre (KSNDMC).  

As per the BWSSB, the “water input” to Bengaluru has fallen by 50 per cent.

Deputy chief minister Shivakumar reportedly said that 6,997 of the 16,791 borewells in the city are now dry, including the one at his house.  

According to Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, 223 of the 236 talukas in the state are affected by drought, including Mandya and Mysuru districts, the sources of Bengaluru’s water.

Speaking to Indian Express, BWSSB chairman Ram Prasath Manohar blamed poor monsoon and over-concretisation in the city for the depletion of water table. “Tanks are not filled due to massive urbanisation, which is why lakes are also running dry, contributing to the overall depletion of groundwater resources. In Bengaluru, we are running short of groundwater supply in 110 villages, especially in the east zone regions of Varthur, Bellandur etc,” he explained.  

As summer intensifies, about 7,082 villages across Karnataka and 1,193 wards are at risk of witnessing a drinking water crisis in the coming months, an assessment by the government in February revealed, according to ANI.    

What is the Karnataka government doing? 

The Karnataka government has taken over private water tankers, borewells and irrigation wells amid the water scarcity in Bengaluru.    

“To streamline this water crisis, I am just trying to take over. We will see that there will be an equal share of everything and ensure they will not exploit the situation,” NDTV quoted Shivakumar as saying.

The deputy CM has asked private operators to register their water tankers with the authorities before 7 March or their vehicles would be seized. “Of the total 3,500 water tankers in Bengaluru city, only 10 per cent, that is 219 tankers, have registered with the authorities. The government will seize them if they don’t register before the deadline,” he said at a press conference on Monday.

Shivakumar also said the government plans to hold a meeting with the water tanker operators’ association on Thursday to come up with a standardised pricing mechanism according to the distance between water source and delivery point, reported ET.

The state government has also decided to deploy unused milk tankers from the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) to transport water to the capital city.  

CM Siddaramaiah said the government will set up control rooms at taluk levels and issue helpline numbers. “There will be district and taluk level control rooms to face the water crisis. A helpline will be created. The state government will take up all the measures to tackle the water crisis and will ensure that there is no shortage of funds,” he said, as per PTI.  

The chief minister also announced the Cauvery V Stage project which aims to provide piped drinking water to 110 villages in the 2024-2025 budget speech. The project worth Rs 5,550 crore is expected to be completed by May this year.  

With inputs from agencies