Bengaluru water crisis affecting people's savings, experts warn it may lead to disease and illness

Be it high-rise apartments with up-to-date amenities or standalone buildings, huts in slums, taps everywhere in Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru are running dry. Also, the borewells that supply water to many households are empty.

Bengaluru, where IT aspirants compete to get high-paying jobs, is now fighting for water and paying hefty amount to get tankers deliver the natural resource to their homes.

What led to water scarcity in Bengaluru?

The information technology (IT) hub, or the “Silicon Valley”, of India, Bengaluru primarily gets its water supply from two sources - Cauvery river and groundwater. For non-drinking purposes, people use recycled water processed by sewage treatment plants.

However, with no rain for a while now, and not even in sight, the primary sources have been stretched to their limits.

On a daily basis, Bengaluru needs atleast 2,600-2,800 million litres of water. The current supply is merely half of what the demand is.

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The situation is expected to get worse, warns experts, citing rising mercury levels in the lead up to summer.

Bengaluru battles for water

In Bengaluru, people are being advised to use water judiciously. They are being encourage to bathe on alternative days (only if they have adequate water) and limit washing clothes and utensils.

Also, households and eateries are being encouraged to use disposable cutlery amid the water crisis.

Ordering food from outside, forced to use toilets in malls

Barely having water to drink, people in Bengaluru are avoiding cooking at home and opting for ordering in from outside.

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Also, advised to use water sparingly, residents in Bengaluru are using disposable items so that they don’t have to regularly wash utensils used in cooking and for eating.

Many people in the Karnataka’s capital are also rushing to malls to use toilets there to conserve whatever water they have left back home.

Fight for water

The CNN report quoted Susheela, a resident of the suburb of Bandepalya, who has four members in her family saying, “Sometimes fights break out, there is a lot of arguing" when water tanks arrives. “But what do we do? We need water. We are desperate,” she said.

Just like Susheela, most of the residents of Bandepalya line up from 9 in the morning to be the first ones to fill their buckets where the water tanker arrives in the area.

“We get water once in 15 days and have to buy water on a daily basis,” Kumkum, another resident from Bandepalya, was quoted as saying.

Kumkum further said she is using bottled water to wash her children’s faces in the mornings.

Susheela also highlighted that almost all the residents of Bandepalya typically earn between 6,000 – 8,000 rupees a month, and now with crisis looming large, they have no choice but to spend half their earnings buying water from the tankers.

Bengaluru water crisis may lead to disease outbreak

The report quoted social worker Geeta Menon, who works with low-income communities in Bengaluru, saying the water crisis in the city could give rise to diseases and illness as hygiene levels drop.

“Children are defecating on the streets as there’s no water at home, they’re going thirsty, people are unable to cook,” she said. “This is not just a short-term problem, but will have long-term repercussions if it continues," Menon said.

Serpentine queues at ATMs & water ATMs

On one end, there are long queues outside ATMs where people are lining up to withdraw money to pay water tankers to keep a bit of stock at home, many people are congregating outside water ATMs that has become a source of hope for many amid shortage.

In Bengaluru, water ATMs or water dispensers, which are basically small purification or RO (reverse osmosis) plants, are located across wards. They are usually unmanned and operate from early morning to late evening. These ATMs dispense 20 litres of water for Rs 5.

Drastic fall in water spread area

According to climate scientist, Prof TV Ramachandra from IISc’s Centre for Ecological Sciences, water spread area in Bengaluru has decreased drastically to 696 hectares in 2023 from 2,324 hectares in 1973. This decline is believed to be the main cause of the depleting groundwater table across the southern city.

Water crisis warning ignored?

“I have been warning about this for over a decade… It’s a culmination of unplanned urban growth, rapid deforestation and the ongoing climate crisis – and everyone is paying the price," a report by CNN quoted Ramachandra as saying.

He further said, “Rapid urbanisation and the decline of waterbodies could also worsen the impact of the climate crisis, contributing to a rise in the Bengaluru’s temperatures.”

Unplanned urbanisation has led to several issues including resource inequity, traffic congestion, and slum spread in Bengaluru.

With inputs from agencies