Bengaluru has lost 79% of its water bodies in past four decades

The least that a city with 11-million population and an economy valued at $44.3 billion (approximate gross domestic product) could do is be water-secure.
Bengaluru, lately, has been staring at doomsday predictions with regard to its depleting water sources and its frothing, burning lakes. A BBC report, earlier this month, claimed that the IT city would follow South Africa’s Cape Town and soon run out of drinking water. A more recent assessment by Down To Earth, a publication of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), echoed that the number of water bodies in the city has reduced by 79% in the past four decades due to unplanned urbanisation and encroachment. Simultaneously, builtup area has increased from 8% in 1973 to 77% presently.

With the daily supply of water from the Cauvery and borewells becoming inadequate, an estimated 40% of the Bengaluru’s population is dependent on groundwater. The water table has shrunk from 10-12 metres to 76-91 metres since 1997. To top that, the city is expected to face harsher summers.

As if offering a double whammy, the state legislative assembly recently introduced a Bill to disband the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority (KLCDA) Act, 2014. It will be merged with the Tank Authority (chaired by the chief minister) to undertake lake maintenance. In its place, the Minor Irrigation Department will become the custodian of lakes and supervise rejuvenation. If enforced, this move stands to restrict community access to the 208 lakes within Bengaluru city limits and 835 lakes in Bengaluru (urban) district. It could also prevent community use of lakes for education, research and afforestation activities.

Experts, however, say that Bengaluru may not run out of water if urban planning engages more critically with the city’s terrain, along with propagation of knowledge about the local history of lakes, meaningful community engagement and ownership of water bodies.

Urban infrastructure expert V Ravichandar believes that there is a strong case for political parties to embrace the problem on a war-footing during and after elections. “Water is an emotive subject. People believe that Bengaluru will not go dry but also fear that fate. This problem has to be treated in a composite manner, taking into consideration lakes, wells, storm water drains and rainwater harvesting capacities, instead of just concentrating on pumping water into the city from faraway places.”


GOING LOCAL
Historically, Bengaluru was called the “city of a thousand lakes”. Located in the rain shadow region, its water needs were met by a series of tanks, all of which were manmade. Chieftains and commoners alike came forward to build and protect water bodies. The oldest proof of this is an 870 AD stone inscription near Agara lake which states how a citizen fixed sluice gates and built the lake’s eastern tank. Settlements often developed around lakes. It was a sacred site whose maintenance was a community effort.

Seema Mundoli, faculty at Azim Premji University’s School of Development, explained how this tradition was taken forward by the Hoysala rulers. “They were tank builders and they used the words ‘sandras’ or ‘samudras’ to indicate large water bodies.” Importance to water continued when Kempe Gowda founded Bengaluru in 1537 AD and when Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan planted trees and imported exotic plant species to improve the city’s green cover.

“When the British formed the Cantonment in 1809, they provided funds for digging wells and encouraged use of water bodies for agriculture, cultivation of flowers and fruit gardens, brick-making and laundering clothes,” said Mundoli.


COLONIAL MINDSET
With the growing population and creation of new residential localities after the bubonic plague in 1898, restrictions were imposed on lakes as a community resource. It began to be viewed as an accessory for recreation. This colonial mindset, Mundoli said, has continued to prevail in urban, post-Independent India. This mindset was also behind seeking water bodies outside Bengaluru for the city’s drinking water needs. In 1892, s scheme to pump water from the Hesaraghatta lake was estimated to be adequate for a population of two lakh at the rate of 10 gallons per person per day for a period of 20 years (Bengaluru’s population was 1,80,336 then). However, water scarcity began to be felt as early as 1907. Temporary measures were taken to pump water from the Y Chetty lake situated 10 miles East of Bengaluru.

In 1930, the Thippagondanahalli scheme was proposed, which involved building a dam across the Arkavathi river around 20 miles away from Bengaluru. Even that was not sufficient for the exploding population. That is when the Cauvery scheme was implemented in 1970 which, even today, pumps water from over 140 km to Bengaluru.

Harini Nagendra, professor of sustainability at Azim Premji University, calls for a mindset change that views management of these man-made lakes as commons and ecosystems that support ecological and economical uses.

According to her, while authorities go farther and farther in the quest for water to meet the demands of an expanding city, the local water sources will serve our future needs. “With our water-intensive lifestyle, it is important to go local. This requires multiple levels of collaboration and a decentralised approach where even local panchayats and ward committees are empowered.”

While urbanisation has excluded various communities whose lifestyle depended on lakes, Nagendra says that some innovation is required to reimagine ways in which lake spaces are used in order to make people more passionate about preservation. “Instead of creating private walking areas, conduct community activities like birding, growing medicinal gardens and conducting field visits for schools and colleges around the lake’s history,” she says.

UNITED WE STAND
An important part of rejuvenating local water resources involves community involvement, which the repealing of the KLCDA Act might impede. “The proposed Bill also states that authorities can allow construction of tanks and bridges if tank capacity is not reduced but this can be misused by digging the tank deeper,” says V Ramprasad, convenor, Friends of Lakes, who has submitted a memorandum to Governor Vajubhai Vala, rejecting the handover to the Minor Irrigation Department. “There must also be a strong legislation and punishment for lake encroachments.”

TV Ramachandra of the Indian Institute of Science had told ET that the government was being irresponsible by trusting the Minor Irrigation Department with lakes. It warrants both capacity and political will to preserve the city’s lakes, he said, calling for the removal of all additional custodians and making KLCDA a nodal agency with “more teeth and economic freedom”.

An official at KLCDA, who did not want to be named, said that communities have been central to their work but their various proposals — including those that use data to prioritise lakes that need immediate attention — are stuck because there is no further development on the proposed Bill. KLCDA CEO Seema Garg proposed construction of wetlands and decentralised sewage treatment plants as a solution to tackle sewage entering lakes.

Ramprasad, who is working on a project to revive Bengaluru’s open wells, believes that rainwater harvesting (RWH) should be propagated aggressively.


Bengaluru has an average rainfall of about 800 mm across 1,250 sq km which translates into 2,740 million litres of water per day. However, while regulations make RWH mandatory in homes and commercial establishments, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board officials say that only 96,000 out of 1.96 lakh have installed RWH systems. “We collect up to Rs 2.17 crore in penalties per month but some people just do not want to follow regulations,” says engineer-in-chief Kemparamaiah.

A study conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Change observed that 79% of properties that had complied with RWH norms did so because of compulsion and not will. This could change with greater awareness, experts say, such as monetising RWH, akin to solar power generation.

As Nagendra puts it, “We in the IT city do not realise that technical solutions and quick fixes are always at hand. What is required to save lakes is to build a behaviour that makes people use their resources more responsibly.”