City heads into watery jam

City heads into watery jam

Bangalore has exceeded its share of Cauvery water allocated by the dispute tribunal

Basavaraj Itnaal. Bangalore

The receding storage level at the KRS reservoir is only half the tragedy facing Bangalore as far as its drinking water woes are concerned.
The other half of the story is that the city has already exceeded its share of Cauvery waters allocated by the final award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT), while the Central Ground Water Board has already banned exploitation of ground water way back in 2005. This means that Bangalore can neither draw anymore water from Cauvery basin, whether the KRS has water or not, nor can it use ground water.
Former PWD secretary Capt Raja Rao, who also headed various high-level committees, has submitted a report to the government last week suggesting remedial measures.
Rao told Sunday DNA that the government was not doing enough to augment the water resources while it was spending huge amounts on distribution networks and pumping systems.
"What is more, the government formed Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) without considering the consequences on water demand. The BWSSB too does not have any plan to create additional resources," he said.
No more Cauvery for city
The CWDT order apportions 8.75 thousand million cubic (TMC) feet of water for drinking purposes not just for Bangalore but for the entire population of Cauvery basin.
Capt Rao said in his report that BWSSB has already exceeded this limit. Further, the highly water intensive crop of sugarcane is being grown in Cauvery basin in an area of about 1,20,000 acres, which is much above the CWDT cap of 40,000 acres.
"We will land in serious trouble if the Tamil Nadu raises objection to this. On one hand we cannot ask farmers to grow a less profitable crop to save water and then divert more water to Bangalore. It is a grim situation," he said.
According to sources in the BWSSB, the city is already drawing 12 TMC feet of water from the Cauvery river.
No tubewells
The Karnataka Mines and Geology department along with Central Ground Water Board had in 2005 reported that entire Bangalore Urban and Bangalore Rural districts had over exploited ground water.
This means that no more tube wells can be allowed.
In fact, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board has made it mandatory for developers to depend only on BWSSB water and not ground water. The BWSSB on its part is assuring the developers that water would be supplied only if it is available.