City of a thousand cesspools?

City of a thousand cesspools?

Staff Reporter
Bangalore: At the receiving end of the city’s sewage, inundated with debris and encroached upon by unauthorised buildings, the 937 lakes that once gave Bangalore the epithet “city of 1,000 lakes” have shrunk to 84. Government departments and statutory bodies with legal powers to protect the lakes “are shirking their responsibility” according to a recent concept paper on lakes authored by V. Balasubramanian, former Additional Chief Secretary.

These government bodies include Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, Revenue Department, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, Bangalore Development Authority and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board.

Dire need
To meet the projected water needs of the city “there is no alternative except to restore and clean up the 900 lakes… and draw water from them as was done till 1970s when the Cauvery schemes were implemented,” wrote Mr. Subramanian, and added, “Drinking water needs of Bangalore’s population by the year 2020, which will exceed one crore, cannot be met as there is no scope for sourcing Cauvery river due to inter-State sharing limit.”