Where’s water for new apartments?

Where’s water for new apartments?
G Manjusainath, Apr 3, Bangalore:

Most multi-storeyed residential apartments in the City are fully dependent on the already depleted groundwater.

The groundwater table has gone down so drastically in many areas that getting water is not guaranteed even at depths of 800 to 1,000 feet. In these circumstances, how do the mushrooming new apartments cope up?

Huge apartment complexes are coming up in Sarjapura, Chandapura and Electronic City where the water table has already gone down. Many top builders participating in a realty show here, admitted that getting Cauvery water for these projects is next to impossible. Beyond borewells, they are now exploring water from sewage treatment and rainwater harvesting.

At the realty show organised by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) on Saturday, executives of Puravankara Builders, Sobha Developers, August Park and G R Lavender said most of the new projects are dependent on bore wells. For other household purposes, they are also banking on rain water harvesting and sewage treatment.

An executive of Oysters Real Assets, K Sairam said Cauvery water has not reached entire Bangalore to quench everyone’s thirst. So the primary source of water in the new projects including Oysters’ project is bore well water.

Tragically in many of the new projects, sewage water treatment plant is just a show piece. For, the dirty water is directly let into the nearest water body, polluting it day after day. An instance of this glaring abuse where sewage water is directly let into the lakes are Madiwala Lake, Dorekere, Hosakere in Kengeri Satellite Town and Subramanyapura Lake. There are many more lakes to add to the list.

A social worker of Kengeri Satellite Town Shiva Kumar says, “If the water gets polluted, the groundwater will not remain potable for long. A polluted water body invites hundreds of diseases so people would even consider soil filling it to get rid of diseases. We have to wake up now and act,” Shiva Kumar said.