Thirsty days ahead

With over 50 percent of the population poised to shift to cities in the coming decades, it is time our city planners take serious note of vital resources, like water.

Catering to water requirements of millions living in dense regions will be a challenge. Already groundwater is fast receding, and what natural water bodies are left are being encroached upon most unscrupulously by land developers. In the rush for homes and offices, very few are stopping to think about the vital ingredient to life.

"Lake 2010," a symposium on "Wetlands, Biodiversity and Climate Change" held in Bangalore saw scientists at Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), IISc, caution against blatant exploitation of groundwater and poor maintenance of lakes. If trends continue, in a few years from now, Bangalore will neither have groundwater or river water left, they said.

The study found that the built-up area in the city had increased by a whopping 466 percent between 1973 and 2007. Due to this, the City's temperature shot up by at least two degrees. Creating more wetlands, the study revealed, was the right solution. The IISc had shown a way to raise the water table through plantations and creating a water body in the campus.

Surprisingly, for a city of technocrats that once boasted to be India's Silicon Valley, the literacy level about ecological conservation among Bangaloreans is just 3.5 per cent! Speaks a lot about why we the Garden City has turned Traffic City?!

Water has been pouring from our taps since years, and nobody believes this water is fast disappearing. Unlike food which we can still try grow on our own, we cannot manufacture water. Any ideas?