Parched times

It is summer. Temperatures are rising and land already wearing a parched look. The most sought commodity, water, is on a retreating march, and this at a time when it is needed most. But let us look at some data and studies to see if there is really a scarcity or simply bad management.

Take a city like Bangalore. It has a population of 85 lakhs, which will exceed 1 crore by 2016 and be 1.26 crores by 2020, 2 crores by 2030 at the current annual growth rate of 4%. Where does it get its water from? Most of it it from a distance - horizontal and vertical!

About 850 MLD to 900 MLD is pumped up from Cauvery across a distance 98 kms. This is after accounting for water meant for industrial purposes (50 mld) and a huge unnaccounted for water owing to leakages (45 percent or 450 mld).

Going by trends, in 2020 the average Bangalorean will be able to access 73 lpcd (litres per capita per day) while the GoI norm is 150!

Then there is the vertical drilling for groundwater which goes unchecked. There are about 312,000 borewells in the metropolitan area, of which only a third is registered! A recent study by the Department of Mines and Geology,Groundwater Hydrology and Groundwater Quality in and Around Bangalore City, showed that samples between 5% and 29% are having toxicity beyond permissible limit for drinking water in respect of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Fluoride, Nitrate, Magnesium, Manganese, Copper, Lead, aluminium and Zinc. The most alarming phenomenon is that the toxicity in underground water is steadily increasing.

Even more alarming is that the drawal of water from the borewells is almost thrice the recharging by rainfall! If this continues, within a couple of years the city will be dry.

What can be done is simple, as always, but avoids attention because it means a change of habits. River water pumped using electricity MUST be used sparingly and only for potable purposes and NOT for cleaning cars and gardening. Recycled, treated sewage water must be used for all other purposes. There are treatment plants, most running below capacity! Once tertiary treatment is included, we can have the NEWater that Singapore now uses for all its requirements.

Lakes must be restored and kept clean by not allowing sewage water to flow into them. Once upon a time it was this water that addressed the needs of the populace. Experts believe that lakes and rainwater alone can cater to the needs of the city.

Groundwater must be used only as an option where all else fails. Else, we will be depleting our million year old aquifer for ages to come.