As the year comes to an end a look at the current water and sanitation situation in Bangalore and the challenges ahead is perhaps due. The census figures for 2011 came out this year and showed a whopping increase of almost 3 million people for the decade 2001 to 2011.

The requirement to provide water and sanitation to 9 million people poses by far the largest challenge.

Groundwater recharge pit - WIP. File pic: Divya Sharma

The big project to bring 500 million litres of water got approval in 2005. The deadline is March 2012. It is likely that the city will see these 500 million litres per day, providing some succour to a water short populace. But as to whom it will reach remains unclear.

However even more critical is that equity in water distribution be achieved. Some water for all and not all water for some should remain the principle to uphold. A pro-poor approach would mean extending connections to all citizens of Bangalore. This should be top priority for low-income households.

Rainwater harvesting

On the rainwater-harvesting front the city acted tough on the deadline of 31 Dec 2011 at least till the last 3 days of the year. It set up the country's first rainwater and water theme park in Jayanagar in the 5th Block and opened it up to the public for advice as well as to show how the city struggles to bring water. The first step in water literacy and water awareness for the citizens, especially school children began.

About 60 % of the city is rooftops and private sites. When a site is built upon, as opposed to when it is empty, the run-off during rains can go up from 5- 10 % to 90 %. Urban flooding becomes increasingly the norm.

More than four lakh bore-wells draw water from the aquifer and as the city cakes up from the top with buildings, roads and pavements infiltration becomes less and less.

It is also right that all those who cause the flooding, the bore-well depletion and consume BWSSB water also contribute in lessening the burden through rainwater harvesting.

Rainwater harvesting system. File pic:Vaishnavi Vittal

In 2011 around 50,000 buildings would have completed rainwater harvesting. The challenge in 2012 would be to persuade another 200,000 to adopt rainwater harvesting. This would start making a difference in the city.

Many parks have already adopted rainwater recharge in 2011 and by 2012 the big ones like Cubbon Park and Lalbagh and all the small ones should have harvested every drop falling on them.

The parks would also have started to make a switch to either become tree-based parks or start using treated wastewater instead of the groundwater, which they now consume.

Groundwater management

Bangalore is the first city in India to charge Rs 50/- a month per bore-well in the case of domestic connections. As a result of this surcharge, we have an inventory of the number of bore-wells operating to supplement the piped water.

The argument for the surcharge is that the water used from these bore-wells ends up in the sewage system and therefore has to be collected and treated. It costs the city Rs 17 per thousand litres to treat sewage to acceptable standards set by the Pollution Control Board.
That means if a family consumes say 25,000 litres per month about 20,000 litres goes out as sewage. The city utility has to spend Rs 340 to treat this sewage whereas the average family pays only Rs 15 per month.

The state government has even passed a Groundwater Bill in March this year. The rules and regulations are being drafted. 2012 will provide an opportunity to incorporate the sustainable management of groundwater as a long-term solution for the water requirement.

Hopefully groundwater will be seen as a community resource and not a private resource. Bore-wells will hopefully be metered and volumetric pricing introduced. Rainwater harvesting and recharge will be made compulsory so that the bore-well diggers and those who draw water from aquifers, which are common pool resource, will also replenish it to some extent.

Revival of surface water

Surface water bodies are the innumerable ‘tanks' of Bangalore survived a mixed year. A lot of noise was made to take up and upgrade a 100 of them. Some work was done but 2012 will be the make or break year for the tanks.

Much effort will be needed to demarcate and prevent the encroachment of the tanks. Pollution from point and non-point source will need to be tackled and things will need to be done sustainably rather than on an ad-hoc basis as the Ulsoor tank cleanup efforts have shown. Things can deteriorate quickly unless a management plan is in place and investments are made regularly.

The city also started to look at its role in a river basin in 2011. Investments are being made in reviving the river Arkavathy, once the main source for the city now dry. 2012 will show how actually the city plans to revive the river and whether it can regain it as a source.

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