For years Bengaluru faced a water crisis over the time. Bengaluru, the hub of IT and home to a huge population, usually faces a water crisis every summer. Every year, the water crisis keeps increasing from water drying up litre by litre. But now that people are aware of conservation, water harvesting, and a lot more environmental practices, what still is there that is leading to the Bengaluru water crisis?
In 2024, since March, the news has been getting widespread coverage regarding the Bengaluru water crisis on how rapidly the water level is decreasing or going down. But what could worsen the situation more is the news regarding the borewells drying up, due to which people are not getting water supply properly, where the people in Bengaluru are unable to perform their regular activities involving water, which is getting affected daily. People there are not even getting one-fifth of the water, which is supplied for the household activities such as cleaning, washing, cooking, etc.
Bengaluru is living on a fractured hard rock aquifer and is already getting water from deep borewells. Because of their low existence in the city, people are forced to rely on water tankers, where the population is increasing, leading to more urbanised areas in the country, resulting in the vanishing of greenery. Reservoirs are getting used up, because of which the supply of water is going low.
Since 2018, the average amount of rainfall has been minimised, and because of this, according to data, in 2023, the southwest area of Karnataka will see a significant rainfall shortage.
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Political Take on the Bengaluru Water Crisis
The Bengaluru water crisis is an environmental issue to be handled seriously and has become more of a political issue; where on the one hand, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is severely stating how important it is to take care of the Bengaluru water crisis, by calling out on people to not use water much for useless work.
A statement released by the CM of Karnataka said that there is no Bengaluru water crisis in the state, whereas according to various data released by BWSSB, which overlooks the water supply in the state, how the greenery of Bengaluru is shrinking by 22%, leading to immense disturbance in shortage and flooding in the city.
According to a report by Bengaluru Mirror, stated that Shubha Ramachandran, the water team lead at Biome Environmental, said that millions of rechargeable water wells are required in the city of IT hub, which is not available due to which Bengaluru water crisis arises every year, and to reach that number of wells, they have reached to its 25%. Also, this assures the fact that the people of Bengaluru are aware of that water crisis and are working with them to stabilise the water level of Bengaluru.
The Reason Behind the Bengaluru Water Crisis
With the summer stroke in Bengaluru, water issues arise, but this happens every year; where since the start of summer, residents of Bengaluru started facing scarce water levels, and the reasons behind it are:
No Proper Execution of Water Government Schemes
Despite the introduction of various water schemes by the central government, people are facing water shortages in their area; otherwise, situations like these were not supposed to spread all over the city, becoming the state’s major issue.
Unnecessary Use of Groundwater
As people know the quality and level of water in borewells, still there are instances where it is seen how people waste water unnecessarily by using more than the required water to clean their lawns, water their plants, or just throw water on the roads.
Unequal Allocation of Water Supply
Day by day, the population there is increasing due to which the requirement of water supply distribution is required, in urbanised areas, people could experience how badly the water connections are done in the areas.
Low or Late Monsoons
The well-known reason for late monsoons or low rainfall quantity or size is mostly because of urbanisation, which is increasing purposefully, eliminating the greenery in the city.
And like this there can be several reasons why a place arrives in crisis, but for every problem, there are solutions ready.
Ways of Overcoming the Bengaluru Water Crisis
Since childhood, we were taught how one can take care of the water level, but seeing the current conditions one can assure that no proper steps were taken place to overcome such a crisis.
Strict Water Harvesting
Every house must install water harvesting facilities so that instead of the water going in the drains and getting unhygienic to be used; one should have water harvesting techniques on the rooftop of their house,e so that the same collected with purification can be filtered and used properly.
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Close the Taps When Not in Use
We are learning this lesson, but still, one can see in their surrounding of people wasting water by using it uselessly, by using more than required water in various household chores, such as during cleaning, watering plants, or any other activities, so that instead of wasting water, the same water can be used at various other places twice.
The city is indeed an emergency where every part of the state must look seriously at how the careless behaviour of people has deteriorated, becoming a Bengaluru water crisis. If such situations keep on going in the future, Bengaluru might become Rajasthan which, by the words, looks scary because it can make the situation worse. Before any such situation arrives in Bengaluru, people there should work on it, while other states in the country are learning a lesson: if water is not saved now, then it couldn’t be in the future.
What are your thoughts on the Bengaluru water crisis? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. If you have any burning opinions or ideas to share, feel free to contact us at larra@globalindiannetwork.com.
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