Bengaluru water Crisis at its Climax & Protests to ban Construction Water Supply

When the month of summer is at its peak, water crisis became the everyday's affair in most of areas in Bengaluru. Premium villas to affordable modular homes, water crisis persists everywhere and residents are conducting protestation rally in and around the city.

In such a high voltage situation the apartment owners are scrambling for supply amidst dried-up bore wells and overburdened tanker services. According to the experts, the scarcity of water worsened this year because of the rampant constructional works and also few unplanned construction are also going on. 

The Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that, almost half of the city's existing borewells have dried up. Piped water from the Kaveri is only option left in some areas and homes in areas brought under city limits in 2007 continue to rely on borewells, which have been failing because of the falling water table levels due to overuse.

He also said that, in some places, where the tenants used to receive pieped water supply from Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) also are facing difficulties. In some areas, tenants are claiming that, for more than two days, people are not getting water as the tankers are not coming to deliver water. 

Most of the construction sites, especially ones close to the eastern IT corridor of Whitefield, depend on groundwater through borewells to meet their needs. BWSSB officials explained that, the construction works are mainly done using water from borewell and they are consuming most of the part of groundwater which is creating a severe shortage of water. 

A scientist at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), TV Ramachandra suggested that, the Government should ban the water supply in construction sites. He also added, "They can penalize the developers for using groundwater for construction purposes or digging borewells. Instead, the state government can sell treated water from treatment plants to the developer."

He exclaimed, "We have aggravated the situation by over-concretising and expanding real estate without proper water management in the city. The state government needs to be more stringent in providing water supply to construction sites. Just ahead of summer are we seeing such a shortage, and this will worsen in peak-summer months ahead."