Capital Conundrum

At the peak of Karnataka’s water crisis, the state’s deputy chief minister, G Parameshwara, made a desperate suggestion. He said the government was mulling over a moratorium on the construction of new residential complexes in Bengaluru for five years to tide over the water crisis. But are restrictions on construction or population an effective way to resolve the problem? Or are there simpler ways to strengthen water conservation? SUSHMITA SENGUPTA spoke to a range of experts

- Sushmita Sengupta

MASSIVE APARTMENT blocks have sprung up all across Bengaluru, especially in peri-urban areas, and particularly in the IT belt straddling across the eastern and southern extents of the metropolis. Much of this region does not get piped water from the Cauvery and so residents and commercial complexes depend on groundwater, which, over the past two decades, has seen rapid depletion.

To milk this perpetual demand, the unregulated tanker suppliers extract water from distant villages and supply it to the city. The carbon, financial and social footprints of this demand-supply phenomenon are unfathomable. The adverse impacts are extensively evident in the emergence of fallow agricultural fields around the city, as farmers prefer to sell water instead of farming. High labor costs and lack of labor, in any case, have made farming highly unviable.

Encroachment, contamination and destruction of lakes and canals in recent decades, and the extensive concretization of the city have fundamentally reduced the potential of groundwater recharge. As a result, even a small burst of rain—precious water that should have percolated into groundwater aquifers—floods the city. This is when groundwater dependence is growing exponentially.

There is also talk of diverting water from the faraway Yettinahole, Sharavathi, Netravathi and other Western Ghats rivers. People here have clearly stated that they will fight any diversion of water. When the Karnataka government proposed to build a dam at Mekedatu, where the Cauvery dives into an amazing gorge and creates a complex riverine forest, downstream Tamil Nadu lodged its protest with the Prime Minister. So expanding Bengaluru finds itself between a rock and a very hard place.