The swiftness at which Bangalore is sprouting, the gap between demand and supply of water may almost double by 2026, leaving a large section of the population left waterless, a study by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).
Notwithstanding several initiatives taken by the government, the City’s water demand and supply gap may spring to1, 300 million litres a day by 2026, almost double than the present 750 million litres a day, as per the study, on Wednesday, ‘An integrated water management strategy for Bangalore’, released by Kapil Mohan, Principal Secretary, Water Resources Department, during the Annual Water Conference, 2014, here.
To overcome the shortage, the City’s ground water is being extracted aggressively, as a result of which ground water tables have sunk to record lows.
The situation is so grave that there are areas in Bangalore where water is not available even 300 metres below the ground while 70 per cent of the available ground water is either non-potable or inapt for use.
The conference has recommended six initiatives that could yield up to 750 million litres of water a day to bridge the demand and supply gap and address the issue of evaporation of lakes and the degeneration in quality of ground water.
These are: encouraging recycling and reuse, restoring and rejuvenating lakes, designing a complete solution to use tertiary treatment of water, increasing rain water harvesting, stemming leakages and formulating a comprehensive strategy for sustainable use of ground water.
Most natural resources are in great demand and the stress related with water is escalating day by day, Mohan said after releasing the report.
“In Karnataka, 3,500 TMC of water is available, out of which 2,000 TMC is around the Western Ghats where there are environmental issues. Thus, just 1,500 TMC of water is available for use. The bulk of the State’s water comes from the Krishna basin, followed by Cauvery basin which is already stressed and then there is the Western Ghats which is largely untapped because of environmental concerns,” he said, adding that the government has a concrete plan to make certain water security in the State.
Sandeep Maini, Chairman, CII Karnataka, said the responsibility of protecting the City’s water resources did not lie with government alone but on all stakeholders, including builders, communities, NGOs and industries.
Hariprasad Hegde, Convener, CII Karnataka Water Task Force, and Global Head-Operations, Wipro Ltd, and M Maheshwar Rao, Commissioner for Industrial Development and Director of Industries and Commerce, also expressed their point of view on the occasion.