There isn’t any water left in river Cauvery to draw, for the use of ever-expanding city of Bengaluru. How do we, then, get water to drink? Here is a plan – creating another Cauvery for the city.
Related Articles
No Cauvery water, no water problems. But that was then
Why Cauvery Stage IV water has reached Bangalore, but not your home
“Panchhi nadiya pawan ke jhonke, koi sarhad na inhe roke…” (Birds can fly where they want/ water can take its course/ the wind blows in every direction/ no barrier can stop them) — thus go the Javed Akhtar penned lyrics of the song from the movie Refugee (2000, J. P Dutta). As I read about the Panje wetlands in Uran, I wondered if these lyrics hold true today, when human interference is wreaking such havoc on natural environments, and keeping these very elements out. But then, I also wondered if I should refer to Panje, a 289-hectare inter-tidal zone, as…
Global carbon dioxide emissions continue to soar despite climate agreements like Kyoto and Paris. Should this be the path we tread? Since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997, annual carbon dioxide emissions have surged by an average of 1.7%. This is in stark contrast to the 0.9% increase seen in the seven years prior (1990-1997) to the signing of the Kyoto Protocol. The exclusion of the world's biggest polluters — United States, China and India — is the primary cause of the failure of the Kyoto Agreement. Vehicular emissions contribute significantly to air pollution in Bengaluru. Pic: Jyothi Gupta…
Another insightful article.
I have couple of suggestion to add. In many apartment complexes, the cost of water (whether due to tanker supply or bore water or Cauvery) is a shared cost. This cost is normally recovered as a part of maintenance fee from residents, which is normally a function of area of the individual apartment. There is *no* billing based on actual usage.
If we want to start looking at water as a precious resource, we need to also enforce metering and charging based on usage, at an individual apartment level. Otherwise, it will be a tale of tragedy of commons – with no incentive for reduced water usage/wastage and no penalties for excess usage.
For usage of bore-wells and rain-water harvesting, again similar principles should be applied. Water drawn from bore-well must be charged on metered basis (at a cost lesser than what is charged for Cauvery) and rain-water harvested should be rewarded monetarily (similar to how one can earn money today by supplying solar power to the grid).
We need to rejuvenate all the lakes in and around Bangalore some more lakes which are large and can help us with quenching the water issue if we dont act now this city will be a ghost city without water.
– Jigani Lake
– Hulimangala Lake
– Bedduru Kere Lake
– 4 Lakes in Bannerghatta Area
– Gottigere Lake
– Arekere Lake