bangalore water

It is 4 pm. A man comes in a bike, parks it near the HOPCOMS shop near Mariyappanapalya Park in Rajajinagar, Bengaluru. He walks towards the water vending machine nearby with a 20 litre water can in hand, pays, fills it and leaves the spot. Just as he is leaving, we ask him what he does with the water. He says he uses it in his panipuri business. He is a street vendor whose business depends on this safe water dispensed by the vending machine, popularly known as water ATM. This water ATM was started in 2015 as a BBMP…

Who we are: We are a group of four engineering students from the University of Washington working in collaboration with a local environmental NGO. For the past two months, we have been learning about Bengaluru’s relationship with its water resources. Our team has taken a particular interest in the city’s groundwater supply. We are reaching out to engaged citizens to gather feedback on our project. Background and problem Groundwater monitoring is essential in understanding the availability of underground aquifers. In the city of Bengaluru, only around half of the city serviced by Cauvery water through BWSSB’s distributed system while the…

Though Bengaluru's weather has been a tad moody the past couple of days, it is common knowledge that come summer, as the temperatures rise, so will the water tanker prices. Earlier this year, Citizen Matters had assisted in collecting data for a joint study between a student from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and IIM Bangalore’s New Real Estate initiative on the water tanker industry in Bangalore. Here are the results from the survey. This map aims to give information about water tanker rates across the city of Bangalore, and an insight into the availability (or lack of) water in…

Citizen Matters is creating a map to track the amount of money people of Bengaluru spend on water tankers in the city. This map aims to give information about water tanker rates across the city of Bangalore. This will also give an insight into the availability (or lack of) water in these areas. If someone is charging you heavily, you will know it by looking at the map. Click on a map pin and the relevant information for that area will pop up. Also the map will show how much people are paying in another area. You can compare the…

Tariffs are the single most important economic tool to control individual resident’s water usage. Many apartments often bundle water charges into a single maintenance account. But this keeps the expense of water consumption invisible. RWAs must have a Cost Account for water separately. RWA Management Committees need to consider various parameters to arrive at the tariff. What cannot be measured cannot be managed. The first step is to measure water consumption and calculate the total cost for getting water into a resident's flat. See part 1 of this series: Where does Bangalore get its water from? To read, click here.…

We all depend on groundwater. The single largest source of water that Bangalore has created apart from Cauvery, is actually a hole in the ground! We are pulling water that has been down there for hundreds of years, that is somebody else's right as much as it is ours. Some use Cauvery water or groundwater to flush the toilets, while some others are not getting water even to drink. Where does ground water come from? We all live above common aquifers – spaces between soil particles and cracks, fissures and faults in the rocks. The spread of aquifer is independant…

While water-strapped Bengaluru is waiting for the mercy of rain gods to bless the Cauvery belt to quench its thirst, water mafia is busy drawing water from just about anywhere: their own bore wells, bore wells of others, lakes and water bodies - wherever one can see water.  As this article goes into publication, the city water board has just announced that Cauvery water supply for Bengaluru will stop in four days. Few know that the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) issued an order in November 2012: No more borewell digging in Bengaluru for commercial purposes. If implemented correctly, this…