cauvery water

The Cauvery Stage V project, once commissioned, is supposed to solve the water crisis in Bengaluru's peripheral areas. Though the project is supposed to be completed by 2023, as we saw in part 1 of this series, work on many components of the project has only just started. At the same time, many apartments in these areas have not been applying to Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) for new Cauvery water connections. In this part, we explore why. SJR Watermark apartment in Ambalipura, along Haralur main road, off Sarjapura Road, is one such apartment that hasn't applied for…

  City may face water crisis by September Inconsistent southwest monsoon, especially at the Cauvery catchment area, may lead to water scarcity in Bengaluru. BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board) sources say that the city's water needs can be met only till September, due to poor inflow and plummeting water levels at the Krishnaraja Sagara (KRS) dam. This too would be possible only if the government does not release water into canals for irrigation. Currently, KRS holds only 9.34 TMC of water, as against 30.12 TMC last year. Since Mysuru, Mandya and other areas too depend on KRS, water…

Come summer and Bengalureans can be seen obsessively discussing water, or rather the lack of it. While water tankers bring momentary relief, residents can’t help pondering over the long-term implications of water shortage. To find solutions to the water crisis, the third water workshop organised by ADDA, a company that offers an integrated apartment management software for gated communities, brought to light several ongoing sustainable water management initiatives. On March 23rd, representatives of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), citizen groups and activists met at the The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) campus to seek solutions to the ongoing water crisis in…

This Saturday, representatives of over 50 large apartments in Bellandur ward of Mahadevpura constituency met their MLA Aravind Limbavali, demanding a solution to their water woes. Majority of these apartments, located within the 110 villages that became part of BBMP a decade ago, have no BWSSB connections yet. The few who do have BWSSB connections, mostly on the Outer Ring Road side, get erratic supply. Their borewells have dried up, and they are paying cutthroat amounts to private tankers to fulfil their minimum water requirements. Even then, they don’t have enough water. BBMP asked to supply water, reign in private…

What should Bengaluru - institutions and its citizens - do in the immediate run and the long run, considering the Cauvery dispute and the limits to water scenario? Just remember that only a third among us, or maybe half, are in the Cauvery basin, the rest are not part of the Water Tribunal process. This city has been built on a ridge and in the basin of two rivers, though many of us may not even be able to name the rivers into which Bengaluru empties its sewage. Consider this – we are pumping 1400 million litres of water per…

  'We never know the worth of water till the well is dry'.                                                                                   - Thomas Fuller, English Historian Bangalore is facing a water crisis like never before. Our lakes are polluted. Several of them have been built over. More than half of the city’s drinking water comes from 150 km away - 35% of this water is lost due…

BWSSB Chairman Gaurav Das Gupta declared that the peripheral areas of Bengaluru do not and will not have water for the upcoming years. Gaurav Gupta was taken on by veteran bureaucrat, former additional chief secretary of Government of Karnataka, V Balasubramanian, in the discussion ­The Critical water situation in Bangalore- The way forward conducted by Bangalore International Centreat Domlur. Both of them discussed the alarming water crisis in Bangalore and its consumption. It was moderated by former chief justice of India M N Venkatachalaiah. In the wake of acute water crisis, BWSSB Chief told the gathering: “If you are taking…

Bangalore's water crisis has been averted for now, with a newly-formed committee appointed to look into the water supply to the city. One tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet) of water will be diverted from Hemavathi river to the KRS dam; currently there is one tmc ft of live storage existing in KRS dam as well. "Together, this two tmc ft water will meet the requirement of Bangalore till monsoon. The water requirement of Bangalore is 1.2 tmc ft per month," says a senior BWSSB officer, on condition of anonymity. The committee to oversee the process, was appointed after a…

In the special BBMP council session on water more than two weeks ago, Chickpet corporator A N Shivkumar (BJP) complained about the number of unauthorised water connections in his ward. He requested Mayor S K Nataraj (BJP) and BWSSB Chairman P B Ramamurthy to look into the matter. Is the Cauvery water you use metered? Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal This complaint comes well in time as just last month on April 16th 2010, the state assembly* passed an amendment to the BWSSB Act, 1964. Section 108 (a) of this Act is with regard to theft of water which is a punishable…