Water Supply

Pune’s No 1 ranking in the Ease of Living index contrasts sharply with ground realities, especially when one considers the most basic requirement of all, water. Despite recording one of its heaviest rainfalls this season (561.8 mm, according to Dr Anupam Kashyapi, Head, Weather & Air Pollution Monitoring Unit, India Meteorological Department), and the district’s four dams -- Khadakwasla, Panshet, Varasgaon, and Temghar -- being nearly full, the city is facing a shortage of water and inequitable supply. “In our area, we have seen flooding in some societies while we queue up for drinking water”, said a distraught Arvind Vichare…

For months now, various studies and reports have talked about the high level of water stress across Indian cities. The alarm bells reached a crescendo when Chennai ran out of water recently, and media ran multiple reports on India's looming urban water crisis. Many solutions have been proposed but the most fundamental—the need to price water as an economic good—is rarely investigated.  Water is invaluable; none of us can live without it. And so, historically, we've thought nothing about how we use it. Government after government, with a monopoly over the supply of water, has tried to control water supply.…

Meghalaya has always prided itself on its pure water flowing from the crystal clear mountain streams and springs amidst pristine forests. But over the past three years, the state’s Public Health Engineering (PHE) department has been receiving numerous complaints about the poor quality of the water being supplied to homes. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and an “Own Motion” by the Meghalaya High Court (MHC), point to the urgency of the matter. The problem is that rivers are being polluted by unchecked sand mining, quarrying, rapid urbanization and other “developmental’ activities in the ecologically sensitive regions of this hilly state,…

Multi-storied apartments are everywhere, dotting the skyline in our cities. Ground plus 19 is the norm rather than the exception. As apartment dwellers everywhere are finding out this summer, water is a major challenge to manage, with the city running scarce to supply this resource. If you are a new buyer, it would be wise to ask the following questions from the builder before you make that investment of a crore or more. This is a simple checklist: What are the sources of water for the flat especially in summer? Bore wells are simply unable to supply water when densities…

“Bade mushkil se Eid mana paye,” says Mohammad Irshad, 53, of Shehjenabad locality in Bhopal’s old city area. “Pani hi nahin ghar mein. Mehmanon ki kya khatirdari kar paatey (we observed Eid with great difficulty. There is no water in the home. How could we entertain guests)? Bhopal, the “city of lakes”, is reeling under an unprecedented water shortage over the past 20 odd days, with the old city area, housing 43 per cent of the capital’s 21 lakh population, hit particularly hard. The entire supply of 30 MGD (million gallons per day) to these mainly low-income residents is from…

Chennai is reeling under a severe water shortage and Bengaluru, the NITI Aayog says, will run out of groundwater by 2020. What ties these two large metropolis is, unfortunately, a dispute over a river. It is an unhealthy link. Both these cities are not exactly in the Cauvery river basin , though dependent on the river for their water requirements . Only one third of Bengaluru is in the river basin and Chennai is not in the river basin at all, yet draws water from the Veeranam tank within the delta. A civilizational change is transforming the river. An urban…

The newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre has announced the launch of ‘Nal Se Jal’, a poll-promise from its 2019 manifesto, to ensure piped water to every household by 2024. How big is the task? In India, only 32% households have tap water supply from treated sources, as per Census 2011. 18 percent or 6,25,000 households in the capital city, home to the nation’s rich and influential, do not have piped water supply. Yet, this city has one of the highest percentages of households with piped water among India’s 35 states and union territories. Only seven of these…

The weather is sultry and the temperature is scorching in the Raipur locality of Jadavpur, off South Kolkata. The furnace-like conditions have forced residents to stay indoors. But Meena Nag is unmindful of the heat and is getting ready to wash a bucket full of clothes near a pond in the locality. The 60-plus woman says that water supply is often erratic in the locality and the low pressure of water in the taps means it takes a long time for the bucket to get filled up, causing long queues that often end in mild altercations. “We face water crisis…

“This is only a Band Aid and will not work as a long-term measure,” said Sunita Narain, Director General Centre for Science and Environment, about the state government’s claims that Shimla’s water shortage problem has been solved and there will no water crisis this year. “The solution lies in conservation measures and recycling of waste water. Citizens should be involved in water conservation of and made aware about the value of each drop of water saved,” added Sunita Narain. The approximately two lakh citizens of Shimla are certainly aware, remembering as they do the unprecedented water crisis of last summer,…

A misguided water policy, rapid unfettered urbanisation, lack of vision and a growth model characterized by indiscriminate greed is killing Mumbai and depriving the city of its basic right to quench its thirst. The 1.2 crore residents of the megapolis currently face a 10 percent water cut, effective since November 15, 2018. Mumbai is no stranger to water cuts but the rationing started much earlier this year than in previous years, months before the scorching summers were due to set in. This was to make up for the less rainfall this year. The city received 13.13 million litres of surface…