Water Supply

Just like all civilizations, Madras also drew sustenance from a river. Historically, Adyar and Cooum Rivers played a pivotal role in the flourishing of Chennai. But today, with these rivers polluted, Chennai is largely dependent on the Northeast monsoon (mid-October to mid-December) that recharges groundwater. The presence of hundreds of lakes and temple tanks is a silver lining, but with most of them encroached and polluted, they don’t meet the water demand of the ever-growing city. So how exactly does this city of roughly 11 million people sustain itself? Where do you get the water that flows in your taps…

Chennai has made global news over the past few years for its woes with water. First, it was the destructive floods of 2015 that saw most of the city under water for days, as a result of excessive rains and poor reservoir management. Then came the drought of 2019, where major parts of the city went without drinking water for weeks as deficit rainfall the previous year played havoc on water availability. Water has become a major talking point when it comes to discussing Chennai's livability. For a city with a storied history, could it be that the past offers…

In the past few years, most borewells in our apartment The Greens had gone dry due to depleting groundwater levels. We are a 10-year-old apartment community in east Bengaluru, off Outer Ring Road, with 171 flats spread across four blocks. We also have a swimming pool, a small clubhouse and a gym. Our water expenses had skyrocketed, and we had to increase our maintenance charges regularly to cover the cost. So in early 2018, we implemented three measures - water metering, reusing treated water, and rainwater harvesting (RWH) - to reduce our water use. The outcome was that our water…

Providing basic services like water to the residents of a city is the responsibility of the municipal corporation. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is keen to fulfil its responsibility and has made arrangements of tanker water in order to supply water to areas such as Sus, Pashan, Narhe, Uruli Devachi, Phursungi, Bavadhan Budruk, Lohegaon, Hadapsar and Mundhawa which have been newly added into the city boundary.  PMC, unfortunately, does not have a supply system infrastructure in these areas. The Corporation owns a few tankers but these are not enough for the job, so it takes the help of private tanker…

Fountain Heights is a 187-flat apartment block, located in Lokhandwala Township, Kandivali East, in the Western Suburbs of North Mumbai. Like most residential complexes in our neighbourhood, we were totally dependent on municipal water to meet our daily requirement of approximately 140 kilo litres. The society has two borewells that were provided by the builder, but they provided no water during the summer and very little during the monsoon. With no alternative to municipal supply, buying water through water tankers was the only option left with us during times of water cuts. The costs were often exorbitant, given the high…

The 2018 drinking water crisis in Shimla, a horrifying time when the hill town did not get a drop of water for almost eight days, was a wake-up call both for citizens and urban planners on the need to conserve its water resources. Environmentalists had then stressed the need for putting in place an efficient water management system, not only for Shimla but for the entire hill region. “The 2018 water crisis was an opportunity that called for a response based on scientific inputs about the overall water scarcity problem in the Himalayan region and a way forward to avert…

Bengaluru, predicted to be the fastest growing city in the world for the next 15 years, is already facing an acute water crisis. Its rapid infrastructural expansion has led to an ever-increasing demand for water, and local government bodies haven’t been able to keep up. The BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board), tasked with water supply, still doesn’t cover the 110 surrounding villages that had been merged into the city in 2007. Over the years, private water tanker operators have bridged this gap in water supply, playing a crucial role in the city’s daily life. However, they operate without…

Construction of a recharge well in progress. Pic: Biome In 2018, Raghuram C G, a software program manager at Adobe, got a recharge well dug in his plot in Vidyaranyapura. “Rainwater falling in the plot gets channelised into the recharge well. The 15-ft well is now filled up to 10-11 ft, and has around 2000 litres of water. I’ve been building a house in the plot, and water from the well is used for all construction needs.” Raghuram built the well after being inspired by ‘A Million Wells for Bengaluru’ movement. The design firm Biome Environmental Solutions, along with the…

RJ Usha from Radio Active 90.4 MHz talks to Azima, a resident of Banashankari, on the effects of water shortage during COVID-19 lockdown. Azima says shortage of drinking water is a key concern in her locality within Banashankari ward. Drinking water is available only once in about three days, and when water is released from the public tap, people crowd to collect it. This sometimes ends even in fights. Residents of this area do not have any other source of drinking water as they have to travel around a kilometre just to buy a Bisleri bottle.  Azima recounts that she…

The combined storage levels of Chennai’s four reservoirs stood at 6388mcft on 2nd April, almost ten times higher than what was recorded on the same day last year. The number raises hope that there will be no water scarcity in the city, at least not for the next six months, as assured by the Chief Engineer of the Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB). But, why are those living in the suburbs at Ambattur and Chrompet unable to derive any solace from this? Water scarcity is a reality they are grappling with every day. The reasons for the…