Water Supply

“Earlier, we would wash clothes by the riverside. But later we dug up bore wells in all dhobi ghats, which have become our main source of water,” says Mahalingayya, president of Karnataka Rajya Madikatte Ghataka that oversees the functioning of dhobi ghats across Karnataka. In Bengaluru, each dhobi ghat has at least two borewells. However, water scarcity is still an issue. The solution is using recycled water. But the cost and maintenance of water treatment plants are of primary concern. Water usage in dhobi ghats Each dhobi ghat uses varying quantities of water on a daily basis. The average can…

Mission Antyodaya database aims to create granular data for gram panchayats across districts throughout the country. The intention, as stated in Union Budget 2017-18, is to create a convergence and accountability framework by tracking the various development indicators across Gram Panchayats (GP). In Karnataka, the database provides information about infrastructure and schemes at the household level. I analysed the indicator of ‘Piped Water Connections’ across gram panchayats in Bengaluru. Under the ambit of Jal Jeevan Mission, the State government intends to achieve Goal 6 of Sustainable Development Goal, i.e., safe and affordable water for all, through provision of safe water…

Like many suburban areas of Chennai, Chitlapakkam has seen tremendous growth but the civic amenities and services have failed to keep up with the needs of the people. Residents of the area have banded together to fight for their rights and ensure that they are able to enjoy a better quality of life.  It is because of the spirit of the residents that the connectivity in the area has improved in recent times. Our campaign has brought back the S3 minibus to Chitlapakkam, along with the introduction of another minibus, the S100.  Buoyed by this success, residents have begun to…

"Why should we buy water from outside, if we are paying water tax to Metro Water for water supply?" asks S Bharathi, a resident of Besant Nagar. She gets water from the Nemmeli desalination plant but the water supplied is not potable. Residents have flagged various issues with the water being supplied from the plant for many years but with little recourse. The Nemmeli desalination plant has been operational since 2013 and supplies water to the southern parts of the city. The areas it covers include Sholinganallur, Neelangarai, Injambakkam, Karappakkam, Semmenchery, Thoraipakkam, Perungudi, Kottivakkam, Palavakkam, Thiruvanmiyur, Velachery, Taramani, Pallipattu, Adyar,…

Take a drive along Keelkattalai to Kamatchi Memorial Hospital any time during the day, and you will see hundreds of water lorries parked on the radial road. This stretch, 80% of which falls under Kovilambakkam Panchayat and 20% within the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) limits, is a hub of illegal groundwater extraction — one of the root causes of Chennai’s water woes.As it happens, there are four or five legitimate water drawing points near the Keelkattalai lake, but the lorries do not use those points to extract water. “A black hose has been laid illegally,  2 to 3 km away…

Chennai saw the flood of the century in 2015. Four years on, in 2019, the city came to a standstill as the main reservoirs ran dry and Chennai hit 'Day Zero'. The city's fraught relationship with water has affected the lives of millions with no permanent solution in sight. In an interview with Citizen Matters Chennai, Dr S Janakarajan, the President of the South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERs), Hyderabad and former Professor and Director at Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), unpacks the issues with water management in Chennai that has led to both flooding and…

Chennaiites have a complicated relationship with water. It seems like we either have too much or too little depending on the vagaries of the yearly monsoons. Which is why when ten years ago. we began getting water from the Nemmeli Seawater Desalination Plant, we heaved a sigh of relief as it seemed like a solution to our water woes.  From this desalination plant in Nemmeli, areas like Neelankarai, Kottivakkam, Besant Nagar and Tiruvanmiyur got their daily supply. While things looked promising at the start, we have found that lately the amount of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in our water supply…

Ramakrishna has been a well-digger for thirty eight years. “My grandfather used to dig large stone wells in the villages. In the city, wells are smaller because there isn’t that much space. I learned how to dig wells from my father. I have dug many wells, some are five feet deep, others in higher areas are 18 feet deep or even deeper.” Shankar, another well-digger, has been working since he was 15. “I learnt to dig wells from my father, and now I work with a group of well-diggers. I’ve dug wells all over the city.” Both Ramakrishna and Shankar…

River Cauvery is the lifeline of Bengaluru’s economy. But before Cauvery, it was the Arkavathi. Polluted and now running almost dry for around half a century, Arkavathi is biologically dead. It stands as living proof of what is to come for Cauvery. A victim of urban-industrial society, Arkavathi today is a shadowy semblance of a former glorious river. It is a ghost river. This is the story of how the Thippagondanahalli Dam and Thippagondanahalli Reservoir, also known as Chamaraja Sagara, on the Arkavathi river rose to prominence as Bengaluru’s drinking water source and 80 years later, became defunct because of…

Mumbai’s perennial struggle with routine waterlogging and catastrophic floods is the result of several limitations in the city’s storm water drainage system. This includes its reliance on its riverine ecosystems of which the Mithi River is a key component. The Mithi is an urban river whose course has been trained and altered over the years, for almost its entire 17 km stretch. Channelizing the Mithi river for effective flood-risk mitigation has altered its capacity in several places, the impact of which is borne by those who live and work on the riverfront. Satellite images tracing the altered course of the…