Bengaluru's Water Crisis: BWSSB Plans to Ban People from Using Drinking Water for Gardening and Vehicle Washing

The garden city Bengaluru is facing an acute water crisis problem. Thousands of borewells have dried up in the city, leading to an extreme water crisis. Water scarcity has pushed residents of Bengaluru into water preservation mode.

To handle this troublesome situation Bengaluru’s Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) plans to ban people from using drinking water for gardening and washing vehicles. BWSSB chairman V Ram Prasath Manohar said, “The order will be issued soon. Action will be taken including imposing a penalty on those who waste drinking water for other purposes. The water utility has collected details of the ongoing construction projects, mainly the big ones of over 20,000 sq. ft. in Bengaluru.”

BWSSB will organize a meeting with builders and constructors and instruct them not to use drinking water or water from the borewells for construction work. V Ram Prasath Manohar further said, “We will supply treated water to the builders and constructors. We will give them 1000 ltrs. of treated water for Rs. 10 if they place orders online or otherwise for construction projects and bring their tankers. Treated water will also be available to maintain over 1000 public parks in Bengaluru.” V Ram Prasath Manohar also urged residents to use water wisely and to adopt innovative flushing equipment at home. A few residents have installed mini water tanks to collect RO waste water which will be utilized again for non portable purposes.

The state government of K’taka has also capped the rates of water tankers in the city amid reports that suppliers are overcharging from the public and taking advantage of the water problem. As per the order passed by the Bengaluru DC, the rate of a 12000-litre water tanker is capped at Rs. 1000 for a distance between 5 and 10 km. Similarly, a 6000-litre water tanker provider can’t charge more than Rs. 600 for areas within 5 km. radius and Rs. 750 for areas between 5 and 10 km. The price range was decided by a technical committee that was formed to study the on-ground situation.

 Bengaluru’s two vital lakes spread across a total of 1200 acres in the Bellandur and Varthur regions of the city stopped receiving treated sewage and rainwater after the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) took up lake rejuvenation work four years ago. As part of this renovation work the water inflow of these lakes has been diverted for desilting. However, this has badly impacted the groundwater table and dried up the borewells. According to water conservation experts, Bellandur Lake alone spread across 330 hectares can fill 66 million litres per day. That is equal to 5,500 tankers (12000 litres). Varthur could fill 36 million litres per day. The lack of a total of 102 million litres per day recharge has caused the groundwater collapse. Even in this crisis situation, the BDA is in no hurry to complete the work.