The cascading river today is bound, caught and piped over 100 kms with a 500 mt negative slant to single-handedly quench the thirst of a growing, ambitious city of 8.1 million people – 958 million liters of her water every day. The lone Goddess of Bangalore’s water supply probably feels differently about community service now.
Thirsty Bangalore city needs 1.3 billion litres of water everyday. We get 958 million litres from hallowed Cauvery, 46% of which is wasted due to leaks in the old, rusty pipeline infrastructure, transmission losses and pilferage, which means that the bountiful river meets the water needs of less than half of the city. The rest comes from borewells, 2 lakh of them, that are alarmingly depleting ground water levels, doing very little to recharge supply.
Our sewage water, 1.1 billion liters of it everyday, less than 40% of it treated, flows out of the city as a gift to the outskirts, and comes back to us in our water, soil and food.
Historical water sources for Bangalore city, its 262 lakes, are now reduced to just 33 being even visible through satellite imagery. And the famed tanks that were the hallmark of the city’s ingenuity in water planning? Dharamambudhi tank is now the Bangalore city bus stand, the Challaghatta Tank is the KGA Golf Course, the Koramangala Tank is a sports complex, the Sampige Tank is a stadium.
We are sitting on top of a ticking time bomb. All scientific predictions are firm that if this season does not see abundant rainfall, all taps are going to run dry by April 2013, not just in Bangalore, but in many growing cities in India. And summer is just around the corner. While the BWSSB engineers go hunting with to pipe the next willing river, now is a good time to talk about saving every drop while we can.
'Catch Every Drop' is the beginning of a movement aimed at sustainable water conservation, harvesting and recharge in and by Bangalore city.
Stay with us over the next six weeks to:
• Adopt water conservation practices as individuals – what each one of us can do to conserve water and use it smartly – be it in our homes, offices, public spaces, malls or while travelling.
• Get aware, plan and implement water harvesting in our communities – how can we as apartments, communities, corporate, campuses, schools and colleges leverage every inch of open space available for rain water harvesting and ground water recharge
• Find ways and means to implement waste water recycling – to create a self-sustaining system that can move us to off-the-grid on water
• Get involved in restoring the city’s blue glory – lakes and tanks - that are thriving centers of urban ecological diversity, means to increase the water table, lung spaces for communities and precious catchment areas for water.
We have, coming up:
- Ideas and stories about what people have done in their homes and outside to reduce and optimize use of water
- Best practices and case studies on rain water harvesting implementation in communities, businesses and institutions
- Cool gadgets, tools and measures to quantify water consumption
- All the buzz around lakes and tanks in Bangalore
- Contests, videos, infographics, DIY sessions and much much more.
In 1995, the World Bank Vice President, Ismail Serageldin, said, “the wars of the next century will be fought over water.” It is time to prepare the ammunition.
'Catch Every Drop' is a campaign on sustainable water conservation by Mahita Vision partnered with India Water Portal and Biome Environmental Solutions.
Got something to say about water? Write to us with your stories, ideas and questions at mahitavision@gmail.com
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