Bangalore wastes twice the water Mysore consumes every day

Ever since its founding, Bangalore has always had to face water shortage. But the first recorded water shortage was sometime in the 1870s when several tanks were dug and the Hesarghatta reservoir was commissioned.

Yet, even almost one hundred and fifty years after the first water scarcity, Bangalore has never been able to quench the thirst of its citizens. Today, we have four stages of Cauvery, TG Halli and ground water.

All the water sources put together have not been able to meet the demands of the people. What makes the water situation worse is that 50.9 per cent of the City’s drinking water is allowed to go waste. This may sound incredulous but this is a fact and it has been validated by none other than the Union Ministry of Urban Development.

The Union Ministry, in a nation wide survey of twenty eight cities, ranked Delhi as the city wasting the maximum quantity of water. Delhi was followed by Bangalore and then Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

If Delhi wasted a little over 52 per cent of the water supplied to it, Bangalore with no major source of drinking water nearby, was equally generous-wasting 50.9 per cent  of the water supplied.    

The rest of the cities wasted anything between 13 per cent to 50 per cent and even among the 28 cities, the mega cities of Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad took the honors, outdoing other cities and leading in the wastage race by a huge margin.

A bigger metropolis like Mumbai was estimated to waste a little over 13 per cent. Chennai was seventeen percent and both these cities have oceans adjacent to them, while Bangalore has no such luxury.  

The study also says that only 50.8 per cent of Bangalore’s population has access to piped water supply. The rest depend on unorganised water supply sources like open wells and bore wells.
The wasted water, which can be classified as non-revenue water, is fed into the system and it does not reach the consumer. The reasons are many: pilferage, leak in pipes, theft, illegal diversion and even non-metering.
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), which manages Bangalore’s water supply, has managed to meter  97 per cent households it supplies water too. However, it has not bee as successful in reducing wastage.
Bangalore gets 900 million litres of water per day (MLD) against a demand of 1,125 MLD. In addition to this, the BWSSB is gearing itself up to provide 45,000 new water connections. This doubles the pressure on water supply and the BWSSB has been struggling to meet the demand for water.

Last year, the water scarcity reached such proportions that this May, the BWSSB had to switch off its pumps for the first time in 30 years.

Former Additional Chief Secretary V Balasubramanian has gone on record saying that Bangalore needs Rs 26,000 crores to purify its water. Of this, Rs 5,000 crores is required to re-acquire encroached lakes, while at least Rs 10,000 crores in urgently wanted for developing  850 km of stormwater drain (rajakaluve) and Rs 2,750 crores for sewage treatment plants.
The BWSSB, however, has its own figures. It says it supplies close to 1,100 MLD to Bangalore  everyday and loses 396 MLD in transmission and distribution — with a loss percentage of 36 per cent.

Very few people know that the water loss between Cauvery and bulk storage reservoirs in Bangalore account for less than 3 per cent. The water treatment plant at TK Halli from where Cauvery is pumped to Bangalore is situated 400 metres below Bangalore. The distance between TK Halli and Bangalore is about 94 km. Therefore, water is pumped to Bangalore through three stages of pumping-TK Halli pumping station, Harohalli  and Thataguni.

From Tataguni, water is pumped to 55 ground level reservoirs and from them to the consumers.   

The leak till the ground level reservoir is less than three per cent. The bulk of the loss of water has been traced to the distribution system of over 5000 kms of pipeline, which is old. Other reasons are theft, water supply to 500 odd slums and in other cases unmetered connections.

Consider another fact. Mysore consumes 180 MLD of water every day and Bangalore loses twice the quantity every day.

A project to curb these losses to 16 per cent is expected to finish only by 2015. This project is being taken up in six Assembly constituencies of Basavanagudi, Chamarajpet, Padmanabhanagar, Jayanagar, BTM Layout and Bangalore South to get data on unaccounted water. The project would be completed in 18 months.

Other measures by the water board which include compulsory registration of borewells and compulsory rainwater harvesting have met with limited success.

A small step to revive a river

Even as the authorities, particularly our own Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) draws up grandiose plans for rejuvenating the Vrishabhavati, other agencies and organisations already seem to have taken the lead in lending a helping hand.

Bangalore University and the Ramanagar civic agency are among the two agencies that have already taken the lead in cleaning up that portion of the Vrishabhavati that flows in their jurisdiction.

The Vrishabhavati originated near the industrial suburb of Peenya, Bangalore, and flows into the University campus, Mysore Road, before heading to Ramanagar or Ramanagaram district (this was till a few years ago part of Bangalore district).

The University is located on 255 acres and the Vrishabhavati that flows through it is highly toxic and unfit for both human beings and animals. However, the University has already finalised plan to tap the Vrishabhavati to meet at least a part of its water needs.

This plan-to tap the Vrishhabhavati-was discussed and approved at a meeting of the University Syndicate. This plan envisages the use of sewage water by fully treating it and then using it for non-potable purposes.

The university feels that it can reduce its dependence on both Cauvery water and ground water (bore wells) if it can use treated water for a variety of uses. 

The University will be signing a memorandum of understating (MoU) with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) for utilising the waters of the Vrishabhavati.

The MoU is for obtaining treated water from the 20 MLD (million litres per day) plant across the Vrishabhavati that the board has already installed. Since the board is using only 3 MLD, it is left with a surplus of 17 MLD , which the University hopes to tap, by letting it flow back into the Vrishabhavati.

The water purification unit of  the board is around two and half kilometers from the university campus and the board has to install pipes and dig pits to carry the treated water. The board itself has undertaken to install the pipes. 

It will be the responsibility of the board to pump in 17 MLD into the river and it has to build check dams, dig water harvesting pits and cleaning pits and then let the treated waters into the Vrishabhavati. 

The inflow of fresh water into the river is also expected to recharge the groundwater in and around Bangalore University campus-Jnanabharati. As of now, the quality and quantity of groundwater in Jnanabharati leave much to be desired.

The university campus is one of the biggest botanical reserves in Bangalore along with the UAS and IISc campus. It is home to more than 354 species of plants, shrubs and trees like sandalwood apart from providing shelter to many wildlife, including peacocks, mongoose  wild rabbits, jackals, snakes, scorpions, owls, bats, a variety of  insects and birds.     

The campus also has several water basins, natural channels and barrier walls which become dry in summer. The University plans to use the treated water to revive the organic forest in the campus and also for gardening and other non-potable uses.

Similarly, the Ramanagar district administration has taken steps to clean up the Vrishabhavati that flows in the district.

The Vrishabhavati off Mysore road is so polluted that the water lets out a foul smell and it is this smell that signals that one is approaching Bangalore city.

The Ramanagaram administration decided to take up cleaning of the river after the Karnataka High Court took up the issue of pollution and ordered issue of  notices to all stake holders, including the BWSSB and the State Government among others.

There are several villages in Ramanagar district that are facing the brunt of  pollution of the Vrishabhavati and the polluted water is neither fit for domestic use or even for agriculture.

Villages in the district like Byremangala which has a large lake by the same name where the Vrishabhavati flows, Ramanahalli, Chowkahalli,  Gopahalli Seshagirihalli, Shanamangala, Ittamadu and others are affected due to the polluted river.

Apart from commissioning a private firm from Mysore to submit a detailed report, the Ramanagar administration has also asked the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, Health, Agricultural, Horticulture and Animal Husbandary departments to submit a report after which follow up action would be initiated.

The Ramanagar district administration has decided to set up a water treatment plant at Byremangala lake. Villages surrounding the lake such as Vrishabhavatipura, Bannigere, Anchipure, Maregowdamma Doddi, Thimmegowdamma Doddi are also suffering from the evil of pollution.

The plant, once functional, will ensure that the water of the lake, which was once mainly used for agriculture and even for domestic purposes, are clean and fit for both human consumption and also for agriculture.  

Pumping crores down the ground

There has been a hue and cry over the increasing gap between demand and supply of water to Bangalore and  there have been hundreds of experts who have gone into the issue, making a variety of suggestions and mooting several steps to tackle the issue. On its part, the State Government and the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) too have constituted committees, held discussions, seminars and workshops and even explored the possibility of bringing rivers from far away, including the Krishna, to Bangalore to tide over the widening demand-supply position.

However, what many forget is that instead of going in for such elaborate and highly expensive measures, a more cost effective and more long term plan can be implemented by the BWSSB on its own. There has been loud thinking on the part of the Government and others to harness West-flowing rivers such as Kanganahole, Kakkatuhole and Ethinahole to augment water supply to Bangalore and there was even a thinking to bring water from Almatti dam in Bagalkot district to the city.

These solutions are a logistic nightmare and needs years to fructify, Instead, the existing water supply network can be streamlined and all its needs is a just a little political will and bureaucratic determination.

Every Bangalore knows that the Cauvery today is the  lifeline of the City. It meets nearly 75 per cent of Bangalore’s water supply and with the Hesarghatta and TG Halli reservoirs failing to fill up, the Cauvery and groundwater apart from Arkavathy are the only solution.

One of the easiest steps to pump in more water to quench Bangalore’s thirst is to plug the leakages. Unfortunately, the leakage, which can be classified as unaccounted water, is 43 per cent and this is among the highest in India. 

The Cauvery is supplying 1,410 million litres a day (MLD) to Bangalore and of this only 550 MLD is billed, leaving 509 MLD as “unaccounted-for water (UFW). Of the total unaccounted water, an estimated 35 per cent is due to leakage from and in water supply pipes.

Another worrying statistics is that unaccounted water has increased from 16 per cent (62 MLD) in 1990 to 48 per cent (509 MLD) in 2007 and this year too it has increased. 

What further compounds BWSSB’s misery is that it  costs Rs. 300 crore annually in electricity charges for it to pump Cauvery water from TK Halli.( Buster pumps lift water at Harohalli and Thataguni water stations before pumping the Cauvery to the  Ground level reservoirs at Bangalore). This means close to Rs. 100 crores is lost every year with the water literally going down the drain. Moreover, the power required to transport the water from TK Halli consumes 75 per cent of the board’s revenues.

Over the years or rather decades that the BWSSB has been in existence, if we calculate the total wastage of water, it crosses a mind boggling Rs.1,000 crores and this amount has literally gone down the drain.     

The unaccounted water in Bangalore is the fourth highest among cities in India. Can Bangalore and the water board afford this? 
Of the 1410 MLD that is currently being pumped into Bangalore, the BWSSB has set apart 150 MLD for industries, 750 for domestic water consumption, leaving 55 MLD unaccounted. This means that each person in Bangalore today gets only 75 litres per capita per day (LPCD) as against the Centre’s norm of 150 LPCD. With Bangalore’s registering a minimum population growth of four percent every year, the gap between supply and demand will go up and the BWSSB will struggle to even maintain the current level of 75 LPCD. This against the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) stipulated requirement of 150 LPCD.

So where exactly is the loss of water. According to BWSSB itself and also according to several surveys and reports, the water loss between TK Halli at the Cauvery point and the bulk storage reservoirs at 55 ground level (reserviors) main receiving stations in Bangalore is around 2.8 per cent. This is apart from the 47 overhead tanks. Besides, the loss in the bulk supply pipelines from all the four Cauvery staged which add up to 250 km in length is also negligible. When the water is treated at the in the sand bed filters at BWSSB pump houses and the leaks at valves account for 3 per cent. This means that almost 40 per cent of the leakage is at the distribution system of  pipelines which cover 5101 kilometres.

The first major water pipeline network in the Pettah or petes (Old Bangalore areas) was commissioned in 1922 and they are almost a hundred years old. A vast network of this pipeline needs to be urgently replaced and the new generation pies can not only saved leakage but also lead to better distribution pattern.  The new pipes can supply water at constant pressure and maintain the level of supply, which the old pipes cannot.

Another disquiet is the high cost of water production and supply in Bangalore. It is the highest in the country at Rs. 23.13 per kilolitre and this is several times higher than what Mumbai pays Rs. 2.17 per kilolitre and Chennai Rs. 5.73 per kilolitre.

The first step for the board would be to reducing leakage in 6.7 lakh water connections. The leakage at these points is estimated  at anything between fifteen per cent to thirty per cent.

There are several other steps though which have to be taken along with repair and replacement of old pipelines. The lakes and water bodies have to be revived and latest statistics reveal that 602 lakes and tanks have turned into sewage pits, the storm water drain network of 856 kilometres needs to be cleared of debris, silt and filth. The borwells need to be recharged and there is a need to cap drilling of more borewells. Rainwater harvesting (less than a lakh houses-not apartments and flats out of 18.10 lakhs properties-have gone in for rainwater harvesting) should be strictly implemented and water should be metered at all places and regular water audits held to pinpoint any major source of leaks. 

Can we see the authorities go in for immediate measures than float nebulous ideas and those which require huge sums of money. Why waste the tax payers money on fancy schemes of bringing in more water when the distribution network cannot take the existing load itself.