Filing up a City's hopes

It was more two decades ago that this vast reservoir filled up. Built by the Wodeyars, it last filled up in 1992. It almost reached full capacity in 1999. But since then, this water body, once the lifeline of Bangalore, has only been able to hold varying levels of water but it has never been able to supply water regularly.

This is the Tippegondanahalli reservoir across river Arkavathy, which was built in 1933 after the Hesarghata reservoir dried up. For the last few years, the TG Halli, as it also called, has never had enough water.

TG Halli has been in the news in the last few days as  the water level in it has been steadily going up, thanks to copious rains in the catchment areas.

The TG Halli once supplied drinking water to areas in the west of the city, but encroachment of lakes, growing urbanisation and rapid expansion of the city have seen storage levels plummet.

The last time the reservoir was filled was in 1992 and after that the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), which operates the TG Halli, gave up pumping water and shifted focus entirely on Cauvery water supply to Bangalore.

BWSSB officials are hoping that the water level in TG Halli rises further. Last Monday, saw TG Halli hold 26 feet of water and this is encouraging as last year at the same time, the water level stood at 17 feet.

Since Karnataka received good rains in September and October, the BWSSB hopes that the water level would go up further.

Constructed at the confluence of the Arkavathi and the Kumudvati rivers, TG Halli has a depth of 74 ft and its total storage capacity is 3 tmc ft. Officials say heavy rain in catchment areas like Doddaballapur (which recently recorded 11 cm of rainfall) has seen the water levels in the reservoir rise.
The BWSSB is not pumping any water from TG Halli though if need be it can pump about  350 mld. However, the water board wants to keep TG Halli supply as stand by.

If it was the then Dewan of Mysore, K Seshadri Iyer, who conceived of Hesarghatta reservoir, it was another Dewan-Sir M. Visvesvaraiah- who recommend TG Halli as a means to ease Bangalore’s growing thirst for water.

When Hesarghatta proved insufficient to meet the water needs and it went dry 1925, TG Halli was commissioned in 1933.

The first stage of TG Halli was designed to provide a daily supply of 27mld of water for a city's population of 3 lakh, but this too soon proved inadequate. The reservoir was once again deepened and the water works modified to cater to the population of one million in 1956..

However, with the city's population growing by leaps and bounds and the water proving inadequate, the State Government decided to supply water from the Cauvery. In 1964, the Government approved the first stage of the Cauvery Water Supply Scheme (CWSS). Five stages of CWSS have proved insufficient and the government is now looking at alternatives to boost daily water supply as the City currently faces a shortage of 225 million litres of water per day (mld).

This shortage is expected to go up by 1030 mld in 2036. BWSSB is thinking of supplying water from the Krishna and it has drawn up several other schemes but the best bet would be to revive the Hesarghatta and TG Halli reservoirs.

If the TG Halli lake has to be revived, the catchment areas of Devanahalli, Doddaballapur, Magadi and Nelamangala in Bangalore Rural and Ramanagra districts have to be cleared of encroachments and the lakes and tanks restored as they form a vital part of the regeneration programme. Fortunately, all thee areas have so far received good rainfall and the inflow to TG halli has been steadily rising. Usually, the reservoir starts filling up in September, October and November.
 In the last seven years, the water level had not gone up beyond 43 ft. If it fills up, Bangalore can get at least 135 million litres of drinking water every day.

Not many remember that till 1980, TG Halli  was one of the main sources of drinking water to the city and it supplied water to Bangalore West including the localities of Rajajinagar, Sunkadakatte and Vijayanagar. It was in 2012 that the BWSSB finally gave up on TG Halli and discontinued supply of water from it.

One of the many options that the BWSSB is now planning for TG Halli is to recharge the reservoir and the Arkavathy surface water source, by using treated sewage from the  Koramangala and Challaghatta valley (K&C) waste water treatment plant.

The project proposes to divert the treated water to Nandi Hills which would flow into various lakes located downstream and ultimately to the TG Halli reservoir.
It involves construction of  four centrifugal pumps from K&C Valley till Nandi Hills and construction of a ground-level reservoir (GLR) at the foot of the hills. The proposed plan is to pump 200 mld of treated sewage using the centrifugal pumps, each having 50 mld capacity to an elevation of 980 metres into the proposed ground level reservoir.

The treated water would then be pumped using booster pumps to the identified hill surface facing the TG Halli catchment area. The water would be sent to tanks and lakes along TG Halli which would ultimately get filled.

The cost was estimated in 2005 at Rs 415 crore. Today, it needs at least a hundred crores more to take up this project, which also requires an annual  operation and maintenance cost of Rs 80 crore.
Apart from this step, the State and the BWSSB have to tackle the issue of   unplanned development, encroachment of catchment areas, altered drainage system, quarrying, denudation of forests and other related urban issues.

Decades later, water in Hesarghatta

This was once part of the famed Vijayanagar Empire and the Vijayanagar Emperor, Achutedeva Raya had commissioned a man made tank here.

The Emperor had constructed an anecut and a bund across a river flowing here. He also built an agrahara or a settlement to house Brahmins and priests. This was sometime in 1532.

Inscriptions dating back to the Vijayanagar period tells us that the anecut was built on the banks of the Arkavathi river and a temple for Chandramoulishwara constructed.

When the Agrahara became populated, it was called Siva Samudra Agrahara.
A few years later, Kempe Gowda, the founder of  Bangalore received this Agrahara and Bangalore along with twelve hoblis from the Vijayanagar Emperor.

Kempe Gowda then went on to form the province of Bangalore and Siva Samudra Agrahara was part of it. Over centuries, the small tank served the water needs of the people, catering to the  domestic and irrigation needs of the area.

During the time of  Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, the Agraha came to be more popularly known as Hesarghatta. During the Wodeyar rule, the small tank was upgraded into a major water supply project.

Recommissioned in 1894, the manmade reservoir was expected to meet the drinking water needs of Bangalore. The credit for this project, called Chamarajendra Water works, goes to the then Diwan of Mysore, Seshadri Iyer and the then Chief Engineer of Mysore State, M.C. Huthcins.

Once the TG Halli became operational, Hesarghatta was neglected and it was in 1994 that it last filled up. Since then, there has not been any water in the vast lake except in a few patches.

Thankfully, this year has seen copious rains in Karnataka and other parts of the country. The rains have led to the Hesraghatta Lake showing signs of revival and today it holds around eight feet of water. This may not mean much as the reservoir can hold upto thirty five feet of water but the fact that water has started flowing indicates that the water body, one given up for dead, can be revived.

If the State Government and the authorities are serious about ensuring that the water once again continues to flow into the reservoir, they have to clear the encroachments, repair the infrastructure in and round the reservoir, revive the water source and clear the water channels.   

The total catchment area draining into the reservoir is 73.84 km2 (2189 mi2), out of which the direct draining catchment is 2.68 km2 (6.86 sq mi2). There are 184 tanks built in the Arkavathy river basin upstream of the Hesaraghatta. These needs to be revived.

The Arkavaty originates in the Nandi Hills in Chikaballapur district and it joins the Cauvery in Kanakapura after flowing through Kolar and Bangalore rural districts. The Vrishabhavaty and the Suvarnamukhi are the tributaries which drain part of Bangalore and Anekal taluks into the Arkavati River.

All these needs to be taken into consideration for reviving the Hesarghatta.

By the way, there is a Government plan to pump water from Ethinahole to the Hesarghatta and TG Halli reservoirs. This is the plan of the Urban Development Department.

These two reservoirs were Bangalore’s major source of drinking water until the Cauvery project was implemented in 1971.

The Urban Development Department wants to go ahead with the project and the Water Resources Department has agreed to give 2.5 tmcft of water from Ethinahole. This water would be pumped to TG Halli and Hesaraghatta lakes, be treated and then it will be pumped to the city.

For this to be effective, Hesaraghatta  has to be restored before water is pumped into it. The water holding, pumping and supply infrastructure in Hesarghatta has not been used since 1986.

When Hesarghatta supplied water, it was initially taken by gravity through a 1.4 m dia (42" dia) Hume pipe to the Soladevanahalli pumping station. Water was then pumped, initially using steam pumps and later electric pumps, to the Combined Jewel Filters (CJF) plant at Malleswaram  for treatment and supply.

The pipes must have rusted and broken down at some places. There is need to repair the existing pipes and also lay new ones if the Urban Development Department wants to reuse the Hesarghatta for water supply.

The department scheme envisages pumping water from the west-bound Ethinahole river through canals to a collection centre near Sakaleshpura. From there, the water would be allowed to flow in an open canal till Tumkur and the BWSSB will pump the water to TG Halli and Hesaraghatta reservoir from there.

At present, 19 tmcft of water has been allocated from the Cauvery and the BWSSB has the capacity to supply 1,400 MLD of water from all the five Cauvery drinking water projects. The available water is expected to meet the city’s demand till 2015

Is the water in Hesarghatta a sign for urban planners that all is not lost and that there is still hope for reviving the lakes and water bodies in and around Bangalore. The answer is yes and it is high time that the Government and urban planners launched along term plan involving people, Government agencies and NGOs to bring back water naturally to habitations. 

Will water bust the Bangalore boom

One of the ablest and honest IAS officer that Karnataka has seen in recent years, V. Balasubramanian, who retired as Additional Chief Secretary, stirred a hornest’s nest when he took on the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) over the water supply needs of Bangalore and said half of Bangalore would have to be evacuated if alternate channels to supply water to Bangalore were not explored.

Mr. Balasubramaniam said the Government would have to evacuate half of Bangalore’s population in the next ten years if  steps were not taken to redress the water scarcity and other water related problems that Bangalore faces and would continue to face.
As chairman of Centre for Policies and Practices, Bangalore, the former bureaucrat cautioned the Government against taking things in a casual manner and called for urgent steps to streamline the water supply system.

He was not far off the mark. Many cities in India have had to be evacuated after the water supply system fell into disuse. In Karnataka, the city of Bijapur, saw a mass evacuation when the ingenious water system of tanks and lakes collapsed after its fall to Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1686.

Similarly, the Mughal Emperor Akbar had to abandon his pet city, Fathepur Sikri, when the water failed. Even the greatest Mughal Emperor, with untold wealth at his disposal and also served by the best and ablest minds, could not solve the water shortage.

Bangalore too could meet the same fate if the authorities to be fail to heed the warning.     
What are the factor that could lead Bangalore towards the dooms day saying ?. Well, here are some facts.

The Hesarghatta reservoir has completely dried up and the TG halli reservoir too is going the same way. The Hesarghatta first went completely dry in 1925 and the then Mysore Government took steps to provide drinking water from the Yelemallappa Chetty Tank, Byatha and Kakol Tanks. When this proved inadequate, the TG Halli was commissioned in 1933.

When TG Halli too proved inadequate, the Government decided to tap Cauvery in the 1970s. Today, Cauvery meets most of the needs of Bangalore but there can be no further drawal from Cauvery as the State has already reached the limits of water drawal prescribed for Karnataka for drinking water by the Cauvery River Water Tribunal.
Bangalore once had hundreds of lakes and today there are just a handful and even they are facing threats from urbanization and Government apathy.

Even as late as 1971, Bangalore has 260 lakes, Today, there are hardly 60 and most of them are highly polluted.  

The storm water drains are clogged and they need to be renovated and repaired. The water channels connecting the exisiting lakes need to be restored and encroachments around lakes removed. Some wetlands need to be restored.

A study by the Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Bangalore, says many dry tanks on the outskirts of the City have been encroached upon either for real estate or for agriculture.

It says conversion of farm land and encroachment of water channels in and around wetlands have weakened connectivity between Yelchenahalli and Madivala lakes and they have almost been lost.
The Public Health Institute, and the Department of Mines and Geology, Karnataka, has shown that 52 per cent of the borewell water and 59 per cent of the tap water in Bangalore is undrinkable. Shockingly, they contain 8.4 per cent and 19 per cent E.coli bacteria respectively.

Borewells, which have proliferated in the last decade and are a major cause of deepening water table in Bangalore, can only supply contaminated water. There are more than 4 lakhs borewell and only half of them are registered. The drawal of underground water is 3.7 times more than the recharge from the city’s annual rainfall 900 mm.
No wonder, the borewells have gone deeper, up to 1,250 feet and hundreds of  borewells have become dry. Moreover, the 600 lakes of Bangalore urban district have all become sewage tanks and this is highlighted in Volume 2 of Excreta Matters published  by Centre for Science & Environment, Delhi, 2011. This is study of water of 71 cities in India.

The 850 kilometres of old Raja Kaluves or storm water drains were conceived to transport surplus water from higher elevation lakes to lower levels in the Karanji system or a cascading system of natural rain water harvesting. Instead, they now carry sewage, debris, sullage and filth. Besides, the existing fourteen Secondary treatment plants, four tertiary treatment plants and ten more STPs under construction will together have a capacity to treat 1,133 MLD of waste water. However, all the existing STPs hardly treat 30 per cent of the sewage because of sewage is not flowing into the STPs but into the lakes and other water bodies. Moreover, there is no demand for treated water and it is let back into the polluted water channels and water bodies.

The sewage has to diverted away from the Raja Kaluves and they have to be treated before being let into lakes and tanks. Only then can Raja Kaluves carry rainwater to the lakes. If not., the lakes and water bodies will continue to be cess pools of filth, debris, sewage and foul smelling liquid with high health hazard.

Rainwater harvesting is yet to take off despite a law making it mandatory. It now covers just 50,000 houses out of some 18 lakh properties. Surveys have shown that only 40 per cent of  Bangalore is covered by roofs and if rain water harvesting is to be effective, it should be done on a geographical basis covering all the four basins areas or natural valleys of Bangalore, including Vrishabhavati and  Hebbal.

The Vrishabhavati, which takes birth in Bangalore, is polluted and the river has practically died. It needs to be urgently revived if the ground water level has to be recharged. The Arkavathi, which flows near Bangalore too needs to be cleaned up.

BWSSB Chairman Gaurav Das Gupta has gone on record that the peripheral areas of Bengaluru do not and will not have water for the upcoming years.

Gaurav Gupta was speaking at a discussion on­ “The Critical water situation in Bangalore- The way forward”,  conducted by Bangalore International Centre at Domlur.

It was at this meet that Balasubramanian had spoken about the water crisis. Acknowledging the water crisis, the BWSSB Chairman himself said  “If you are thinking of  purchasing or staying in a property in Bangalore, especially in the peripheral areas and in the suburbs, take them at your own risk! We really don’t have water for those areas.”

He said there are plans to provide water for peripheral areas of Yelahanka, K R Puram and Kengeri. But beyond that the BWSSB cannot supply water.

How do you tackle these problems.

Leakages, which are almost 50 per cent, needs to be urgently plugged. Alternate sources have to be tapped and rain water harvesting should be compulsory. Encroachment of  tanks, lakes and water bodies should be removed forthwith and borewell drilling has to be regulated. Raja Kaluvas have to be restored. Only then will Balasubramaniam’s remarks remain a mere statement. If not, it will become a reality.  

Where have our lakes gone

Bangalore is a city which is full of surprises. The modern exists, perhaps a little uneasily, with the ancient. Though the urban onslaught on the history and heritage of the history continues, there is growing concern about the need to preserve, protect and even nurture our heritage.

Today, Bangalore is fortunate in having a vocal and growing group of conservationists and urban historians who leave no stone unturned to halt the senseless march of modernity and crass commercialization of the vast open spaces, water bodies, wet lands and green cover.

There have been umpteen number of surveys, studies, research papers, seminars and committees that have gone into and even at this point of time are seized with the issue of decreasing green cover of Bangalore and shrinking water bodies. But what is surprising is that within the Government and its agencies itself, there is no unanimity on a number of issue, including the number of tans and lakes in and around Bangalore.

It is really surprising that no less than sixteen different agencies of the State own or have a right over these water bodies and they range from our very own Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Bangalore Urban Jilla Panchayat, Bangalore Rural Jilla Panchayat, Forest Department, Fisheries Department, Minor Irrigation Department, Horticulture Department and even Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board (KUWSSB), Lake Development Authority (LDA) and a few other departments too.

This multiplicity of ownership has resulted in a very peculiar situation with each having its own census and results of tanks and water bodies in Bangalore and around the city.

Thus if Bangalore City has a few active lakes such as Ulsoor, Madivala, Sankey, Yediyur, greater Bangalore area of which Bangalore is a part has many more.

Greater Bangalore comes under the aegis of the Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (BMRDA) and its jurisdiction covers both Bangalore urban and rural districts and also parts of Kolar, Chikaballapur, Ramanagar and even Tumkur districts. Thus, BMRDA boundaries are bigger than BBMP boundaries. The BDA too has its own jurisdiction and it too manages a few tanks. 

To add to this confusion, we have the urban and rural jilla panchayats of Bangalore and both have their own records of tanks and lakes.

The many local bodies in and around Bangalore such as Anekal, Hoskote, Kanakapura, Magadi, Bidadi too have their own water bodies and some of them are directly under their control. 

Apart from these civic agencies, the departments such as Agriculture Horticulture, Fisheries, Minor Irrigation, Major Irrigation, Urban Development also have tanks under their jurisdiction.

Thus, we get a variety of agencies involved in the management and protection of water bodies. No wonder, there seems to be no common programme among the agencies or coordination among them to protect the water bodies and each has its own programme, plan and agenda. Thus, the lakes keep disappearing and the money spent in cleaning up one lake goes down the drain as other water body either upstream or downstream is not cleaned.  

If we go by the Government’s own surveys, we get varying estimates of the number of tanks and lakes in and around Bangalore. A case in this is the BBMP whose jurisdiction extends over almost 800 square kilometer which has 183 lakes. Of them, BBMP has jurisdiction over 55 lakes only and 123 water bodies have been handed over to the BDA for management and protection. The BDA has already taken up the development of 123 lakes in three phases, with an estimated cost of Rs159.71 crore even as the BBMP has its own programme. .

One of the earliest  surveys of lakes and tanks in and around Bangalore was undertaken during the time of Tipu Sultan (1750-1799), the ruler of Mysore. This survey was undertaken in 1791 and it was taken up in a scientific manner that had not been done earlier.

In this survey, the lakes were measured, the survey number on which they stood and the tanks beds numbered, their description entered into the revenue records and steps taken to keep them clean and rain fed. The first few man made lakes in Bangalore such as Kempambudhi owe their existence to Kempe Gowda.

After the fall of Tipu Sultan in 1799, Bangalore came under both Wodeyar and British rule and both took steps to augment water supply to Bangalore by building new lakes and tanks and renovating and repairing the existing water bodies.

Many of the lakes constructed by the British,Wodeyars and Kempe Gowda are either gone or are on the verge of extinction. The Minor Irrigation Department, a wing of the Government, which took up a survey of water bodies in Bangalore urban district said there are 608 tanks and lakes of all sizes and shapes and they have a command area of 12,877 hectares with a irrigation potential of 13004 hectares.

However, figures of the Directorate of Economics and Statistics contradoict the Minor Irrigation Department figures. They claim that there were only 652 tanks and lakes and that they have remained the same over the years.

The data in the Season and Annual Crop Report of the Government of Karnataka and the census carried out by the Minor Irrigation Department also do not match each other’s figures. Surprisingly, a report of the Lake Development Authority, which again is a government agency, claims that were 261 lakes in Bangalore till 1961 and that their numbers declined to 81 in 1986. Even the Lakshman Rau report, widely considered to be one of the best such reports, says there were 369 lakes and tanks in Bangalore metropolitan in 1984. The Lakshman Rau report is based on the Comprehensive development plan (CDP)  of BDA. These lakes accounted for 20.60 per cent of the Bangalore Urban and rural districts put together and 59.66 per cent of urban district in 1986-87.

Of the 389 lakes, 262 were in green belt area covering 839.72 sq kms and 127 in non-urban areas covering 449 sq kms.

As per the report, Bangalore north had 61 lakes, south had 98, Anekal 44, Hoskote 23, Magadi 11, Nelamangala 13 and Devanahalli 12 lakes.

An Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) survey has put the number of lakes in Bangalore urban and rural districts at 1888 and in BDA area at 608 with a water spread of 4573 hectares. This is exactly the same as the number of lakes pegged by the Minor Irrigation Department in its survey of  1986-87. 

Before 1986, Bangalore lakes were under the jurisdiction of sixteen departments, including defence, jilla panchayat, BDA, BWSSB, BMP, HAL, Horticulture, Fisheries and Minor Irrigation departments.

Strangely, while the agencies dealing with lakes and tanks have gone up, the number of tanks have come down from 262 in 1960 to 81 in 1986 and 61 in 2006.This means 195 tanks have disappeared from the surface. Where have they gone and which survey do we depend on?

With the lakes and their renovation getting short shrift, Bangalore looks headed for an ecological disaster, the likes of which it had never ever even contemplated. Apart from urban flooding, mismanagement of the inland water system has already led to severe water shortage, depleting water levels, contamination of eater sources and a higher level of stress on Bangalore’s aging water supply system.

The best solution would be to recharge the lakes, clear the storm water drians of all encroachments and ensure that there is no further encroachment of water body. Urban planning has to factor the water bodies and their preservation which so far Bangalore has failed to do.

(This is the third of the article on Bangalore flooding and urban planning)