Published in Dwarka Express on 20.7.24

Bangalore faced unprecedented drought from November 2023 to April 2024 and now it is raining cats and dogs. Bengalurians cursed the climate change as responsible for the drought and were impatiently waiting for the ‘welcome showers.’ The wait never deceived them. Now the monsoon is here again. The story is similar to many other cities. But unfortunately, when the rain was evasive during the first quarter of the year, the social media had so many forwards about the need for rain water harvesting, need for massive tree planting and digging of more borewells. The city saw the worst drought condition in the last 30-40 years, said the Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar. Out of the 13900 borewells in Bangalore, 6900 borewells have dried out, creating water shortage in the city, though it was also confirmed that the areas serviced by Cauvery water had no cause for concern. While the Dy CM promised redrilling of existing borewells, and drilling new borewells, we comfortably forget one important factor.

Water table is depleting and underground aquifers are going dry. Indiscriminate digging of more and more borewells is unscientific and will exert high pressure on ground water table, say the experts. One should not forget that the water table gets recharged only if there is rain. It is neither a magic to produce water underground. On the one hand, the lakes in Bangalore which have all along been rain water reservoirs, are slowly vanishing due to encroachment and mismanagement. With Supreme court imposing a cap of 24 TMC Cauvery water for Bangalore city, the river water is just possible to cater to the need of 60% of Bangalore as of now. The rest are depending on borewells and tanker water.

While days were passing dry, in April 2024, suddenly the city reported heavy rains and flooding. The lakes were overflowing, streets were flooded and roads witnessed traffic jams and construction works came to a grinding halt. Someone gets drowned, some roads cave in and some buildings collapse. At many places, trees get uprooted. Not just this. The hills report landslides and traffic blockade. Such headlines have become our routine. Floods or drought, the common man is put to hardship on both counts. Many a time it is reported that there is huge pilferage in the pipelines while bringing the Cauvery water from 100 KMs away. The pilferage is both natural and sometimes manmade also. Kempe Gowda (16^th Century), the architect of the city was a visionary who provided for a lot of keres (tanks, the man-made lakes) and connecting feeder canals. But the modern society, known for its shortsightedness, is losing the values and vision. What we witness today are nothing but a clear explication of such imprudence. We need professionalism in water management. Let people realize that lakes are not recreation centres but a main resource to recharge the ground water. Striking a balance between demand and supply of water alone can address the imbalances due to extremities. Bangalore is not an isolated case. Almost all major cities are under threat to the manmade nature’s fury.