City water woes set to worsen

Bangaloreans are staring at a serious water crisis with the city receiving rain on just seven days during the two monsoon months of June and July this year.

The city normally receives 180 mm of rain during these months. But the actual rainfall has been 73 mm, making it a record deficit of around 60 per cent. The city had received rains for 21 days in June and July in 2011.

According to Indian Meteorological Department officials, the monsoon is affected by the EL Nino phenomenon — severe atmospheric and oceanic disturbance in the Pacific Ocean.

This deficit rainfall is likely to affect water availability in the city and will result in delayed ground water recharge. In some areas, borewells have virtually dried up. Also, with over-exploitation of groundwater beyond the rechargeable limit, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewage Board is expecting water scarcity till the commissioning of Cauvery 4the stage, II phase in November.

“BWSSB maintains 14,474 borewells. Of these, about 30-40 per cent have already gone dry, leaving residents to turn to private suppliers,” said  T Ventakraju, engineer-in-chief, BWSSB.

The engineer also added that the condition is worse in areas like K R Puram, Mahadevpura, Bytarayanapura, Doorvaninagar, Kalyanagar, Pillanna Garden, Kadugondanahalli and Nagawara in Bangalore East and North.

“People depend only on groundwater here as most of the areas get no Cauvery water. Barring water through our tankers, there is no other source of water,” he added.

 Residents are already feeling the pinch as tankers are charging them double compared to last year.

“We paid around Rs 250 for a tanker last year, but now we are paying Rs 400-500. Due to scarce ground water, the borewell yields water only twice a week compared to four times last year,” said Hemalatha A P, a resident of Ramamurthynagar.

Residents said they had no water conservation plan in their apartments.

“We have not imposed restrictions on the use of water. However, there are plans to cut restrict water for washing vehicles on the premises,” Hemalatha added.