Borewells running dry, water in KRS dam depleting: B'luru faces water scarcity?

Civic Issues

Illegal borewells too have affected the ground water level of water.

TNM Staff

With summer at its peak, parts of Bengaluru are facing water scarcity. The Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board officials say that the agency is only able to provide 1390 MLD of water per day to residents in the city, when the demand is at 1500 MLD per day. Officials with BWSSB say that the water level in KRS is depleting quickly and hence, the residents of Bengaluru’s suburbs and 110 villages are suffering from water scarcity as borewells too are running dry. Speaking to TNM, a official with the Cauvery Neeravari Nigamal Ltd said that as on Sunday, the water level in the Krishnaraja Sagar Dam stands at 9 ft. KRS is the major source of water for the city’s residents. “The live storage capacity currently is 9 MLD. The outflow of water stands at 3021 cusecs per day and the inflow is only 151 cusecs. If the monsoon does not set in on time, we may have to ration water,” he added. According to data obtained from BWSSB, 60% of residents of Bengaluru are dependent on groundwater and currently, the city has 4,464 legal borewells in the city. Of these, around 1,500 of them have run dry and the ground water level has reached 1,100 ft. BWSSB sources say that based on the survey conducted, the city has around 3.6 lakh illegal borewells. “There are so many unauthorised ones that have been dug and this has resulted in ground water depleting quickly. Many borewells in Ramagondanahalli, Bellandur, Sarjapur, Mahadevapura, Maragondanahalli, Yelahanka and 110 other villages have run dry,” says T Madhusudan, deputy Chief Engineer of BWSSB. BWSSB officials say that they receive over 200 requests to dig borewells in the city every day and that some of the requests are approved as the residents have no other source of drinking water. “The project to provide drinking water to the entire Bengaluru Urban district will be completed only by 2026. So far, we have been able to provide water connections to 41 villages out of the 110 villages in BBMP limits. As the number of connections increase, there is more demand for Cauvery water and KRS officials say the water level is low in the reservoir. Until then, there is no other choice but to allow people to dig borewells,” the official added.      

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