More borewells: Will the strategy hold water?

Three months from now, the summer will show whether this strategy holds water.
But there is a new-found hope among the residents of Mahadevapura, Pulakeshinagar, KR Puram and surrounding places, areas which face the brunt of the problem last year. At the beginning of 2010, there were indications of the impending doom.

Water shortage, which was just beginning to show during December-January, snowballed into a crisis in mid-summer. This year, the residents say, they see no such indications.

The severity of water scarcity is limited, many residents feel. In areas such as Konanakunte Cross, Yelachenahalli, Uttarahalli, and Anjanapura, all known for acute water shortage, hope reigns that this summer would be more kind to them. People who used to spend three to four days without a bath, acknowledge an improvement in the situation.

“This year, January has come with a promising note. We are not facing water scarcity. The situation has improved,” says Madaiah, a resident of Uttarahalli.

In a majority of the places under the Bangalore South Assembly constituency, residents are apparently happy that their corporators have worked a lot to ensure proper water supply. The improved water scenario underlines the fact that the city needed elected representatives to highlight their woes in the appropriate forum and get the lethargic babudom act swiftly. Although an apparent short-term measure, in most of the water-starved areas, new borewells have been sunk.

For instance, the Uttarahalli ward corporator Ramesh Raju has sunk 11 borewells.

“This has improved the water supply in our ward. We have kept aside two borewells from usage, keeping the summer in mind. Also, we are buying water tankers to supply water during summer,” says the corporator.

At least for now, these measures have yielded fruit, with most households getting enough water.

But four more months, and the real test of these borewells will begin to show. From
March through July, the borewell strategy should work well so as not to precipitate another crisis. “We do not know how the groundwater table would be in summer,” admits Mahesh, a resident of Yelachenahalli.

The ward corporator, O Manjunath, agrees the situation is grim in the area. “Borewells have failed because the ground water table has gone too deep. Cauvery alone is the answer but that too is not supplied to houses on revenue layouts.”
For now, there is improvement in Konanakunte ward.

“The race for water used to begin in January and people riding bicycles with plastic containers was a common sight. Now, we have adequate water. Overhead tanks are spilling over,” says Byrappa, a resident.

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, which is finding it difficult to meet the rising demand for water, has sunk five to 10 borewells in each ward. But despite these measures, whether 2011 would be a trouble-free year, only the four critical summer months would tell.

P B RAMAMURTHY
Chairman, BWSSB

"Besides the additional water tankers, we are also planning to hire private tankers to supply Cauvery water free of cost in the coming days to areas that have no BWSSB connection. We will also intensify our inspection on water theft and try to reduce leakages to manage water supply during summer."

S Suresh Kumar
BWSSB  Minister

"There will be water shortage and we are aware of the summer situation.  There are plans to introduce an additional 30 water tankers to the City. We will shortly come up with solutions to fulfil the demand for water which will be personally monitored by me every fortnight."