Solving water problems: Small stories, big lessons from Bengaluru

Bengaluru tends to be in the news for its water doomsday stories – a city running out of water, the “water tanker mafia” and lest we forget, its frothing, foaming lakes catching fire. A city’s story, however, is always more nuanced than the headlines it makes, and often stories of solutions to these problems remain hidden and untold.

There are countless stories of the city’s individuals and its communities, each responding to these problems in their own little ways.

Controlling consumption

In India, a city’s systems are meant to be based on its residents’ entitlement to consume 135 litres per day (135 LPCD). In reality, we find that in Bengaluru, middle and upper middle classes may actually consume upwards of 250 LPCD – especially when they reside in apartments and layouts. However, many such communities have themselves shown how this can change. For example, many apartments have metred water consumption in individual flats reviving open wells and have imposed carefully crafted tariffs. These stories suggest that just the act of metring and making consumption known reduces the consumption by around 20 percent, and some communities have reduced their consumption all the way down to 135 LPCD or under. What this means is that communities can bring down their usage to within the stipulated entitlement, so that water is shared more equitably, respecting the urban poor’s entitlement to this water.

Rainwater harvesting and open wells

Apart from metring, many communities have shown how effectively rainwater harvesting can be integrated into their water management practices. They have recognised that groundwater is their key resource and invested significantly in recharging aquifers – through recharge wells, by recharging defunct borewells and through recharge pits. They have realised that groundwater is a larger common pool resource and have risen beyond the question, “will my investments in recharge help my borewell?”. They have understood that if all of us take care of our aquifers, all of us stand to benefit – and that this can only happen collectively.

In this process, many communities are reviving open wellsinvested in storage of rooftop rainwater. Old ones that are revived and new ones that are dug are becoming part of communities’ water supplies. In essence, this is a contemporary version of our heritage and the wisdom of the past.

Communities have also invested in storage of rooftop rainwater reuse their treated waste water to supplement and reduce dependence on other fresh water sources – be it piped water supply or groundwater. For many communities, these investments in rainwater harvesting could be justified solely on the flood control impact they had within their properties or campuses. Bengaluru has a rainfall equivalent of close to 3,000 MLD (Million Litres a Day) – that’s more than what the piped supply would be after investments in the next stage of the Cauvery : 1,480 + 750 = 2,230 MLD.

Reusing wastewater

Then there are the stories of pioneering communities that have retrofit dual plumbing into their apartments to reuse their treated waste water take care of Bengaluru’s lakesin flushes or a community that actually drinks its own treated waste water! Many have at least begun to use treated wastewater for all landscaping purposes – that can represent a significant demand for water in many campuses. They are demanding more enlightened regulation to dispose of their excess treated water responsibly, but in a way that it comes back into Bengaluru’s water cycle as a useful resource. At least 80 percent of all water we use flows out as wastewater and residents are showing how we can begin to treat this as a source of water for the city.

Encouraging water conservation livelihoods

This means the city has and is developing a vibrant set of well diggers, plumbers, masons, electricians, metring product developers, rainwater harvesting and waste water treatment service providers with skills, knowledge and understanding of these solutions. These people are a very important part of the solution – they are day-in and day-out dealing with the problems people face, working with them to implement solutions, to monitor them, and to continuously improve them. Their innovations need to be recognised and their work needs to be incentivised.

Protecting local water bodies

Entire neighbourhoods are coming together to form “lake groups” to take care of Bengaluru’s lakes and wetlands – to find a lake’s most appropriate functions in a changing urbanscape: waste water management, groundwater recharge, flood control and also a space for urban biodiversity, a public space and a space for peace and meditation. They are forging alliances with corporates and civil society, and working with government institutions to help revive and maintain lakes. And these lake groups are realising how different livelihoods – such as that of the fisherman and the cowherd – is in such synergy with that of the lake’s well-being that it is beginning to make the city’s new-age IT citizen realise the importance of their stakeholding in the lake!

It is important for Bengaluru to share and tell these stories and celebrate its characters. It is important for Bengaluru to make these stories a part of the mainstream of its water narrative. Bengaluru.urbanwaters.in is an online space to help bring these stories together – you can read many of the pioneering stories referred to earlier in this space. For example, on this site is a comic book you will find that narrates the story of “Meghdooth Enclave,” which is based on the real work of a community in Bengaluru. The site also contains site primers, guides, glossaries, FAQs and service provider contacts for all your water management problems and needs.

With the recent Supreme Court judgement on the Cauvery dispute, Bengaluru now has a greater share of the Cauvery waters for itself. With financial assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Bengaluru is now making its next big investments in water infrastructure – the Cauvery fifth stage water supply project – to bring in an additional 750 MLD. Will this water-supplied-in-the-pipe enter “Meghdooth Enclave” and drown out the relevance of its story? Or will Bengaluru realise smartness lies in listening to these stories and transitioning its citizens from being the problem to being a part of the solution?

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Avinash Krishnamurthy works at Biome Environmental Trust and was part of the team that set up the urbanwaters.in website, a community project funded by Wipro. You can write and share your water story with the city in this space; email [e-mail].