‘Protect integrity of catchment areas of water bodies, boost RWH compliance’

Scientists, activists call for rejuvenation of water bodies, efficient use of water, enhancing green spaces, and protection of ecosystem

NT Correspondent

“Bengaluru is a victim of unplanned urbanization, loss of flood plains and flood sinks, narrowing of drains, disappearance of green spaces and concretization of ground. If indeed, the city has to have a sustainable supply of water, the authorities would need to focus upon maintaining the integrity of catchment areas of water bodies, both from biological and chemical angles”.  

This was stated here by Prof. T. V. Ramachandra, Director and Scientist, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science at the “Water Conclave: Bengaluru on the Brink” organized by the News Trail on Sunday in observance of the World Environment Day.

Prof. Ramachandra said the investment on watershed development should be undertaken from ecological point of view instead of civil engineering angle. “We don’t need Gross Domestic Product (GDP), we need Gross Environmental Product (GEP). He pointed out that Karnataka has 281,299 hectares of wetlands and said that if they were organized for infiltration of water into the ground, productivity would grow by leaps and bounds. He said in 1973, Bengaluru’s 68 per cent area was under the green cover which has shrunk to 3.90 per cent in 2019. “There should be seven trees for every single person to neutralize the per capita carbon emission, but the obtaining situation is that there is only one tree for seven persons in the city,” he remarked.

The scientist who is known for his work on ecology of Western Ghats, said the city’s landscape was dotted with 1,400 lakes during the era when Kempegowda founded the city. “But it has been left with only 191 water bodies today and interconnection among them has been ruptured leading to frequent deluges and serious depletion of ground water table. It is the only city around the world where fire on lakes is observed”, he remarked.

Mr. J. Manjunath, Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru Urban district, said a 200 per cent growth in population during the last 30 years has burdened the City’s ecosystem. He said there are 837 lakes in the Bengaluru district, of which 237 fall in the BBMP area while another 500 come under the Bengaluru rural district. He said the administration was alert and taking all measures to protect lakes and implement 30 metres buffer zone around each lake. He pointed out that Saturday has been designated for removal of encroachment on lakes.

Manjunath said Arakere gram panchayath has been developed as a model gram panchayath where solid waste is segregated into 42 categories of items, each of them finding a different treatment. Rizwan Arshad, MLA for Shivajinagar, said the city has no source of water of its own and has to depend on water from the river Cauvery which flows at a distance of around 100 kms from the city. He said under his constituency a survey revealed that 38% of the water supplied by the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) does not reach the households due to rickety pipeline.

Niranjan Khatri, founder of NGO i-Sambhav, suggested formation of a Bureau of Water Efficiency to keep a tab on the consumption of water and conservation of water sources. Khatri said he turned several ITC hotels into water positive institutions by initiating rainwater harvesting, treatment of wastewater and composting of dry waste. He said much of the bottled water remains unconsumed and constitutes a huge waste. Khatri said Bengaluru has seemingly reached its carrying capacity and should not be further burdened with either people or infrastructure.

Civic activist Nirmala Gowda of paani.earth who traced the history of Arkavathy (which has now dried up)said the river used to supply drinking water to the city till 2012. She said 52 kms stretch of the river was critically polluted. She said the authorities were interested in bringing water from Nethravathi river from the Western Ghats and have conceived a Rs. 2000 crore Yettinahole project but were least interest in rejuvenation of the Chamarajasagar Dam (also known as Tippagonadanahalli Dam) constructed by the Mysore Maharaja’s administration in 1933. Quoting British administrator McKenzee, she said, in 1897 the Arkavathi had abundant water and was a dynamic entity. It began to dry up since the 1990s and ceased to be a source of water in 2012. In 2017, copious rains in its catchment areas filled the dam to the full reservoir level, yet the Government remained heedless of the potential contribution of the river and the dam.

Prof. Inayathulla, Director, Water Institute of the Bangalore University, stressed the need to map water balance in the river basins of the State. He detailed the elaborate efforts that went into development of Ja