Metro will ‘drain’ city

Bengaluru, Oct. 9: The underground stretch of the Metro rail, which will run for 10 km in two stages from Minsk square to BDA Circle and beyond, and the proposed road below ground have given rise to fears that the already depleting groundwater resources of Bengaluru, could worsen with countless borewells becoming defunct in the process.

Currently Bengaluru has over four lakh borewells providing between 200 to 400 million litres of water per day (MLD) to the city . Of them only five per cent are recharged and about 20 per cent have gone dry, with the groundwater level in the city already depleting from 600 ft to 900 ft, says water expert Vishwanath.

As the Metro rail and the road below ground will cut across the existing dykes (a natural slope to regulate water levels) and faults (fractures in the rocks), the movement of groundwater in the area could be badly affected, warns Captain S .Raja Rao, former principal secretary, department of ecology and environment.

All the existing borewells downstream, beyond the intersection points of the dykes and faults, will become dry, leaving their existing users with no water supply, he says ,explaining that the Metro Rail’s effect on groundwater should have been examined in an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report.

“Unfortunately, the new EIA notification of September 14, 2006 issued by the Union ministry of environment and forests, does not cover such infrastructural projects of local authorities. This serious omission is taken advantage by these authorities, who don’t bother to prepare EIAs and even if they do, the projects do not come up for public hearing as they should,” Capt. Rao says. In his view, the people living downstream of the Metro tunnel should ensure that proper measures are taken to minimise the harm done to the already depleting groundwater resources by adopting rainwater harvesting and other practices. Also, those who stand to lose their water supply should be compensated, he says.