Bengaluru: With the summer approaching, Bengaluru is bound to face a severe water shortage this year, with the T.G. Halli reservoir being non-functional and large amounts of Cauvery water being released to Tamil Nadu after a Supreme Court order.
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), which supplies water to the city, said that it pumps in 900 million litres of water every day to the city. But the demand is double that, at 1.8 billion litres.
The BWSSB is tasked with supplying water to the entire Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Area of 800 sqkm (Bengaluru Core area of 245 sqkm, eight urban local bodies of 330 sqkm – seven city municipal corporations and one town municipal corporation – and 110 villages stretched over 225 sqkm).
Arkavathi and T.G. Halli were the city’s primary sources of water till the 1970s.
It was realised then that the reservoirs cannot handle the demand led because of a spurt in the city’s population. The Cauvery water supply scheme stage-I (CWSS-I) was commissioned in 1974 to augment the supply by 135 million litres per day (MLD). CWSS Stage-II was in 1982 to further increase the supply by 135 MLD. CWSS Stage-III was in 1994-95, which augmented supplies by 270 MLD. The Stage-IV Phase I was commissioned in 2002 which increased supply by 270 MLD and Phase II was commissioned in 2012 to further increase the supply by 500 MLD.
The total water supplied to the city from the Cauvery river amounts to 1,350 MLD, covering an area of 540 sqkm and serving 8.5 million people. BWSSB engineer Kemparamiah said that only rains can help the city tide over the shortfall.
“We draw water downstream of the Kabini and KRS dams and Cauvery is our main source. We have enough water to last till April. We are expecting rain in April, and let us hope we have good rain this year. Otherwise, the crisis will be severe.”
