Those who indiscriminately draw water from borewells have to now watch out. To check further exploitation of groundwater, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) plans to install water meters for borewells in residences and commercial establishments.
At present, there are no limits on the quantum of water one can draw from a borewell and the authorities do not know the exact figures.
Now, water meters are installed only for piped Cauvery water.
Confirming the board’s plan to install meters, S. Krishnappa, chairperson of the Karnataka Ground Water Authority’s Committee for the BBMP area, told The Hindu that the capacity for drawing groundwater was not more than 150 million litres a day (mld). The recharge capacity on an area of 800 sq. km that the city was spread across was about 150 mld, he said.
“However, we do not know the exact quantity that is drawn. According to a rough estimation, the quantity of groundwater that is drawn ranges between 300 mld and 600 mld a day in the city. This amounts to overexploitation of groundwater,” he said.
BWSSB chairperson T.M. Vijay Bhaskar said metering of borewells would control indiscriminate extraction of groundwater. “That’s the need of the hour. We are now looking at the legal aspects before going ahead with the move,” he said.
According to BWSSB figures, the city has nearly 3 lakh borewells, including domestic and commercial. More than 7,000 of them are owned by the BWSSB.
Overexploited taluks
A recent estimation by the Karnataka Groundwater Directorate says groundwater is overexploited in 30 taluks of 12 districts in the State.
A senior official in the Karnataka Groundwater Directorate said the exploitation was more than 100 per cent of the annual recharge in taluks of Bagalkot, Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru Urban, Belagavi, Ballari, Chickballapur, Chikkamagalur, Chitradurga, Davangere, Kolar, Ramanagaram, and Tumakuru districts.
The taluks of Badami and Bagalkot in Bagalkot district; Devanahalli, Doddaballapur, Hoskote, and Nelamangala in Bengaluru Rural district, and Anekal, Bengaluru East, Bengaluru North, and Bengaluru South in Bengaluru Urban district are the worst.
The directorate has also identified six taluks of Hadagalli in Ballari district, Bagepalli in Chickballapur, Hosadurga in Chitradurga, Puttur in Dakshina Kannada, Yelburga in Koppal, and Magadi in Ramanagaram as “critical” where the groundwater exploitation is between 90 and 100 per cent, the official said.
