With barely seven days of measurable rainfall in June and meagre rains so far in July, the monsoons have done little to curtail the water issues of Bengaluru.
Whether the intermittent supply of Cauvery water to Hennur and surrounding areas or the continued usage of water tankers and drilling of borewells in Sanjayanagar, the signs of shortage are plenty.
At his house in Wilson Garden, in the heart of the city, Moulana keeps a weary eye on the water pipe. At 4 a.m., water flows, but in a trickle, which stops in an hour or less. “We have made numerous complaints, but supply has not improved. Even our borewells are useless now. We have no choice, but to rely on tankers,” he said.
An indicator of the continued crisis is the rapid movement of water tankers on the roads. Many tanker operators say the demand is similar what was seen in peak summer. “We cannot cope with the demand. Piped water is released almost once in 15 days and borewells are drying up,” said Praveen who runs a tanker water supply business in Doddannekundi.
The three trucks of S. Ramesh Reddy make 16 trips daily to supply water, but they are not enough to meet demand. “From my experience, if it rains at least 10 times, demand for our tankers comes down completely. But this year, the groundwater situation has not improved,” he said.
Borewells running dry
The situation is so bad that the dry spell is taking a toll on water tankers too. A tanker operator said their borewell had dried up this summer forcing them to travel up to 15km to access borewells beyond Whitefield. “The yield in those too has reduced by more than 30%. We may have to travel another 10km to meet growing demand,” said a tanker operator in east Bengaluru.
Kemparamaiah, Engineer-in-Chief, BWSSB, said supply from the Cauvery reservoirs is ‘according to plan’. “There may be issues in supply at the local level, but for the city, we are getting as much water as we expected,” he said.
Not enough rain to rejuvenate groundwater
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) states that in June, the city received just 25mm of rainfall, which is barely a quarter of the rainfall usually recorded during the first month of the monsoon.
In July, the city received 14mm of rain in the first week. This is just 37% of normal. This meagre rainfall was not enough to cause water stagnation or significantly improve groundwater levels.
This lull comes after the city saw near-record rains in May. K.R. Sooryanarayana from the Central Groundwater Board said the impact of May rains as well as the monsoon recharge will only be felt by the end of October. “The decline is perceptible in peripheral areas where drawing of water from borewells is acute. If the monsoon fails, groundwater level may decline further,” he said.
Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre notes that by the end of June, more than 50% of the tanks and lakes under the Minor Irrigation Department in Bangalore Urban and Rural districts remained dry.
