It always comes as a surprise for many a Bengalurean to know that the larger part of the city is not in the Cauvery basin but in the Dakshina Pinakini river basin. Yes, there is a river by this name and it flows independent of the Cauvery to join the Bay of Bengal.
Just across the border from Karnataka, from Bagalur to Hosur is the village of Kelavarapalle. Here on Then Pennar river, as the Dakshina Pinakini is called in Tamil Nadu, stands a dam. The reservoir so created is possibly one of the few in India which stores predominantly waste-water from a city. The waters will irrigate over 1000 acres of land.
The city and its relationships with rivers is a peculiar one. The Nandi Hills is where the Dakshina Pinakini begins. At a place called Shringi Teertha, is a beautiful stepwell. The stepwell is now dry. Groundwater from a borewell 1,000 ft. deep feeds the stepwell. Now an amusement centre for tourists is to come up near these hills. This adding to the hundreds of villas and a golf course nearby.
Water from tankers is the predominant mode of supply for needs and the locals suffer. Instead of planning a bio-sphere around this place to protect its ecological integrity, we spend monies bringing tourists in droves for entertainment. A river is destroyed at its head.
A struggle
Further down, the foaming waters of Varthur lake has grabbed international media attention. This lake receiving wastewater from Bellandur is part of the Dakshina Pinakini chain. The farmers of the vast command areas are now struggling for water, their crops do not grow well.
Downstream is the village of Mugalur. By this time the waters of the river have been cleaned a bit by nature. Farmers use this water for their crops. They pump it as far away as 6 kilometres, desperate since groundwater has run out. A constant complaint is against the acid in the waters and the weeds that it generates. Yet the wastewater remains a resource.
Downstream at Bagalur in Tamil Nadu, a large grill has been set up on the river below the bridge. This holds off all the plastic and water hyacinth that flows. One presumes that it regularly cleaned. A few cows feed off the grass that grows abundantly on the river bed and banks.
As we follow the river further downstream, the landscape changes quiet dramatically. Vast vistas of farming open up and a large water body can be seen.
The Kelavarapalle dam holds on to the waters, creating a lake. Visitors can enter the dam and its park paying a small fee. In the nutrient rich waters only the African catfish can grow well. Water hyacinth occupies a fair patch in the dam waters.
The sluice gates are open and a few intrepid fishermen are casting a reel for their daily diet and for something to sell. The river will run downstream to another larger dam at Kaveripattinam. Other streams will have diluted the wastewater somewhat.
Diversion
Karnataka is planning to treat and divert around 600 million litres of the wastewaters of the Dakshina Pinakini at Hebbal and Bellandur treatment plants to feed the lakes of Chickballapur and Kolar districts. The river flow will be affected as will some livelihoods. An upstream vs downstream conflict on wastewater is imminent.
A city can do much more to the river basin it is located in. It needs to engage with and protect the entire catchment area so that the river flows constantly. It then has to make sure that only treated wastewater is led in to the river so that the ecological integrity of the river is preserved as well as livelihoods dependent on the waters protected. That is water wisdom but alas.
zenrainman@gmail.com
