Contrary to popular perception, drinking water shortage continues to be a serious crisis in the city, especially in the outer zones and several densely populated lower-income group pockets even within the core city area.
However, as no political party or candidate offer a radically different agenda on drinking water, it doesn’t seem to figure high on the minds of voters while deciding whom to vote for.
Work on the Cauvery Stage V that will provide piped drinking water to 110 villages in the city’s outer zones, newly added to the city in 2007, was expected to be completed before the Assembly polls. But the work is still under way, disappointing incumbent MLAs of these areas who had hoped to benefit by providing water before elections.
Luckily for the MLAs, two years of good rains and lake rejuvenation efforts have improved the groundwater levels in the city, providing succour during this year’s ongoing scorching summer.
But drinking water continues to be one of the main demands of voters in several outer-zone Assembly constituencies like Yelahanka, Byatarayanapura, Bommanahalli, Mahadevapura, Yeshwantpur, Bengaluru South and R.R. Nagar. However, it is seen as a pan-city issue, with an individual MLA able to do little to help.
“We have been waiting for piped drinking water for almost a decade now. Works are under way, and we will get water soon. We tried pressuring the MLA to get it early, but it seems he can do little. What we expect him to ensure is that the roads dug up for the works are re-laid immediately,” said Ram Swaroop, a resident of Mahadevapura.
Free tanker water
Many incumbent MLAs and aspirants are providing “free tanker water” to several lower-income group-dominated pockets in the outer zones. Multiple residents said this was a common practice every year. However, the number of people organising it this year has definitely increased.
Water scarcity is not limited to outer zones alone. There seems to be a class division in water availability in the city. Many of the lower-income demography-dominated pockets in the core city complain of water scarcity. However, this is not a function of class bias but a function of population density, multiple former councillors in the city told The Hindu.
“For instance, some pockets of Prakashnagar have become densely populated in recent years. For instance, in one 30x40 site, people build two, four or five-storey buildings, which end up housing nearly 50 people. This puts enormous strain on all civic infrastructure like a heavy load on sewage pipelines, lack of parking space, and water supply to the area that was sufficient a few years ago is no longer enough,” explained G. Padmavathi, former mayor and councillor from Prakashnagar.
For the record, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) maintains that it draws 1,450 MLD of water from Cauvery every day, and Cauvery V Stage will draw an extra 770 MLD after its completion, totalling 2,220 MLD, which the Board maintains is sufficient for the city.
However, senior BWSSB officials also told The Hindu that it was common for MLAs to request the Board officials to provide water for a longer duration and even more even in quantum to certain pockets, which usually are dominated by lower-income demography, indicating the quantum allotted to the area by the Board was evidently not enough these days.
Groundwater resources
Water conservationist S. Vishwanath said water scarcity was not a pan-city problem but more localised in pockets within the core city and often resolved by local politicians. However, councillors argue that they find it tough to find water for such increasingly densely populated pockets and that the ground reality of the burgeoning city shows that it needs more water than it presently gets.
In the absence of allocation of more water, people are forced to exploit groundwater through borewells, which are capital intensive. “Almost every second house has a borewell here, and the underground water table is over-exploited. Even if we dig nearly 900 feet, it’s tough to find water,” said Ms. Padmavathi. In many cases, people are also forced to pay for tanker water. Given that this is the situation in mostly densely populated areas where people with lower incomes stay, it affects their lives disproportionately.
However, till date, no party or candidates have been able to make water into a decisive electoral issue. Neither is any incumbent MLA severely affected by the problem.
