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There isn’t any water left in river Cauvery to draw, for the use of ever-expanding city of Bengaluru. How do we, then, get water to drink? Here is a plan – creating another Cauvery for the city.
Ashwin Mahesh has been involved in public policy for Bengaluru through his work with the Karnataka government. The views expressed here are his own. He is a member of the Lok Satta party. He is also CEO of Mapunity Information Services, and a director at Oorvani Media, publisher of Citizen Matters and India Together. He is also a visiting faculty with the Centre for Public Policy at IIM Bangalore.
2 Comments
We need to rejuvenate all the lakes in and around Bangalore some more lakes which are large and can help us with quenching the water issue if we dont act now this city will be a ghost city without water.
– Jigani Lake
– Hulimangala Lake
– Bedduru Kere Lake
– 4 Lakes in Bannerghatta Area
– Gottigere Lake
– Arekere Lake
Another insightful article.
I have couple of suggestion to add. In many apartment complexes, the cost of water (whether due to tanker supply or bore water or Cauvery) is a shared cost. This cost is normally recovered as a part of maintenance fee from residents, which is normally a function of area of the individual apartment. There is *no* billing based on actual usage.
If we want to start looking at water as a precious resource, we need to also enforce metering and charging based on usage, at an individual apartment level. Otherwise, it will be a tale of tragedy of commons – with no incentive for reduced water usage/wastage and no penalties for excess usage.
For usage of bore-wells and rain-water harvesting, again similar principles should be applied. Water drawn from bore-well must be charged on metered basis (at a cost lesser than what is charged for Cauvery) and rain-water harvested should be rewarded monetarily (similar to how one can earn money today by supplying solar power to the grid).
We need to rejuvenate all the lakes in and around Bangalore some more lakes which are large and can help us with quenching the water issue if we dont act now this city will be a ghost city without water.
– Jigani Lake
– Hulimangala Lake
– Bedduru Kere Lake
– 4 Lakes in Bannerghatta Area
– Gottigere Lake
– Arekere Lake
Another insightful article.
I have couple of suggestion to add. In many apartment complexes, the cost of water (whether due to tanker supply or bore water or Cauvery) is a shared cost. This cost is normally recovered as a part of maintenance fee from residents, which is normally a function of area of the individual apartment. There is *no* billing based on actual usage.
If we want to start looking at water as a precious resource, we need to also enforce metering and charging based on usage, at an individual apartment level. Otherwise, it will be a tale of tragedy of commons – with no incentive for reduced water usage/wastage and no penalties for excess usage.
For usage of bore-wells and rain-water harvesting, again similar principles should be applied. Water drawn from bore-well must be charged on metered basis (at a cost lesser than what is charged for Cauvery) and rain-water harvested should be rewarded monetarily (similar to how one can earn money today by supplying solar power to the grid).