Ground water mapping for Bengaluru recommended

As many localities in Bengaluru do not have access to municipal water and are totally dependent on ground water, multiple agencies have recommended a ground water mapping initiative.

A workshop “My Well, Our Water” held at Wipro campus on Saturday, revealed that there are 15 lakes in the micro watershed and the land is under the jurisdiction of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) as well as the grama panchayats. The localities around these lakes do not have access to municipal water and are dependent on ground water.

The workshop was jointly conducted by Wipro, Biome Environmental Trust (a Bangalore-based design firm focused on ecology, architecture and water), ACWADAM (Advanced Centre for Water Resources Development and Management - a not-for-profit organization that aims to develop solutions to groundwater problems) and Mapunity.

The study found that “The area is fast growing and currently, there does not seem to be an understanding of the water demand in this area.”

Site visits at many localities also reveal that shallow open wells of depth upto 40 feet have traditionally been a source of water both for irrigation as well as domestic consumption. “Now over the years many of these open wells have been closed and now there are bore wells that are as deep as 1500 feet but the yield are still insecure.”

Information on the number of active bore wells in the area is hard to come by and water insecurity has also driven best practices like ground water recharge, banning of private bore wells, water metering and a water tariff that takes into account the production cost of water, adoption of various different methodologies for waste water treatment and so on.

As a successful model, Rainbow Drive, a community on 36 acres with about 400 plots has demonstrated many of the above water responsible behaviour. Many apartments and communities in the area have also adopted rainwater harvesting in a big way. The community has also stepped forward to take charge of some of the lakes in the area. There is interest and awareness in the water issues and people are looking to learn and adopt best practices from each other.

As a solution, participatory ground water mapping has been designed. “We hope to help citizens share the stories of their wells, bore wells, lakes, STPs, etc with the city. We hope to strengthen the conversations amongst citizens on these stories, and bring groundwater science and the spirit of public good and common property stewardship into these conversations.”

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