BENGALURU : Our business is going down and so is the water level of Bengaluru,” laments Ramakrishna, a well-digger from Anekal taluk, when asked about his business.Ramakrishna is one of the many thousands of well-diggers in Karnataka who has been struggling to eke out a livelihood by digging open wells. This community of well-diggers is widely known as the ‘Bhovi community’ or the ‘Mannu Vaddars’. Their business thrived as long as there was a demand from the people to construct and maintain open wells that store rainwater and in turn recharge the groundwater table. Since the 1980s, most Bengalureans have been ignoring open wells and instead looking at borewells and Cauvery as their primary sources of water.
“In an area where there are 5,000 houses, they only use Cauvery water, and when that water runs out, they use borewells,” says Ramakrishna.What is interesting is that the usage of these wells has not only reduced in urban areas, but in villages too. “Earlier, there used to be huge wells in the villages, and communities would go and draw water from them. Now, who wants to make that effort? They just connect a borewell pipeline and use the water,” adds Ramakrishna.
Munikrishna, a well-digger from Sarjapur, says that it is important to recharge the groundwater so that the ‘mannu’ or the earth stays cool. “Everywhere you only see concrete, tar and drains. There’s no place to recharge water. We must collect water and give it back to the ground,” says Munikrishna.
Livelihood Matters
The members of the Bhovi community have been traditional well-diggers for centuries. Most of them stay in the periphery of the city called ‘Water pallya’ or ‘Bhovi pallya’. Apart from working in Karnataka and its neighbouring states, they have also been digging wells in Rajasthan and Gujarat. This has been their livelihood for generations.
“My grandfather and great-grandfather too dug wells. Apart from this, I don’t have any other skill,” says Munikrishna. Like him, many of those who have been doing this for generations are unsure if their children should carry forward this skill.S Vishwanath of Biome and Ramprasad of Friends of Lakes have undertaken a ‘Million wells campaign’ and the Cubbon Park project. Through the Cubbon Park project, they have reconnected seven wells within the park.
According to them, if a million wells are dug in the city and if water is put back into the ground, Bengaluru will never have to face water shortage. The Mannu Vaddar is the ideal community that can work towards this. As Vishwanath puts it, “Through this campaign, the Mannu Vaddar community will be able to get their livelihood and jobs and will be able to contribute to the water security of the city.”
Ramprasad says that through the Cubbon Park project and through the Million recharge well campaign, the aim is to bring the facility to the forefront of water sustainability of Bengaluru. He says the citizens must start looking within the city and the available solutions. Presently working with 760 families from the Bhovi community in Anekal taluk, their aim is to encourage the community to sustain their livelihood and their lives, which in turn will bring water security to the city.
Saving water that gets wasted as ‘runoffs’
In recent years, the community has been looking at cleaning old wells and has also dug some new recharge wells after the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage (Amendment) Bill was passed in 2009, making rainwater harvesting mandatory in all residential, commercial and industrial premises. The main purpose of rainwater harvesting is to use locally available water, store it and use it to meet water requirements throughout the year. Chinna Muniswamy from Anekal taluk who has been digging wells for a livelihood says that it is important to store the rainwater that falls on the ground, it should not be let off as ‘runoffs’.
According to Ramprasad, Bengaluru receives a total of 13-15 tmcft of rain. If this water goes into the shallow wells, they can replenish the groundwater. He says that even the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board should be looking at this water that is available. “With urbanisation, we are more dependant on borewells, we think the deeper we go the more water we’ll get - which is very untrue. Bengalureans should look at storing the rainwater that gets stored in the wells. The direct rainwater is stored in the shallow wells and used later. That is something we want to encourage and this community has done it in the past,” adds Ramprasad.