BENGALURU: A major water crisis is looming large over Bengaluru with the city witnessing one of its worst deficit monsoons. Making matters worse, the city cannot expect rain at least till July 20, according to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre.
It has been over 40 days since the city was to receive rains, but the state capital is already seeing deficit rainfall of 39%. Experts fear that Bengaluru could witness a nightmarish situation as far as water supply is concerned. Many parts of Bengaluru are supplied Cauvery river water and Bangalore Water Supply & sewerage Board hopes for some good showers in the river basin in the coming days. However, the Board has assured that there will be no drinking water problem. Bengaluru Urban district has received 66 mm as against the expected 102 mm rain in the last 40 days.
Across the state, as on July 12, the average rainfall deficit is 21%, but with several other parts beginning to receive rains and Bengaluru still waiting for its share, the city has been left with a worrisome deficit.
Bengaluru Urban district has received 66 mm as against the expected 102 mm rain in the last 40 days. In July alone, till Friday, it had to get 31 mm of rain but received only 7.4 mm, a 76% deficiency in the first 12 days of the month. Now KSNDMC has cautioned that rain is unlikely in the city for the next eight days, which means the deficit is only set to increase.
S S M Gavaskar, scientist at KSNDMC, told The New Indian Express that monsoon is deficit in South Interior Karnataka, including Bengaluru. “We are predicting that it might not rain, at least till July 20. We call this ‘break monsoon’ and there are no signs of rain clouds,’’he said.
Environmentalists have earlier pointed out that Bengaluru is on the verge of destruction. The present trends indicate that in the coming days, the city will either end up completely drying or flooding when it rains. It will be either of these two extremes, pointed out environmentalist A N Yellappa Reddy.
He said it was not that Bengaluru was not getting cloud cover. “We are getting rain-bearing clouds, but these are just passing. We need a mechanism to hold these clouds and condense them to bring rain.”
He pointed out that with no trees and rising air pollution, there is more suspended particulate in the air, which is the reason for clouds not holding up. “If we had more trees, this is flowering season, pollen grains are released and a large quantity of pollen grains go up in the atmosphere to get mixed with moisture content and it starts swelling. This helps in condensation. This eventually holds the clouds to bring rain,’’ Reddy said.With no rains, viruses multiply in atmosphere. “We might get disease and viral fever like dengue,” he said.
BENGALURU CAN HARVEST 50% OF RAIN
Water expert Vishwanath Srikantaiah, the man behind rejuvenating one lakh wells in Bengaluru, said that this time during May (pre-monsoon showers), the city witnessed more than 200 mm of rainfall, which is almost 20% of the annual rainfall. “But we have failed to tap it. There is deficit now to some extent and hopefully it will rain in August and September. Bengaluru is harvesting hardly 5% of rain. With borewells and wells rejuvenated, we can add another 5% harvesting. Even if we harvest 50% of the rainfall, it will be sufficient for the entire city. There is no need to bring water from Sharavathi,’’ he said.
