The recent water crisis in Chennai was a wakeup call for the real estate sector, followed by the Karnataka government’s proposal of a five years’ ban on construction of new flat in the city. “There are enough apartments being built in the city but while selling them there is no assurance of providing drinking water or other basic amenities,” said G Parameshwara said, deputy chief minister of Karnataka.
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The state, like neighbouring Tamil Nadu, has been reeling under a severe drought due to no rain and drying up of rivers and reservoirs. “Due to water scarcity, most of the apartment dwellers are dependent on water supplied through water tankers. This is resulting in water-borne and skin diseases. Hence, deliberations are going on, to ban the construction of apartments in Bengaluru for the next five years,” Parameshwara said. Naturally, it sent shock waves to the developers, as Bengaluru is among the top performing realty market, both for residential and commercial real estate. Reacting sharply to the proposal for imposing ban, the chairman of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), Bengaluru, Suresh Hari, said it was unrealistic, ‘because it will bring development to a grinding halt’. “Not only labourers will lose jobs and the whole industry will suffer but the government will also incur huge losses,” he added.
While the sector largely look at the move as a desperate measure, experts claim that the sector has to look inward, in not only for water usage but also how it is planning to supply water to all the residents, considering depleting ground water level.
“The developers are claiming that it is the job of the government to provide water but then they cannot shrug away from responsibility. Despite the mandatory rules of rain water harvesting, developers are not strictly following the rules,” said a member of People’s Campaign for Right to Water’.
The residents also claim that builder-developer nexus has failed to come up with water and environment-friendly development, have destroyed lakes, encroached on stormwater drains and left residents dependent on water tanks, which is too dirty sometimes to use, forget drinking. If they will not mend their ways, the government have to resort to the same desperate measures in other cities where the water table is coming down.
Acknowledging the crisis, Anupam Gupta, sales and marketing director, GBP group pointed out that while the government should form strict rule to ensure rainwater harvesting, imposing ban is no solution. “Considering the delayed monsoons and depleting water tables, we understand how the water scarcity is rising every day and how grave the situation has become,” Gupta said adding that the ban on construction will have impact on economy. “Instead of putting a ban, we are expecting the government to take alternate measures to conserve water and make stringent laws to ensure concepts like rainwater harvesting are strictly followed,” he said.