As the State Government is pitching the Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir project as the solution to Bengaluru’s drinking water problem, Prof TV Ramachandra from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru terms it a disaster.
The government should focus on strengthening rainwater harvesting, desilting lakes and encouraging native crop culture in the basin, he told TNSE editors and reporters. The wetlands expert said making Bengaluru liveable with good quality air and water is the solution for “Brand Bengaluru” and not the proposed tunnel road project. Excerpts.....
Several taluks in Karnataka are drought-prone. What are the factors affecting this?
We have to accept that climate changes are happening and it has manifested in the form of floods and droughts. Deforestation is also one of the major reasons for droughts. According to studies, there has been a 40% decline in the forest cover in the Western Ghats and 45% in the Cauvery basin. When this happens, the region loses its ability to sequester carbon which gets stored in the form of organic and inorganic form in the environment.
Does Western Ghats store carbon? How does it help?
Western Ghats is the storehouse of carbon. In the region, about 1.43 million giga tonnes of carbon has been stored over the years. If we look from an economic angle, it amounts to Rs 100 billion. We did this accounting to tell the world that our ecosystem is doing a wonderful job of sequestering carbon. However, today we have only 10% of evergreen forest left while the need is for 33%.
What is the impact of climate change on the environment and humans?
Studies show there will be an overall rise of 0.5% in the temperature in the Western Ghats. This will lead to increased vector borne and zoonotic diseases such as chikungunya, dengue and Covid. There will be major changes in rainfall patterns. That means cash crops will fail. Excessive rainfall will lead to floods as native species are on the decline. In catchment areas covered with native species around 60-65% of water gets filtered in during monsoon. And that water comes to the stream as the post-monsoon flow, but during floods there is no infiltration, leaving humans to pay a heavy price. Native species help with the percolation of water, whereas monoculture plantations don’t have much retention.
No water even in the catchment area of the Cauvery....
The catchment has lost the vegetation of the native species. Today as the forest cover has reduced and fragmented, water retention too has come down. Infiltration is lacking and the water is going down to the Bay of Bengal. Earlier, people had created water bodies, the lakes were managed in Karnataka and Tamil Nau catchments. But today, large areas are left unyielding. The practice of managing lakes has stopped in the name of development and various government schemes have made people lazy. On visiting villages we saw, people have stopped cultivating because of free schemes.
Is the Cauvery basin being mismanaged?
Mismanagement is a serious issue and it’s happening everywhere, be it Cauvery, Varada or Sharavathi. For instance, Sharavathi had 68% evergreen forests in the 70s but it’s about 29% today. Degrading catchment and growing a monoculture plantation makes only a few people rich, whereas maintaining catchment integrity makes every farmer rich, as it gives water and better yield. That is what needs to be
done. Karnataka was at the forefront in the 80s and we had excellent watershed programmes, focusing on soil and water conservation and maintaining the vegetation cover was a priority. Today we are not talking about it.
Is Mekedatu a solution to the Cauvery water-sharing issue?
You can’t commit another mistake to cover up multiple mistakes. Mekedatu will be another disaster. It will submerge 5,000 hectares of forest, where the hydrological service amounts to 100 tmcft of water. Is removing 100 tmcft of water, spending Rs 5,000 crore, looting the timber and storing 65 tmcft of water a wise decision? It will also lead to forest fragmentation and aggravate man- animal conflicts, due to which local people will suffer. If the services provided by the forest ecosystem are considered, Mekedatu’s net worth is about Rs 1,000 billion.
What has to be done to meet Bengaluru’s drinking water needs?
Bengaluru receives 700-800 mm rainfall annually, which amounts to 15 tmcft. City requirement is 18 tmcft. You already have 70% of required water. The best option is to focus on 200 city lakes and desilt them. It helps retain rainwater and recharge groundwater. If you have 18 tmcft of water, you are also generating the same amount of wastewater. If that is recycled, you will get additional water. So we will have 31 tmcft, which is a surplus.
Is the ecosystem supply value of the state decreasing?
Satellite images show that there is a fast degradation of forests. For example, Uttara Kannada district has the distinction of having the highest forest cover in India. In the 70s, its forest cover was 80%, but today it has reduced to 32%. The ecosystem supply value, which was Rs 2,400 billion in 2005 has now reduced to Rs 1,800 billion. Similarly, the net value of forests has also decreased. That is why we insist on moving towards green GDP, where everything is taken into account.
What will be the impact of green drought over the years?
These are the implications of water scarcity. We should have moved towards climate-resilient crops, but are pushing more towards water-intensive crops. You will have green but not productivity. Based on the climatic conditions of the region, farmers should be encouraged to grow drought or climate-resilient crops. Farmers moving from commercial to climate-resilient crops should be incentivised.
What are your thoughts on the government’s initiative to plant one crore saplings in a year?
The initiative doesn’t seem to be implemented effectively. There is mismanagement across the system that can only be fixed when people responsible for it are held accountable.
You mentioned penalising for pollution. How can this be effectively enforced?
Under the Water and Air Act, individuals and industries are required to pay for the pollution they generate if it exceeds specific thresholds. The Polluter Pays principle is similar to how emitting vehicles are penalised. Similarly, industries should also be penalised.
What about KC Valley and how the water quality has affected the lives of the people living there?
Drinking water projects are of paramount significance and require tertiary treatment for their heavy metal content. A similar approach has been successfully implemented in the case of Jakkur Lake, which had high nitrate levels, a known carcinogen. It is advisable to apply the same methodology to other lakes that are still suffering from contamination, particularly those receiving untreated sewage water. Implementing the constructed wetland approach, as done in Jakkur Lake, can prove effective. Additionally, it is beneficial to cultivate commercially viable crop species in these constructed wetlands.
The government has been discussing the construction of wetlands for the past 5-10 years. What is the current status of those initiatives?
While we do have plans in place, the execution has been lacking. An example of this is the KC Valley project. Waste management typically involves three levels, but for addressing the issue of heavy metal content, tertiary treatment is the most effective solution. This is not being done.
The government is now looking at decongesting the city through various projects, will it work?
When we talk about Bengaluru, it is an unplanned city. Green cover has dropped from 68% to 3%. We have 14,78,000 trees for a population of 95 lakh. There is one tree for seven people. We breathe out 540-980 gm of carbon dioxide. We have oxygen deficiency in our city. Even before Covid, I know many elderly people who used oxygen cylinders. I have been telling the government to not come up with ad-hoc measures. These tunnel roads are just tactics to loot money. We should invest in other districts like Kalaburagi and introduce cluster-based development. We should not let the government have unilateral decision-making, public participation is critical.
The Central government had pitched linking of rivers, what are your views on that?
All these ideas are developed by groups of people sitting in AC chambers and who lack expertise. You might connect the river, but what is the guarantee that you will get water and livelihood to people associated with fishing? It is a foolish idea. Instead, there should be a decentralised harvesting structure to catch rainwater and use it. Had we done this downstream of the Cauvery belt, there would not have been a crisis even during the drought period.
What are your views on the Cauvery water sharing crisis?
Politicians should not be a part of Cauvery decision making. In the US, Mexico and other places, the Joint Commission does not include politicians and it works. Similarly, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments should work on water harvesting structure and do watershed programmes in the Cauvery basin.
The government spoke about the Yettinahole lift irrigation project. Still things are not happening.
This is because of poor planning. The government had assured people of 24 tmcft of water. When I did the budgeting and auditing in Nethravathi, I found that only 12.85 tmcft was available. Out of this, 9 tmcft is required for local people for growing crops. Water is also required for fishing. Only 0.85 tmcft is left. When it was conceptualised, the government said it was a Rs 13,000 crore project. Now, it has increased to Rs 24,000 crore. To transfer only 0.85 tmcft of water, why does the government need to spend Rs 13,000 crores? It should have another agenda. There is a contractors-politician nexus.
What are your views on Brand Bengaluru?
I don’t understand this concept. Brand Bengaluru without a vision is going to be a big failure. The root cause for the poor state of the city is because of political involvement. Only when we plan to make the city liveable there is a scope for Brand Bengaluru. There is no water in places, people are fighting, there is no good oxygen in the city, the air is polluted. We have failed to improve public transport. Garbage littering continues. Untreated waste water is entering lakes. We should stop the idea of more roads, flyovers, tunnels and other unwanted projects. People should not be deprived of basic amenities. When everyone in Bengaluru is happy and healthy, that will be Brand Bengaluru. When people can travel in the city without wasting time in traffic, that is the sign of Brand Bengaluru. We should manage the city ruthlessly, shift major industries and de-congest the city, make a carrying capacity report of roads stating how many people can reside here and allow only that many people to be there. GDP or investment should not be the criterion, but livability should be.
Do you think the city has failed in dealing with solid waste management?
We should have implemented the decentralized waste management system. We have done a survey of 3,000 households and it shows that 70% of waste is organic, while 12% is plastics and others. When segregation is done at source, a large chunk of this problem is solved. I had suggested to the mayor to incentivise segregated waste collection. Decentralising waste and treating the organic fraction is the best solution because our waste is organic. Let us not look to the West to ape them for energy from the waste sector. First let us segregate organic waste and treat it.
What do you have to say about Bengaluru architecture?
Glass facades are good for European countries, where the temperature is cooler, but not for our temperate regions. Our engineers have just replicated them in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Our studies show that in normal buildings, if electricity consumption is 700 to 1,200 units per person annually, in glass buildings, it increases to 14,000 to 17,000 units per year. It is ten times more electricity consumption due to wrong architecture. Due to this, there is also a rise in electricity consumption and warming of the earth.