BENGALURU: A day after the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) assured people that it will ensure water supply to Bengaluru, residents of KR Puram, Mahadevapura and Bommanahalli claimed that water supply has come down to once a week or 10 days with reduced timing.
Sujatha Ramadorai, a Padma awardee and Whitefield resident, said her family is forced to buy from water tankers as the authorities failed to check unplanned construction and did not restore the Varthur lake despite NGT guidelines.
“There is no equitable water distribution. Paying guest accommodations have increased and unplanned construction is rampant. Due to authorities not reviving Varthur lake, the groundwater table has depleated,” said Ramadorai.
She further added that residents of Mahadevapura are the highest taxpayers in the country, but in terms of water supply, they are just like a sub-Saharan country.
“No meaning in Har Ghar Nal and Jal when you are not giving water to existing municipality pipes,” she said.
Recently, 500 residents from around 60 resident welfare associations of Kalkere ward met to discuss the water crisis. About 10,000 households in the ward are forced to depend on tanker water which is becoming expensive with a five-day wait-list.
“If BWSSB provides Cauvery water from nearby sources for us till June-end, it will ease the crisis,” Kochu Shankar, a member of Ramamurthy Nagar Resident Welfare Association, said.
The water crisis has been several months in the making in unplanned areas such as Whitefield and Mahadevapura. Inflow from Cauvery has been low and BWSSB has been finding it tough to keep up supply.
“Rampant illegal borewell drilling by construction sites and illegal PGs, slums and illegal water tanker vendors has led to a drastic dip in groundwater levels. Almost all public borewells and domestic borewells are dry, and thousands of people are facing a crisis. This has led to a huge surge in demand for water tankers, and even they are unable to cope. Even water tanker points are failing, and they are going further and further away from Bengaluru to get water,” said Sandeep Anirudhan, convenor, Coalition for Water Security.