City is on frenzied, blind hunt for water

Pioneering study, by premier institutes in Bengaluru and California, records city’s groundwater level over two years.It reveals how government’s water management policies and residents’ decisions to drill for water sources are poorly informed

BENGALURU: It is well-known that groundwater in the city is depleting year after year. But what is lesser known is that we have a very unreliable mechanism to track the watertable’s fall. Therefore, we end up stumbling around digging innumerable borewells without knowing if it will give us sufficient water and government agencies end up policing this blindly.

Bobby Thomas is a resident of BDA Layout in Domlur who was regularly using water from a bore well. He, however, says, "We used the water from the well mainly to water the garden. The borewell was dug around seven years ago. Now we hardly get water from it."
Groundwater readings taken by researchers from a borewell near the Domlur bus stand showed groundwater levels of around 26 meters in April 2016. Rainfall for the same month was recorded at around 8.1 millimeters. The groundwater level further went down to 33.6 metres in April 2017, even when the month received a rainfall of 28.1 millimeters.   

These groundwater readings are part of a joint study called ‘Urban Groundwater in India: The Role of Information in Effective Governance’ by researchers from the Indian Institute of Management and Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, Stockholm Environment Institute and the University of California, Irvine.

The study was done to encourage better and continuous monitoring of the water level, for more informed policymaking and decisions by individuals to drill for borewells. Right now, the data available is “unimpressive”, observes the study.The team has been monitoring and measuring groundwater levels and quality at around 150 wells throughout the city since December 2015 every month and has uploaded it on http://bangalore.urbanmetabolism.asia/

This data would help residents like Bobby Thomas and Anita Makharia, who lives in an apartment complex in Marathahalli, Outer Ring Road.Anita’s apartment uses 11 borewells of which only seven are presently working. “The seven borewells give out around 35,000 to 50,000 litres of water per day which is not sufficient for the roughly 800 families who stay at the complex," says Anita.
The requirement is around 3 and a half to 4 lakh liters. The bulk of the requirement is being supplemented by private water tankers.

Readings from the study in the area show that the ground water level have been falling despite rainfall increasing nearly five-fold – in August 2016, it was 19.3 meters with a rainfall of 49 millimeters.
In 2017, in the same month, the groundwater level went further down to 24.8 meters despite record rainfalls to the tune of 220 millimeters.Not just individuals, government bodies too need these water-level readings “without which the legitimacy of governance rule making and management action is severely compromised," says the study.
    
No proper monitoring

The study says there are unimpressive monitoring mechanisms that are in place presently in city and country as a whole. "In Bengaluru, across some 700 to 800 km2, there are only a handful of long-term continuous groundwater monitoring stations. A comprehensive, fine resolution groundwater map does not exist," says the study.

Starved of groundwater
According to the data of interpolated groundwater levels in December 2015 and April 2016, the outer periphery areas are where groundwater levels are lower, and where drawdown is higher. The rough estimates suggest the extraction rate of groundwater in the periphery is almost 2.7 times greater than the rate of recharge.

Violations aplenty
Thushar Girinath, Chairman, BWSSB, says that for drilling borewells, one needs to get permission from the DC and district authorities. A number of things are checked such as the spacing between water sources under the Karnataka Groundwater (Regulation for Protection of Drinking Water) Act, 1999 or registration by drilling companies under Karnataka Ground Water (Regulations and Control of Development and Management) Act, 201. Private entities and selling of water can be done through a trade license issued by the BBMP. They also have their own set of guidelines. However, he admits that rules are being flouted. He adds the BWSSB sometimes has no information of the drilling that may go on in the city despite permission from district authorities. While monitoring is possible to some extent in central areas, areas in the periphery that recently came under the BBMP, monitoring is difficult, he adds.  

Groundwater info needed
Vishwanatah S, a water activist and urban planner, says the more granular the data, the better the understanding of groundwater. “Rules and regulations will have a better design. There is also not much information in public domain. People and authorities would be better informed about things like where to drill, whether they are likely to strike water or not. Information can lead to informed behaviour," he says.

Bangkok Case Study
The study highlights the case of Bangkok who improved their dire situation of groundwater depletion using data and effective government policies. As a result of indiscriminate extraction of groundwater since the 1950s groundwater levels dropped in Bangkok to over 40 meters, the study highlights. Soon. groundwater was established as a "public good" and extraction was immediately stopped. Measures like making monitoring and reporting of groundwater mandatory and installation of well meters was enforced, a three-tiered institutional structure for administration of private and government bodies was established, violations of the above rules was made a criminal act. All these led to groundwater being recovering in various parts of the city.