Apartments struggle to meet water needs

BENGALURU: Apartment dwellers in the city are not just gearing up for months of sweltering heat and power cuts, but are also fearing water woes.
Though parts of Sarjapur, Bellandur and Kasavanahalli have begun receiving Cauvery water, residents say it accounts for only about 20% of their needs, forcing them to rely on tankers and borewells. With even core city areas unable to depend on Cauvery water completely, residents here say they have to rely on borewells and water tankers to make up for the deficit.



Muralidhar Rao, a resident of an apartment complex in ST Bed Layout, Koramangala, said 50% of his apartment’s needs are being met by Cauvery water, 35% through tankers and the rest from borewells.

“On the best day, we get about 60,000 litres from the BWSSB for an apartment with 130 flats. We also have to get water from six to seven tankers of 6,000-litre capacity each. Some people participate in ‘supplier management’, where the suppliers are paid by residents to ensure uninterrupted water supply. Relying only on borewells too can be tricky, as yield and quality vary from area to area. This eventually affects the cost that we have to incur to get water,” Rao explained.

Residents of apartments in Bellandur and surrounding areas say while they were only beginning to get Cauvery water, they are already realizing its inadequacy. Nagesh Aras, a resident, said about 80% of his apartment’s water needs were met by tankers which are dependent on borewells.

“Borewells closer to Bellandur Lake are more likely to be contaminated than those in other parts of the city. Also, not all of them are legal or safe to pump. For 160 apartments, we get about 20 tankers daily. This water mixes with Cauvery water in the sump and chances of contamination are high. The water tankers too come from different places every day, raising doubts over the quality, but we have no choice,” said Nagesh, who lives 1.6km from Bellandur Lake.

Shubha Ramachandran, water project manager at BIOME, an environmental trust, said supply is irregular even in core areas such as Shantinagar, Domlur and Langford Town. Shubha worked on a participatory ground water-mapping project in Yamalur watershed area that includes Outer Ring Road and Sarjapur.

“While the charge is Rs 6 for 1,000 litres of Cauvery water, this rate increases to Rs 100 for the same quantity in case of tankers. If water supply isn’t regular or the quality dips, a number of infrastructural charges and maintenance costs crop up. These include softeners for hard water and installation of overhead tanks, sumps and borewells, which further exacerbate the cost,” she said.