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Bangalore Bore well data
Written By Rithesh - 16 April, 2010
Bangalore BWSSB Water water supply Water Borewells
Total number of borewells in all BWSSB zones:
31/01/09
28/02/09
31/03/09
30/04/09
31/05/09
30/06/09
Increase per month
924
705
965
1136
748
Grand Total
91018
91942
92647
93612
94748
95496
31/07/09
31/08/09
30/09/09
31/10/09
30/11/09
31/12/09
31/01/10
Increase per month
904
868
2062
838
875
2699
1759
Grand Total
96400
97268
99330
100168
101043
103742
105501
Note: The 5 BWWSB zones are North, South, East, South, Central, South East
Zone (BWWSB zones) wise distribution of bore wells 
Zone wise growth in the number of bore wells
East
South
South East
Central
North
West
Total
YoY % increase
13.7
22.7
15
7.2
16.5
11.6
15.9
Average monthly increase (count)
94
503
137
42
191
241
1207
Percentage of households having bore wells
Zone
No of Borewells
No of Connections
% of house with borewells
East
9346
81583
11.46
South
32593
124065
26.27
South East
12555
67338
18.64
Central
7206
49429
14.58
North
16126
89476
18.02
West
27675
148156
18.68
Grand Total
105501
560047
18.84
Summary
- South and West zones have the highest number of borewells.
- South and North zones have witnessed the highest increase of borewell in terms of percentage.
- Old Banglore regions which relatively has better water supply infrastructure also has the highest number of bore wells.
- In South zone 1 in every 4 buildings with a BWSSB water connection has a bore well.
- For the city approximately 1 in every 5 buildings with a BWSSB water connection has a bore well.
- As on Jan 2010 only around 1.5% of buildings with BWSSB water connection had rain water harvesting facilities.
- The data is only from BWSSB serviced regions (out of 750 sq KM BWWSB caters to only around 330 sq KMs). This roughly translates to approximately 320 bore wells in every 1 sq KM.
- Approximately 40 new borewells are drilled every day in regions covered by BWSSB.
- BWSSB charges a sewage cess of Rs.50 for every house with a bore well.
- The total number of bore wells in the whole of BBMP region is much larger.
Conclusion
- Bore well drilling business is "the" business you need to be in :)
Please see the attached documents provided by zenrainman for exact zone wise distribution. Thank you zenrainman for sourcing and sharing the data.
COMMENTS
zenrainman - 16 April, 2010 - 03:33
In so far as I know this is the FIRST time such city level data is being put in public domain. A ll thanks to the BWSSB too which is the first institution to levy a charge on bore wells and measure the number of bore wells wherever they have given connection.
Can we have a voluntary sample of bore well owners reporting how much they pump every day?
Can we get a volumetric meter put on each bore well?
Can we start to generate random sample quality data of groundwater across the city?
Can we measure the impact of rainwater harvesting on bore wells in the city?
Can we find out how many of them go dry?
Great possibility ...let us work on modelling this for the city with the help of Dr Shekar Muddu
sanjayv - 16 April, 2010 - 04:05
How good is this data? Any idea? Is it based on voluntary reporting? I wonder if there is a relatively simple statistical sampling method to verify the accuracy of current data. Should be possible.
shekhar_mittal - 16 April, 2010 - 04:23
How does it impact bangalore?
how much water approx. is being pumped out daily / annually => how much ground water consumption has increased annually => the depletion rate of ground water level? Is something being done to replenish that water?
By when will the ground water start drying up if nothing is done to replenish it.
Another angle, how does high no. of borewells impact the living std of people?
How many ppl now get easy access to water daily?
What were their earlier alternatives and how has that changed in terms of time / money saved ?
How healthy / clean this ground water is?
Are there manufacturing companies dumping their waste into the ground that is polluting this ground water & how can that in turn impact people's health?
And if Praja has already found answers to these questions, then link those related articles to this one on the site.
collecting the data is a good start, but it must lead to contextually relevant findings if you really want to get people interested.
Naveen - 16 April, 2010 - 04:29
Though the accuracy of this data might be suspect, it's still a good start to have some idea, particularly since BWSSB is now on the path to providing piped water to a much larger greater bangalore than before that now includes the erstwhile 7 CMCs & 1 TMC. I guess there might be many more that are either unreported or ignored in these stats, even within the Bwssb covered areas.
The increase in the number of borewells is on the high side, but nothing much can be done about this since most apt complexes rely mainly on borewells since piped supply alone is erratic & insufficient, particularly in peripheral areas.
Are there any permissions required to dig a borewell ? As far as I know, none are necessary & one finds borewell trucks digging them at almost every conceivable spot.
I noticed recently that a small apt complex (about 16 homes) was drilling a borewell almost at the edge of their compound, demolishing part of the boundary wall for this, & with the borewell truck obstructing the street. When I questioned the truck for erratic parking for long periods, the apt society's rep who happened to be around came by to explain that it was only for two days & they were forced to do this since the older borewell further inside the compound had gone dry & the water table closer to the road was higher!
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