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Now that rains have saved Bangalore, forget about it?
Written By silkboard - 4 June, 2013
Bangalore BWSSB Water Complaint Cauvery KNNL
We came "this" close to going dry this summer. How close? Don't really know, but the word is that if rains had arrived 10 days later, we would have hit that point. But now that rains are here, newspapers, BWSSB, KNNL (Neeravari Nigam) will all move on and wait for a crisis to approach next year or year after depending on when we would have the next monsoon shortfall.
Some pics of dry KRS gates for your viewing pleasure, taken just last week.
Shouldn't we be interested in knowing:
- Did we indeed come 'close'?
- How close was it?
- What would be the plan if we crossed some "thresholds"?
- What hard decisions were made if any, like - water supply over hydropower, tapping an irregular or non-approved source for supply?
- What steps or investments are being planned to reduce the risk?
COMMENTS
blrpraj - 1 December, 2014 - 20:25
Close to going dry this summer? I think we passed that point decades ago. It is common sense to everyone that the amount of precipitation via rains is a constant over the past 100s of years and has probaly decreased in fact due to climate change and deforestation. Population has grown exponentially (explosive growth). Plot that in a graph and you get a flat line (for the precipitation) and a line that rises almost vertically (for the population). Long story short is that
1) planners should have seen this coming 30 or 40 years ago.
2) fresh water precipitation is not going to magically increase
3) waste water reclamation after processing; rain water harvesting etc. though noble and helps in some way (doing something is better than doing nothing) cannot meet the massive demand for fresh water.
The most worrisome factor is the projected growth of population ( http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-22907307 ) because of which water is going to be a resource more precious that gold, diamon or platinum.
What is the ONLY option left? Solar powered salt water desalination plants on a massive scale!
http://www.hitachi.com/environment/showcase/solution/industrial/desalination_plant.html
My 2 cents? I think Modi needs to shelve the high speed bullet train plans for now and seriously think about developing a national water grid on the lines of an electric grid that is used to distribute electricity. This national water grid must be interconnected and fed by multiple sources such as salt water desalination plants; rains; snow fall etc. and facilitate movement of fresh water between resrevoirs and states for distribution.
"bandh" not quite the answer; fresh thinking needed
murali772 - 9 September, 2016 - 08:19
It is time for the Cauvery River Authority (CRA), which is chaired by the prime minister and has chief ministers of the four states as members, to consider setting up a Cauvery River Livelihood Protection System that incorporates a pricing mechanism and a market for water to protect the livelihoods of farmers and the interests of other water users.
Such a system would involve states being assigned basic quotas of water and be required to purchase additional water from a river resource fund set up for the purpose. Payments by state governments to the river resources fund during the good times are akin to insurance premiums.
The basic quotas would be tradeable, allowing states to exchange water for money. This will allow states the flexibility to expand their agriculture or acquire additional fiscal resources to reform their agriculture sectors.
During droughts and bad monsoons, states will be compensated for the water deficits below their basic quotas, effectively acting as the insurance payout.
States would be able to purchase water above their basic quotas through an auction. Each state would form a bidding committee, chaired by the water resources minister and comprising of the members of the legislative assembly from the concerned constituencies. The states will thus be able to put an objective measure on how much they are willing to pay for the water they demand.
When states choose to receive compensation, the funds would flow into the state’s treasury allowing the state government to use the additional budgetary resources in accordance with its priorities.
To read the full text (emphasis added by me) of the article titled "Cost of Cauvery" by Mr Nitin Pai, in Jan '13, click here. Perhaps, we need to look at such out-of-the-box solutions if we have to have some respite from the repeat inter-state water wars.
The debates in this blog too could make interesting reading in this context.
amithpallavoor - 27 September, 2016 - 03:13
The SC or people in Delhi are not aware that tributaries of Cauvery such as Arkavathy, Kumudavathy, Shimsha, Kanva, Suvarnamukhi, Vrishabhavathi have all died in the last three decades thanks to unscientific farming methods and rampant urbanization. There was unhindered flow from these rivers into Mettur a few decades back. These rivers flow downstream of KRS. There are so many streams downstream of KRS. I might have missed a few.
amithpallavoor - 27 September, 2016 - 03:28
There is no drinking water in Madikeri, the source of river Cauvery. Karnataka is much more arid than Haryana with ground water levels at 1000 feet and above. Not to mention that it is a hinterland area. Desalination is not an option nor is RWH effective because of erratic rainfall.
TN can't keep growing water intensive crops like rice and sugarcane just like Mandya does. There is a drinking water crisis in both Wayanad and Karnataka and as per an SC judgement dated 1996 drinking water takes precedence over cultivation. The humanitarian crisis in Wayanad means that TN’s request for water to grow rice shows lack of humanitarian concern and civility. Problem is TN believes that it can keep demanding water from Kerala and Karnataka for its crops even when there is a humanitarian crisis upstream. They might invest on minor irrigation projects and exert pressure on SC to ensure that Karnata and Kerala not kill rivers through plantations and urbanization.
Jaya was sitting quiet when 50,000 trees were cut for a high tension line in Kodagu. I am sure she also does not care about massive desertification of areas around the tributaries of Cauvery in Bangalore rural, Ramanagar, Bangalore Urban and Tumkur. The warring politicians of all the states concerned care two hoots about the tribals of Wayanad who are facing a crisis worse than the Bundelkhand crisis.
The same logic applies to people of Mandya who want to use Cauvery water for sugarcane. KRS was built by Mysore Maharaja and this water is used to feed Mandya's fields and liquor factories. HD Kote taluk despite having Kabini reservoir and four small streams is completely dependent on rain water for irrigation and ground water for drinking.
I also forgot to mention that one of the judges was Jaya's counsel. Bangalore has water only till January. If TN still wants to grow rice and wants Bangalore to be evacuated then good luck to them.
This should have been done long ago
murali772 - 28 November, 2014 - 12:35
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