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Rainwater harvesting initiatives in Bangalore - A paper by KSCST

This paper by AR Shivakumar of the Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology (KSCST), presented at a national seminar organised by ISRO at NIAS Bangalore in 2010, begins by highlighting the increasing problem of scarcity of water that the city of Bangalore has been experiencing in recent years and suggests a required plan of action for a sustainable water supply system in the city.

The paper highlights the grave water situation in the city where the water demand is ever on the increase with the increasing population. Borewells are being dug indiscriminately all throughout the city at rapid rates that are endangering the groundwater levels.

In addition to two lakes, water from the Cauvery is being pumped into the city by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), the official water provider in the city. Water from the unorganized sector is also supplied through tankers, bottles, bore wells to the city to meet the water demands of the population.

High cost of water for the poor is also one of the problems that the people from the city have to face, with citizens from higher income groups paying a lesser rate for water and getting better quality water while citizens of lesser income group having to pay much higher rates for water and getting poorer quality water. 

The document argues for the urgent need to adopt rainwater harvesting techniques with the support of BWSSB and all stakeholders to improve the availability of water and also help in equitable distribution of water to all the sections of the society. The document suggests a twelve point plan of action for a sustainable water management strategy for emerging Greater Bangalore.

The document concludes by highlighting the success story of Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology (KSCST) in the field of Rain Water Harvesting (RWH). KSCST has established RWH in twenty landmark buildings and four exhibition plots in Bangalore and Tumkur, in order to demonstrate cost effective and sustainable RWH and groundwater recharge technologies.

Download the paper:

 

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Rainwater Harvesting Initiatives in Bangalore - KSCST (2010)99.29 KB

Location

Bangalore, KA, India
Latitude: 12.971599, Longitude: 77.594563

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Comments

1. Comments on the paper

Submitted by iwp on October 11, 2010 - 03:01.
We received the following comments about the paper and are posting it on behalf of the author -- IWP team =========== 1. The author talks about how poor in Bangalore city are suffering from low level of access to water supply from BWSSB. But, what is intriguing is that the author assumes 1 million families in Bangalore to be having 110 sq. m of roof area. This does not seem to be realistic ! 2. Ideally, the total volume of water supplied per year (and not daily volume) and the life of the systems should have been considered to annualize the costs.. If that is done, you will find that the cost per litre of water is 0.6 paise per litre or Rs. 6/kl for Cauvery (with an assumed life of 30 years)! Of course, once we include the O & M cost, it may go up to 1.0 or 1.2 paise per litre. If proper discounting technique is applied, it might become nearly 2 paise per litre of Rs. 20/kl of water. Against this, BWSSB charges Rs. 6/kl of water from domestic consumers. 3. Even according to the author, RWHS is costlier than BWSSB water transported from Cauvery. The cost, according to his calculations, is Rs. 139/litre (against Rs. 68 for BWSSB water)! But, the author advocates RHWS in spite of this poor economics! 4. What is important to note is that there is the amount of water that a 5000 litre tank can capture is heavily over-estimated. According to the author, it would capture 80,500 litre of water annually.. For this to happen, we should be in a position to manipulate our precipitation so that it occurs in equal installments of 50mm (to fill our tanks of 5000 litre capacity in one go), and 16 times ... or 20 mm each in 40 rainfall events spread uniformly across the year.. 5. If we realistically assume that only 5,000 litre of water would be captured by a 5 kl tank (as harvestable rains occur in a few major rainfall events during monsoon, when demand for that water is less), then the cost would go up to touch the skies (at least 16 times). So, the real cost per litre of water in case of RWHS (as per the methodology I mentioned) would be Rs. 260 per kl, or 26 paise per litre of water. If that is the case, which is cost effective (one which supplies water at 2 paise per litre or one which supplies at 26 paise per litre)? 6. No one can justify an investment of Rs. 3900crore for producing extra water storage of 5 MCM (from 1 million houses) in Bangalore. The total storage created by SSP is 10800 MCM (2000 times more), against a total investment of Rs. 39000crore (10 times more) for the storage and conveyance. Dr. M. Dinesh Kumar Institute for Resource Analysis and Policy (IRAP), Hyderabad

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