Sustainable Non Motorised Transport- case studies from around the world
Bangalore's lakes and impact on ground water
1. Bangalore’s Lakes and Impact on
Ground Water
Bhargavi S.Rao
Environment Support Group
Bangalore
www.esgindia.org
Email: bhargavi@esgindia.org /esg@esgindia.org
Anil Agarwal Dialogues
Centre for Science and Environment
2. Bangalore’s lakes
Lakes of Bangalore are all built
and interconnected by an
intricate network of canals, as is
the case across South India.
Lakes help capture monsoon
overflow, and store it for use in
the post-monsoon season, in
the process creating an intricate
network of biodiversity rich
wetlands, that help recharge
ground water aquifers.
Bangalore’s lakes are formed
along three major valley
systems namely Hebbal Valley,
Koramangala & Challaghatta
Valley and Vrishabhavati
4. Eg To show the Lake systems_Puttenahalli Lake
Series
Area in
Name of the Lake
Ha
1. Lalbagh Lake 12.9
2. Yediyur Lake 6.45
3. Byrasandra Lake 6.19
4. Sarakki Lake 0.81
5. Puttenahalli Lake 32
5. Drinking water for Early
Bangalore
Bangalore as an urban area evolved
over centuries by sourcing water
from lakes.
That with the advent of electricity,
water from Hesarghatta and T.G.
Halli Reservoirs was pumped to the
city.
It was only in the early 1970s that
the city received water from the
Cauvery river, pumped at enormous
energy costs from 100 kms. and
lifted over a 500 metres head!
5
6. Lakes first victims of
intense urbanisation of
Bangalore
This has resulted in lakes
being built over, replaced by
bus stations, public buildings,
stadiums, high rises, layouts,
etc.
7. Encroachment and pollution of Raja Kaluves, canals
interconnecting lakes, destroys lakes.
Location : Near Madivala Location : Near Bismillahanagara
7
11. Bangalore’s lakes once a haven for winged
vistors
Karnataka receives about five to six
species of ducks from Europe; Bangalore
gets about four to five species of smaller
birds such as warblers from Siberia.
Then there are a few species of raptors
like eagles and harriers from Europe.
They come during the winter and leave
before summer begins. In the last five-
six years, the number of birds coming to
the lakes in Bangalore have greatly
reduced. Migratory Ducks, Grey
wagtails and Spot Billed Pelicans have
reduced in numbers.
12. Leachates contaminate lakes
A major threat to the health
of lakes is from dumping of
solid waste, and the flow of
highly toxic untreated
leachates from landfills.
In Mavallipura, north of
Bangaloe, over 40,00,000
tonnes of accumulated waste
is contaminating lakes that
were till recently the source
of drinking water.
13. Festivals a curse to Bangalore Lakes
Water from the lakes in
Bangalore soon after
festivities has pH between
6.0 and 8.5, making if
unfit for any use. Lakes
become cesspools soon
after festivities making
the area around the lake
unlivable with stench,
mosquitoes and cleaning
operations.
14. Sewage inflow kills fish in Lakes
Unplanned growth of the
city combined with a lack
of proper sewage
treatment facility leads to
sewage flowing directly
into lakes leading to large
scale fish kills in the lakes
of destroying the
livelihoods of fishermen.
15. Heavy metals contaminate Bangalore’s Ground water
A study conducted by the
mines and geology
department reveals that most
of the city’s ground water is
contaminated with heavy
metals. Nitrates, Iron,
Hardness, Fluorides are in
excess of permissible limits
from a host of dyeing, metal
fabrication, chemical
industries that were once
given permission without any
environmental concern.
16. Sand Mining in Lakes to support the booming
construction Industry
Illegal sand mining is
rampant in many lakes in
violation of all laws. It has
become extremely difficult for
the concerned authorities to
keep a vigil on reckless sand
mining and its transport. A
big sand mafia controls the
market!
17.
18. Attempts at protecting lakes
Laxman Rao Committee
recommendations 1988:
No layout be formed in tank bed
areas either by the BDA or any
other authority.
Water sheets should be
maintained wherever possible and
sewerage and other pollutants
should be suitably diverted.
Dried lakes be developed as tree
parks.
LDA set up in 2002, as an agency
for protection and maintenance of
lakes.
19.
20.
21. LDA: Choosing Profits over people ?
• Between 2004 & 2007, LDA
leased out Nagawara,
Hebbal,Vengaiahana Agara and
other lakes to private
companies.
• Developers altering the
character of the lakes because of
activities like food courts,
restaurants and amusement
parks
• Restrictions on people’s right to
access open spaces.
23. Human Chain, protests, candle light
vigils, representations mark the
efforts to protect lakes
Eminent citizens joined
the movement to save
the lakes.
Kannada theatre person
and film Actress L. V.
Sharada and Justice
sadashiva supported the
campaign against
Privatisation.
24. Pil Against Privatisation of Lakes
• PIL against the privatization heard by the
High Court
• Status Report of the lakes prepared by the
PCCF, on the direction of the Court,
strongly makes a case against privatization
• Protests at Agara lake by local residents.
• Legislative Council passed a resolution
disapproving the leasing out of lakes to
private parties.
• On November 4, 2008, High Court passes
an interim order restraining the
Government and private parties from
further investment in developing lakes
under the PPP model.
• Need for a policy framework for
maintenance of the lakes .
25. Report by Court Appointed
committee
Court appointed
committee examines the
realities and prepares a
comprehensive report for
the preservation of lakes.
26. Key recommendations of the report include
Immediate action to
remove encroachments
"lake restoration is to be
taken up based on lake
series/sub-series and not in
isolation“.
Stop entry of raw sewage
into lakes and penalise
offenders.
Select lakes that are
relatively undisturbed and
rehabilitate them into
drinking water reservoirs.
27. Key recommendations of the Report
Lakes which have very high
biodiversity, especially of migratory
waterfowl, will be notified for
conservation under the Wetland
(Conservation and Management Rules),
2010, per the Environment Protection
Act.
Promoting the involvement of local
communities in lake preservation and
restoration.
The report recommends constitution
of lake management committees
involving local residents and voluntary
organisations.
Further, the report highlights the need
to protect the interest of traditional
users of the lakes such as dhobis
(washerpeople), fisherpeople, etc.
28. Final Judgment
Protects lakes across
Karnataka
Prohibits dumping of Garbage
and Sewage in Lakes
Lake area to be surveyed and
fenced
Forest department to plant
trees in consultation with
experts
Member Secretary of state
legal services authority to
monitor implementation of
the above in coordination with
Revenue and Forest
29. Importance of lakes for groundwater recharge
With the loss of lakes and
the city being built up
with no provision for rain
water to recharge the
ground water table in
Bangalore has reached a
dangerously low level
30. Bore wells in Bangalore touch 1000 ft
In 2009, a study on the city’s
groundwater by the
Department of Mines and
Geology indicated
overexploitation, leading to an
alarming decline in the water
levels. It was found that in
many areas, the drilling
agencies had gone as deep as
1,000ft to touch the static
resource of water after
exhausting the dynamic
resource of the aquifer.
31. Number of Bore wells in No. 200,000
Bangalore(conservative estimate)
Cost of each Bore well Rs 20,000
Total (private) investment on Bore Million Rs. 4,000
wells in Bangalore
Investment on water storage sump Rs. per lt. 5
(underground tank)
Total (private) investment on water Million Rs. 25,000
storage sumps in Bangalore
32.
33. Water Mafia in Bangalore
The local water mafia that runs
parallel to the coal mafia in Bihar
and the iron ore mafia in
Karnataka-Goa-Andhra has taken
control of the city's water supply to
run an extortionist private supply
network In many parts of the city
where government water supply has
failed, or a scarcity has been
deliberately created, a merry
coalition of thugs, local politicians
and even some water department
employees run a parallel and private
water supply network that borders
on the extortionist.
34. Parched Empire
Bangalore is the Asian megacity
to come: It is full of the region’s
most promising feature (new,
eager middle-class workers and
consumers) and its most
dreadful (explosive, unplanned,
chaotic sprawl).
And it is heading squarely into
a crisis. For, in little time, the
metropolis known as the
Garden City could become an
enormous urban desert.
35. Groundwater Act 2011
The State took a step toward
redressing the issue in
November 2011 by passing the
Karnataka Groundwater Act
2011 (Regulation and Control
of Development and
Management) in both houses
of the State legislature. As a
consequence, a State Ground
water Authority, on the lines of
the existing Central Ground
Water Authority, was
constituted.
36. Key features of the Karnataka Groundwater Act 2011
All existing borewells in the City have
to be registered with the newly
constituted State Groundwater
Authority by paying a registration fee.
Permission must be sought to sink
borewells in certain notified areas
initially. This will cover all areas in the
State in the long run.
Borewells used for commercial
purposes will be fixed with meters.
Heavy penalty for violators of any of
the above conditions
37.
38. Rain water Harvesting made mandatory
Rainwater harvesting was
mandated in Bangalore by
law twice. Once in 2005,
through building bye-laws.
And more recently through
an amendment of the
BWSSB Act .The
Bangalore Water Supply
and Sewerage
(Amendment) Act, 2009,
72A-Obligation to provide
rainwater harvesting
structure
39. Despite threat, rainwater harvesting a flop in city
Only 44,760 people have
complied so far. There are
more than 10 lakh properties
in the city, including six lakh
in the core areas. Of these,
only 44,470 have adopted
RWH, which does not
account for even 1 per cent.
although the rules empower
the BWSSB to disconnect
water and sanitary lines of
buildings that don’t adopt
RWH.
