1) Bengaluru is facing a severe water crisis, with long queues for water and rising prices for water tankers, suggesting that water scarcity is an ongoing issue faced by all generations. 2) The Karnataka government has proposed emergency measures like supplying water via tankers from nearby towns and utilizing private borewells, allocating Rs 131 crore for drilling new borewells. 3) However, there is doubt about how effectively this financial assistance will be used given the reduction in water levels from overuse of borewells and previous policies not producing tangible changes on the ground.

1. The recent pictures from Bengaluru, of the long queues for water,
need to be seen beyond the prism of water scarcity.
The dejected faces, standing in queues with empty containers,
suggest that “water suffering” is the reality of all generations.
It is difficult to argue who is more affected.
Who is suffering — a child who must forego lessons to bring water
for the family or a young person standing in a queue to fetch water
who doesn’t have enough time and energy to think about her future?
Who can think about the loss of an elderly person, who has spent
their life more in water queues than at home or the workplace?

2. • Bengaluru has witnessed a great deal of political planning, little actual
implementation, and almost no fruitful outcomes with respect to water
security.
• For years the thirsty city has changed between Cauvery and water
tanks.
• Regretfully, the tale is unchanged this year as well. The city receives
around 1,450 million litres per day (MLD) of water from the Cauvery
but it faces a shortfall of 1,680 million litres per day.
• A tanker load (which are usually used as a source of water by the
common public and commercial establishments as well) with 12,000
litre capacity now costs Rs 1,500 to Rs 2000 instead of Rs 1,000
which was the rate at the beginning of 2024.

3. The efforts made by Karnataka government — not enough?
• As water is increasingly unavailable and unaffordable, the state
government is under a great deal of strain and hence has
proposed some urgent steps.
• For instance, the government has ordered supply of water in huge
tankers to Bengaluru from adjoining towns such as Ramanagara,
Hoskote, Magadi and Channapatna and has planned to use milk
tankers and take over private borewells to resolve the water crisis.
• To act on these plans, a substantial budget of Rs 131 crore is
allotted by civil bodies for drilling borewells in priority zones.
Simultaneously, to control water prices, all private water tankers
and borewells are instructed to register with the Bangalore Water
Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) before March 7 to avoid
facing seizures.

4. • There are doubts regarding the strategies suggested to
guarantee the availability of water since 3,700 public
borewells in the city have significantly reduced the water
levels and 1,214 of the 10,955 borewells in the city have run
dry — one could wonder how the financial help will be used
efficiently.
• It is possible to think that some of the funds will be utilized
to build water purification facilities and recycle spent water,
however, specifics are still unknown.
• In the absence of the required details on the plan of action,
the doubts would remain, mainly because such a plan of
action is not the first initiative by the government.

5. • Previously, even a policy called Karnataka Water Policy 2022 had
suggested strategies like re-cycling, re-use of treated waste water and
rain water harvesting, industrial water use planning and other such
measures.
• There have been not much noticeable changes on the ground level as
people have to stand in queues and are bound to buy water at high
prices even in March, when the summer months are just beginning.
• A question to reflect on is what has been compromised again and
again and what is going wrong.
• Are the demands not being calculated in terms of water footnotes —
which refers to how much water is used for domestic, industrial, or
agricultural or other purposes;

6. • it also means, how much water is available to use in the form of
river and water bodies — or are the calculations wrong because
of the increase in population?
• The causes of the failures and problems related to water
governance should be examined as a whole mainly because this
is not a case of ‘tapless homes’ but a problem of ‘waterless taps’.
Unplanned urbanization
• Only uncertain rains and changing climatic conditions cannot be
blamed for the water crisis in Bengaluru, population explosion,
unplanned urbanization, unfriendly industrial and agricultural
policies have also resulted in this problem.
• Unquestionably, water planning has not produced the desired
results.