With eye on JICA grant, BWSSB finds 150 MLD extra water in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: Even as several pockets of Bengaluru reel under scarcity of water, the BWSSB appears to have conjured up a whopping 150 MLD of water to supply to 110 villages on the city's outskirts.
The 150 MLD appears to have materialized from thin air expressly with an eye on grants from the Japan Internation Cooperation Agency . When the BWSSB approached JICA for the same project in 2010 ­ the cost of which was Rs 2379 crore, then the Japanese agency asked a simple question: “Where is the water to supply to these villages?“ Clearly, the BWSSB had no answer and the project fell through.This time, however, the BWSSB appears to have found “extra“ water from Bengaluru to divert to these villages. Hence the new proposal, which awaits a Cabinet nod.

“Under Cauvery stages 1, 2 and 4, we have a capacity to pump another 130-150 MLD of water. This water can be utilized once the project is approved by the Government of India under JICA funds,“ BWSSB chairperson Anjum Parwez told ET.

Under the proposal, the 110 villages under Byatarayanapura, Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli, Rajarajeshwari Nagar and Dasarahalli, which are largely dependent on borewells and tankers, are expected to get water through a 2,817 km pipe line network. All these villages came under BBMP limits in 2007.

A single bucket of water is a struggle for people of these villages, accord ing to Krishna Raj, an associate professor from the Centre for Economic Studies and Policy at the Institute for Social and Economic Change. “The bore wells have been used up by the influential.No water infrastructure has been provided for these silent sufferers. It is unlike a Koramang ala or a Sadashivanagar where problems are fixed immediately,“ said Krishna, who has surveyed six of the 110 villages.

Interestingly , the sudden availability of 150 MLD water comes at a time when nearly half of Bengaluru's water ­ 48 %, to be precise - goes unaccounted for (UFW).

“It is not that there is no water.Bengaluru gets 1,400 MLD of water every day . It is the leakage that is very high, which is why we fall short of water,“ Parwez said. The BWSSB is car rying out works across the city to replace dis tribution pipes to bring down leakage. The utility hopes to bring down UFW to 16% by March 2016.

The level of UFW in some areas falling under the South division is as high as 70%. “We have reduced this to about 20% and it will go further down in about a year's time,“ said Krishnappa S, chief engineer (Kaveri), BWSSB.

The BWSSB explained the doubling of the project-cost thus: “Apart from being unable to substantiate on source of water, we had prepared a detailed project report based on 2001 population.

This time, the proposal keeps in mind growth rates from 2019 to 2049 with 2011 population as the base,“ SP Rudramurthy , chief engineer (project), BWSSB, said.

Former BW SSB chairperson B N Thyagaraja, who headed an expert committee to identify alter nate sources of water for Bengaluru, told ET that the rush to get JICA fundings is because it is easily available with reasonable conditions.

WIPRO CLARIFIES:

IT major Wipro has clarified that its founder Azim Premji's statement during his interaction with children last Saturday, that Bengaluru would have to be evacuated in the next ten years, was only meant to highlight the dangers involved in ignoring the issue of water scarcity. It was not to be taken literally.