[modi15]

There have been a flurry of alarmists posts like these but somehow I cant wrap my head around how will we run out of water. I stay in Bangalore and some people do have the problem of water - but for the most part it doesnt seem to be an issue of 'lack' of water perse but mostly distribution issues.

Bangalore has been having intermittent rains throughout the summers and even though few people use them now, but if situation gets dire almost everyone should be able to setup a rain water harvesting system and get by.

India is also installing solar at a rapid pace and the cost of electricity is going down. The next level solution could be just to use sea water that India is surrounded by, and use some of that solar power to filter this water.

Somehow I dont get all this alarmist news. Maybe im missing something.

[throwaway_7718]

If you already have rainwater harvesting, good for you, but if you depend on borewells and tankers for water, then news like this is not alarmist and is worrisome. Borewells are already becoming dry throughout the city, and digging deeper results in more brackish water. Cementing every single part of land, and not building recharge wells only adds to the problem. (Tankers are reliable for now, but it's silly to put the control of a vital resource in the hands of a private entity that will always be attracted to the highest bidder. The poorer sections of society will be affected first and hardest)

As the population of Bengaluru increases, the demand for water will increase. It's not just a distribution issue, it's a civic planning and ecological issue. Encroachment of lakes[0] and the booming real estate market aren't helping the situation at all.

Also, desalination is not as easy as one thinks [1].

Better solutions to this problem are effective civic planning, ensuring that the groundwater table is recharged, (as you rightly mentioned) rainwater harvesting, and preserving the lakes Bengaluru has.

[0] http://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/bangalore-water-bodies-nd...

[1] https://www.hydrofinity.com/blog/why-desalination-is-not-the...

[krageon]

There is a water shortage and you propose to solve it with two solutions that don't currently exist. Not everyone harvests rain water right now. The solar that you speak of doesn't exist, and filtering sea water is definitely not as simple as "using some of that solar power".

It is a problem because the situation currently is looking pretty bad. As far as I can tell people are not denying that a solution is possible. When is it not?

[nonamechicken]

The twitter link posted by abhshkdz (https://twitter.com/jslaternyc/status/1144483586042548225) took me to this article:

>"Dear BBC, Bengaluru isn’t running out of water soon. Here’s why!" http://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/bangalore-water-scarcity-...

So, I am confused about whether we really have a problem or there is some other agenda. I know lot of people in Bengaluru don't get govt water supply (Cauvery water). Was speaking to a friend just yesterday who was complaining about the quality of the tanker water they get in their apartment, that some people are getting skin diseases because of it and that they use filtered water for washing their baby and their hair.

Desalination seems to be expensive:

>"Rs 1.36 crore a day for just 200 million litres of water; can Chennai really afford desalination plants?"

http://chennai.citizenmatters.in/chennai-cost-of-desalinatio...

The above article concludes that

>Our water problems are essentially due to mismanagement of water bodies, and Chennai is not a rain-starved city. “Chennai’s average annual rainfall of 139 cm is sufficient to recharge its aquifers. We don’t have perennial rivers, but we have abundant surface water resources. The city of London, with just 60 cm of annual average rainfall, relies on surface water resources. It is shameful that we have opted for the extravagant choice of desalination plants instead,” said Sai Praneeth, Director, Hydro-Meteorological Innovative and Explorative Solutions (HYMIES).

Also just came across this Twitter account. They seem to be posting a lot of info about India's water situation. https://twitter.com/zenrainman

[chewz]

Water relations are complex and require sophisticated culture. You are right there were cities thriving in arid climate like Karakorum dessert or Palestine. Ancient Rome had been able to supply more fresh water to the Rome via aqueduct system then entire New York used up to 1980s.

Some societies created intricate cultures like subak in Bali.

The practical question is if India can reform its water policy within years left before certain cities will start to die. Because they will otherwise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subak_(irrigation)

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/12/lost-cities-m...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_aqueduct

[rishav_sharan]

Let me give the PoV from Hyderabad. Hyderabad gets water from mainly 3 sources;

1. Musi river water/Manjeera 2. the Large lakes like Hussain/Osmania Sagar etc. 3. ground water/borewells

My apartment society in Gachibowli area, just ran of water for a few days back in June. The borewell just couldnt get the water. There is no lake around us.

Getting the river water connection would be around Rs.15_00_0000. To add to the issues, the gov is not giving out new river water connections without a longdrawn process and the river water itself is too low to sustain all the existing connection.

Right now several apartment societies with 3000+ apartments in them are coming up in my immediate neighbourhood. So next year, we can expect the borewell water to be over way before june (early may?). We will certainly don't have river water connection by then. So, we will be dependent on water takers for a few months. this year the tankers are charging 8k (from 2k last year) for each refill. next year, the price would be over 20k for each refill.

Rain water harvesting doesnt works greatly in areas like ours which only get a few months of rain. Where will you keep the harvested water for the next 8-9 months? How do you maintain the quality of this stagnant water? So, most likely people would end up using it and the hope would be that an equivalent amount of ground water will be spared. It really doesnt works out in practice. People don't ration the water usage and will not until it gets dire. Also rain harvesting infra will take years to set up. Desalinating water is not much help as transporting the water is a logistical issue. So yes, while there are possible solutions, they will take a lot of political will to execute and will certainly take more than a few years to bear fruit. The situation, till then will be bad.

The water in all lakes is incredibly low. The lakes are also extremely dirty (http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/2018/oct/07...) The water is already contaminated by industrial waste.

2020 is going to be bad for us in Hyderabad. Not Chennai level bad. but we will get there in the next few years. And what i do know of Bangalore form my other friends who live there, its pretty bad there already. A lot of large societies are dependent on tanker waters despite Bangalore having much more rainfall than Hyderabad.

All in all, I think this level of alarm is not just necessary, it should have come a decade ago, when it would have been easier to circumvent. Hyderabad's population will cross 12MM by 2030. Now, whatever approach we end up taking, its gonna be costly, hard to execute and will take a lot of time. And will probably will not be enough.

EDIT: I am wildly off on the Hyderabad population growth. The existing census data is from 2011. Apparently we crossed 12MM in 2019. https://indiapopulation2019.com/population-of-hyderabad-2019... If correct, this is over the population of major mega cities like NY, LA etc.

[unmole]

Let me introduce you to the world's largest lift irrigation project in the world that will bring an additional 30 TMC of water to Hyderabad: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleshwaram_Lift_Irrigation_...

[chewz]

> Right now several apartment societies with 3000+ apartments in them are coming up in my immediate neighbourhood. So next year, we can expect the borewell water to be over way before june (early may?).

Do you mean that a permit had been given to developement project without providing adequate water supply first? And it will depend on borewells?

> Rain water harvesting doesnt works greatly in areas like ours which only get a few months of rain. Where will you keep the harvested water for the next 8-9 months?

Some desert cities in Palestine had a rain once in a three years. Still tanks provided adequate amounts of water.

Seems like India ain't lacking in water resources but in governance.

[rishav_sharan]

Governance and public apathy are always a big issue in India. And with the sheer speed of growth, it would be a struggle for even a gov with the political will to make meaningful changes.

Regarding you question on giving permits without providing adequate water supply, that's how it is in Indian metropolitans.

[easytiger]

> Somehow I dont get all this alarmist news. Maybe im missing something.

Population growth + increased quality of life = more resource use