The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Focus on managing water, BWSSB told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 23, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Focus on managing water, BWSSB told

Staff Reporter

`Every locality could have a secondary treatment plant for recycling of water'

SYMBOLIC MESSAGE: A girl carries an empty pot with slogan `Save Water for the Blue Planet' on Thursday when a rally was organised by Task Group on Ecology and Environment and YMCA to mark the World Water Day. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: Instead of focussing on creating more sources for water supply, it is crucial that focus should be on managing the water, said Lakshmi Venkatachalam, Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department.

This and more such suggestions were put forth on methods to conserve water at the inaugural function of the two-day workshop organised on World Water Day by the Bangalore Water Supply Sewerage Board (BWSSB).

P.B. Mahishi, Chief Secretary, said water distribution should be localised and residents welfare associations could be involved in ensuring that the network reached every household in the locality.

"Incentives could be provided for those who use less water and higher tariffs for those who consume more," he said.

Taps with sensors save water considerably and although they were expensive, they could be used on a wider scale. "Nothing is more precious than water right now. Reports suggest that fresh water will become a scarcity in another 50 years." He urged the urban local bodies and the BWSSB to take to recycling water on a massive scale. "Every locality could have a secondary treatment plant and sewage generated could be recycled back for secondary purposes in that same area," Mr. Mahishi said.

The Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board was working on shifting dependence from groundwater to surface water in all the 213 urban areas. "There are only 45 towns more which are still dependent on groundwater. They will be shifted soon as depending on borewells can be unpredictable, especially during summer," said P.B. Ramamurthy, Chief Managing Director of the board. Pressure on the water supply system could be evenly distributed if the time of the day tariffs were introduced, said M.A. Chithale, former Secretary of the Water Resources Department, Government of India.

The challenge for the next decade was to distribute water from water plenty areas to water scarce areas, he said. There was a need for realigning water management system to a more traditional sense where the emphasis was on preserving tanks, aquifers and lakes, he said.

Earlier in the day, Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa flagged off the rally held jointly by the BWSSB and the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). The rally of schoolchildren was to spread awareness about the need for water management. Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Health Minster R. Ashok were present.

Later, Mr. Yediyurappa told presspersons that the Government was in talks with the Congress to take an all-party delegation to the Centre, if the water situation in the State got any worse. He urged the Congress to put more pressure on the Centre to release funds for providing relief measures.

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