India’s Bengaluru fast running out of water – and it’s not summer yet

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Bengaluru, the city of lavish headquarters of multiple global software companies in southern India, is drying up. Residents say they are facing the worst water crisis in decades as they witness an unusually hot February and March.

Water experts fear the worst is still to come in April and May when the summer sun is at its strongest in the city of 13 million residents.

In the last few years, Bengaluru has received little rainfall in part due to human-caused climate change. Water levels are running desperately low, particularly in poorer areas, resulting in sky-high costs for water and a quickly dwindling supply.

City and state government authorities are trying to get the situation under control with emergency measures, such as nationalising water tankers and putting a cap on water costs.

Authorities say 6,900 of the 13,900 borewells drilled in the city have run dry despite some being drilled to depths of 457 metres (1,500 feet). Those reliant on groundwater now have to depend on water tankers that pump from nearby villages.

Shashank Palur, Bengaluru-based hydrologist with the Water, Environment, Land and Livelihood Labs think tank, said El Nino, a natural phenomenon that affects weather patterns worldwide, along with less rainfall in the city, mean “recharge of groundwater levels did not happen as expected”.

A new piped water supply from the Cauvery River, about 100km (60 miles) from the city, has also not been completed, adding to the crisis, he said.

Another concern is that paved surfaces cover nearly 90 percent of the city, preventing rainwater from seeping down and being stored in the ground, said TV Ramachandra, research scientist at the Centre for Ecological Sciences at Bengaluru-based Indian Institute