In 2022, after copious rains, roads in Bengaluru's famed IT corridor turned into waterways. Viral images showed the humble tractor becoming the chief mode of emergency transport for a bit-even corporate honchos clambered atop them to escape their inundated villas, and office-goers chose them as the only way to reach their waterlogged work spaces. Now, the pendulum has swung the other way. With the 2023 monsoon tilting towards a cyclical dip-and an 18 per cent deficient rainfall over Karnataka―the depletion in groundwater levels has led to dry borewells in many parts of the city, leaving Bengaluru to battle a severe water shortage crisis. And the harsh Deccan summer has just begun.
How severe is this crisis? With a population of 14 million, Bengaluru's total water requirement is in the range of 2,600 million litres a day (MLD). A little over half of this comes from the Cauvery flowing 100 km away-pumping 1,450 MLD all the way and up a steep gradient into Bengaluru is an engineering feat by itself. However, Cauvery water connections are available only to the city's core part. The rest of the city depends on borewells-of which there are over 4,60,000, private as well as publicwhich supply 1,250 MLD of its water needs. And, as Karnataka deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar pointed out, about 50 per cent of the city's public borewells have run dry. While public borewells constitute less than five per cent of total borewells in the city, private borewells, which form the majority, have also started running dry. Officials estimate there is a deficit of 25-30 per cent in water yield from borewells, leading to a shortfall of 200-300 MLD.
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Denne historien er fra March 25, 2024-utgaven av India Today.
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A Life IN MUSIC
To celebrate five decades of a storied musical career, Padma Shri Hariharan is headlining a special concert in Delhi on November 30
MURDERS MOST FOUL
SAMYUKTA BHOWMICK'S DEBUT NOVEL, A FATAL DISTRACTION, IS A WHODUNIT THAT GOES BEYOND MERELY PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE MASTERS OF THE GENRE
Jungle Book
Avtar Singh creates a compelling tableau of characters brought together and torn asunder by migration, epidemic and circumstance
BON VOYAGE
The award-winning stage adaptation of Yann Martel's Life of Pi is coming to Mumbai this December
Earning His ACTING CHOPS
HIS LATEST STINT IN THE BUCKINGHAM MURDERS, WHICH JUST RELEASED ON NETFLIX, CEMENTS THE MULTI-HYPHENATE RANVEER BRAR'S REPUTATION AS A FINE ACTOR
Strike a Pose
SOONI TARAPOREVALA'S SERIES DEBUT WAACK GIRLS ON PRIME VIDEO SHINES A LIGHT ON THE STREET DANCE STYLE OF WAACKING
FATAL ATTRACTION
In I Want to Talk, Shoojit Sircar continues his exploration of death with the portrait of a tenacious man who beats it time and again
LOVE LETTER TO THE MOUNTAINS
'Journeying Across the Himalayas' is a new multidisciplinary festival in Delhi with a focus on the Himalayan region and its communities
The Art of CURATION
Sunil Kant Munjal, founder patron of the Serendipity Arts Foundation, on how one of our biggest multi-disciplinary festivals came about and what to look forward to in this edition
THE ROCKY ROAD AHEAD
A US court's allegations of bribery in solar power contracts and US markets watchdog SEC's charges of concealing wrongdoings have jolted Gautam Adani's business empire. Even as he mounts a strong defence against the indictment, the group faces a crisis of investor confidence that may impact its growth plans