Water crisis in Bengaluru: What could be the reason? Here are the key pointers

For the past few days, a drinking water shortage has been bothering Bengaluru a lot. Recently, Siddaramaiah, the Chief Minister of Karnataka expressed that Bengaluru was actually experiencing a shortage of over 500 million liters of water each day. This is actually over one fifth of the total demand of water in the city. The CM also stated that there are several arrangements made for additional supplies for the city.

It would be wrong to say that this shortage of water is only restricted to Bengaluru. Moreover, the problem is not only that of water shortage, but is actually much more. It is not only the city of Bengaluru, but actually the complete state of Karnataka, along with the neighboring areas of Maharashtra and Telangana that are facing the issue of water shortage. One of the key reasons behind the water shortage is the below normal rainfall in the region in the past one year.

The key reasons behind the water shortage

In the monsoon of the last year, the state of Karnataka received an 18% below normal level of rainfall. This is the least touched by the state of Karnataka since the year 2015. A majority of the annual rainfall is received by the state in the monsoon season only. The rainfall water gets filled up in the reservoirs of the state. Therefore, it is easy to guess that a rainfall deficit in the season of monsoons leads to water stress.

Was the state of Karnataka the only state in the country that received below than normal percentage of rainfall in the last monsoon season? Certainly not.

There were other states in the country too that received below than normal levels of rainfall in the last monsoon. For instance, the states of Jharkhand and Bihar faced over 25% of the deficit each. Also, the state of Kerala too faced a 34% deficit. 

However, as per experts, the state of Karnataka is experiencing severe water crisis because of the nature of underground aquifers in the region.

Experts suggest that aquifers in the northern India are actually such that once they are full, they are able to hold enough water to cater to the demand for a few years. However, the situation of aquifers in south India are not such.

Some other issues to discuss

Experts suggest that there are actually many structural issues. Systematic destruction of the lakes, unregulated construction, climate change, and obstruction to the natural underground water flow are to name a few.