A city and its waters

[Applause]

so

we’re in a beautiful city which is the

fastest growing

urban area in the world economically

speaking

there was a recent report in december

which suggested that bangalore

was the economic powerhouse not only of

karnataka state not

not only of india but but the world

itself

and you know that every city runs on one

engine

and one of the most crucial engines is

water and my story with you

today which i want to share is about

water and bangalore and the historical

connections that there are

the stories in the media this was in

2018 it’s pretty frightening and

alarming

since level city is most likely to run

out of drinking water

sao paulo was one and bangalore was

number two

beneath the io which is a government

think tank

also put bangalore as a city to reach

zero groundwater levels

affecting and overall affecting access

to about 100 million people

this is an international organization

this is a national organization putting

in a pretty dismal picture for

for our city so one wants to ask why is

this happening and it’s very interesting

because i’ve been working in landlords

what sector for the last 30 years

fascinating here’s our city being there

this is the kaveri basin there’s two

dams the theater is

damn near mysore and the cabinet

reservoir

these are the two reservoirs which hold

water release it into the river

from here and here comes to a place

called the record in

near kanapura from there it’s popped up

to the city of bangalore

up 300 meters and a distance of nearly

100 kilometers

making it one of asia’s most costliest

water

most energy embedded water it takes two

units of energy to get a thousand liters

of water to our city

in the water with the most carbon

emissions but this is a remarkable

engineering feed to get water from

100 kilometers and 300 meters below the

city it’s a remarkable engineering point

so this is the dependence of the city on

one single source

the cave for its water but is that true

and why is it that it is

so here’s fascinating things for me

those of you have been to the lag bar

would have seen the big the rock on

which the temple got a tower is this

history is about 3500 million years

the rock itself is 3500 million years

peninsula

means that rock and the volcanic

eruption and the stabilization

has caused bangalore to be at 920 meters

above sea level which gives it this

wonderful climate

the rock also tells us what’s happening

below the ground

weathering zone has happened on top soil

has been created something called where

the rock has been created

this acts like a sponge that holds water

and deep willow is hard rock

that we drill for our boardwells

sometimes find water and sometimes don’t

and we’ve gone to a depth of thousand

eight hundred feet our old people

have carved inscription stones and hero

stones

wear them loose as they’re called and

inscription stones they tell us stories

about what’s happening in the city

for more than thousand two hundred years

and it’s all been carved from this rock

peninsula means and then another

interesting phenomenon happens

and this has got everything to do with

water of bangalore

india about 88 million years ago or

about 90 million years ago maybe 100

million years ago

decided to separate from madagascar the

small island

on the coast off the coast of africa and

decided to drift up to join the asian

subcontinent the continental drift we’re

moving at about two and a half

centimeters a year

india is pushing itself into asia and

creating the himalayas as you know

but there’s an interesting story here

when india moved away from madagascar

it left a piece of what’s called the

western guards

in madagascar and that piece of the

western guards

is called the palgard gap somebody is

travelling from koibatu to kerala

your bus and your train goes through

something called the palgat gap on its

way to polygamy

this gap in the western guards is about

30 kilometers wide

the gap means that the western guards

are sunk and it’s about 300 meters at

that point of time

what’s that got to do with bangalore in

the

months of april and may when the whole

of india is sweltering under summer

the air gets hot over bangalore and

rises up and through the bangladesh gap

the russia sin humid winds

from the arabian sea drifts up in the

afternoon and comes to bangalore

and we get the famous rains called the

office reigns of bangalore

in april and may at 5 or 5 30 in the

evening when you can’t leave your

college and go home or you can’t take

your office and go home

and this means that bangalore third

rainiest month is may

which is the hottest time for the rest

of india and

april will also get about 46 millimeters

of rainfall very important for the city

this rain this rain was understood by

our old people as i showed you in the

description stores

and they built the keras and the bodies

the carriers kunta’s and

cut days the lakes tanks that we know of

to hold and harvest the rain water

infiltrate into the ground become

filtered water and come from these

beautiful wells

to be used for drinking and domestic

purpose this is the story of water

linked to continental drip and lead to a

plateau which was from three and a half

thousand millions of years back

but who are the people who built these

links and tanks

there’s a community called the word the

manwater of the old community

these people have been digging wells and

tanks across india

for more than a thousand years they’re

an international community they migrate

from place to place

all the way from rajasthan and kashmir

in the north to tamil nadu

this community has various names the

state of odisha itself may have come

from this company community

or or what is to pray they broke the

earth

and made these stands and lakes and

they’re still around this community is

still around

if you find a name called the parliament

it’s these people who occupy those

spaces

but they’re a phenomenal community ram

krishna

shankar these are names which have

forgotten about 750 to 1000 families in

and around bangalore still dig wells

but because of the era of borders they

don’t have a job

and this city is riddled with open

wealth i’m not talking about robots

open dad wells you know pottery town

cotton paint but

these names are very familiar to

vandalians all these

places have open worlds with water even

now

like this this water was what served the

city for more than a thousand years with

the coming of the cavalry water supply

and this is the forgotten water that we

need to tap back

if we want to avoid the scare scenarios

bbc puts up how is that to be done

it’s a simple thing grab the rainfall

that falls on the rooftop

push it down this blue drum is a filter

it’s a filter of sand and gravel

and allow it to go into the well this is

an open well there

allow it to percolate into the ground mr

paul subramanian has done that

his wealth gives him all the water he

requires for the whole year that’s

another example out there

these wells are two feet and three feet

in diameter about 20 feet deep

you’re putting rooftop rainwater from

the pipes into them making sure that

you’re harvesting main water and

recharging the aquifer and if you’re in

certain zones of the city

the water then becomes available to you

if we do a million wells for bangalore

we will never have a water shortage

that’s our plan

so where is all this happening if you go

to covent park and enjoy the ambience

and the environment of the place

do spend time to figure out that there

are seven beautiful old open beds which

you have forgotten about

which the waters gave knife to this is

the water level in the works like 10

feet even now

and these wells seven of them including

the famous current of the barbie where

the karuga festival of tango also takes

place

provides about one lakh liters for the

park’s requirement of water

and then garden park has put in 64

rechargeables

to make sure that all the water that

falls in the landscape is pushed into

that river

and these wells are full that’s stupid

because for you

another example close by the wheel and

axle plant

of the railways they had forgotten that

there were four

large beautiful old open wells around

the wetland they were dumping

garbage and slag around that place once

they realized that this pressure was

there with them

they just have to clear away that

garbage and slab restore the wetland

make sure that the water comes to the

wetland there and the welds now give

them three lakh liters of water

they don’t have to depend on the breeder

bssp of the cavity for a drop of water

all their water requirements come from

wells and drain water out of the state

there’s a famous institution the indian

institute of management in bangalore

they have put about 60 recharge wells

picking water from storm water drains

leading them to these wells which are

about 20 to 30 feet deep

making sure the water infiltrates into

the ground and therefore wells now give

them

much better water than what they used to

do before large canvases

can do rechargeable scale how are these

wells made how are these rechargers made

here’s some one word digging down into

the soil using implements which

are hand operated they dig about three

or four feet

in diameter and go 20 30 40 feet but

typically 20 to 25 feet

then they use precast concrete rings

which are made on the side on the side

of roads

these rings are lowered into the fit one

at a time

and one one ring is lower you pack it

with gravel on the side

and then you put in the next ring and

finally you put a grill

or a concrete slab cover to make sure

it’s safe and secure

then you need storm water into this well

and when you need the storm water or

this roof topping water as you see the

water can come back in many of these

waters

it’s a simple process a team of

well-developed four or five can dig a

well in a day

they do well in a day so that’s the kind

of output productivity they are

so how then should wells be imagined in

the future how should we imagine

groundwater

this is a classic example of a layout

called rainbow drive

which does not have connections to the

city water utility

which means there are 360 sites here or

plots

each one of them would have dug up ball

well

spending two lakh rupees going 900 feet

360 straws into the same coca-cola

bottle trying to empty it

yes and pretty soon all of it dried so

how do you reverse the process

by banning private borders by putting

three community borders

sharing the water by putting in 360 new

recharge wells everybody takes

responsibility to fill water in

everybody takes corrective

responsibility to share whatever they’re

treating

in an equitable manner and to put a gap

on demand to use

as much water as you actually put it

into the ground up less

so that you’re stable what rainbow drive

has then achieved

is water sustainability at a 36 acre

scale

apartments are also doing it t-zl is an

apartment which is close to work too

they’ve done something remarkable

they’ve not only put 40 recharges to put

all the water into the ground

but they treat their wastewater and this

is the first community

in india which actually blends their

treated wastewater

with good groundwater and as you see

they drink it

so this is the kind of pioneering

approach that bangalore has shown

and communities have shown which we need

to scale up if you have to address the

water problem that

that they have and as local communities

are working on reviving states like this

one called kaikoura

downstream of it large wells are coming

back to life and these birds now provide

water to apartments

where ironically in the same apartment

the boardwall is dry

but open well is providing water because

of the geology of bangalore in many

places

the open world is not connected to the

board well the surface water

the surface activates easier to recharge

the deep aquifer is more difficult

as we work towards reviving our blades

or shallow open wells should come back

more and more to life

and everywhere the bond vendors

participate

whether shankar ram krishna the teams

that there are

they participate in cleaning these old

open worlds resetting them bringing them

back to life digging new ones

recharging them and the pressure which

they’re finding in these wells is not

necessarily

old coins but actually the water that is

there in the world

and the water is more precious than any

gold or diamond or anything that you can

think of

this is what the well diggers are able

to achieve through their million through

the million west program

all they ask for is more work provide us

work so that we earn the livelihood to

bring up our family to educate our

children

to be able to make sure that the

children have a brighter future and that

the city has water security

we need a compact a partnership between

these traditional well-takers

and the citizens of this great city of

ours

and put in place a million dollars to

recharge rainwater

so that our younger generation

and us become groundwater literate water

literate

and permanently avoid any chance of

water scarcity

so this is the compact this is the

vision not i have

but what the manwa does have for the

city of bangalore

linking geology time

livelihoods and history with the present

and the future

to make things sustainable let’s jump

this journey thank you

you