India’s ‘lake man’ cleans up critical water supplies
Ancient lake systems once provided Bengaluru with critical water supplies, but the Indian tech hub’s breakneck expansion left many waterways covered over or used as dumps.
Nearly half of Bengaluru depends on water sucked from intensive groundwater boreholes that often run dry in the summer heat, according to the city’s Water, Environment, Land and Livelihoods (WELL) Labs research centre.
Many residents already rely on expensive water trucked in from afar, and the problem is likely to get worse as climate change pushes global temperatures higher and alters weather patterns.
“We’re dependent on a precarious groundwater table, and that is going to get even more precarious as you have a more unreliable rainfall,” said WELL Labs chief Veena Srinivasan.
“We already don’t have enough water to drink,” she added, noting that “the water sources that we do have, we are polluting”.
Fixing lakes can ease the problem, though the city still needs a large-scale urban water management plan, she said.
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