Japanese agency to help city get 750 MLD Cauvery water

The city will get an additional 750 million litres per day (MLD) of water from the river Cauvery by 2022, thanks to financial assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) on Wednesday signed a deal with JICA for funding the Cauvery fifth stage water supply project. It involves laying infrastructure to provide bulk potable water from the Cauvery, more than 100 km from the city.

The Cauvery has been a crucial source of water for Bengaluru since 1974, after the Thippagondanahalli reservoir and Hesaraghatta lake dried up.


In each of the past five decades, the water board has commissioned as many schemes that involved creating infrastructure (and construction of huge pipelines) to fetch water. The last such project was commissioned in 2002, through which 500 MLD of water was supplied to the city. In all, the BWSSB pumps over 1,480 MLD of water from the river and there are about 9 lakh water connections in the city.

BWSSB chairman Tushar Girinath said the total cost of Cauvery Stage V project is ₹5,550 crore. “JICA will extend a loan of 85% of the project cost while the state government and BWSSB will bear the remaining cost at 7.5% each,” he told ET.

The BWSSB would use ₹4,500 crore towards creating infrastructure to fetch the water. The remaining ₹1,000 crore would be used to provide trunk sewerage network and sewage treatment facilities in the 110 villages that were added to the

BBMP’s jurisdiction a decade ago.

“We will immediately launch preparatory work such as designs and drawings. That will take about a year. The construction will start from 2019 and will be commissioned in 2022,” he explained.

BWSSB officials said the Cauvery Tribunal has also accorded permission to pump an additional 10 TMC (775 MLD) to meet the water requirements of the city.

M.N Thippeswamy, former BWSSB engineer, suggested that the government seriously explore reuse of waste water and rainwater conservation. “When there is already a shortage of water in the Cauvery river (at KRS and Kabini reservoirs), what’s the point of creating more infrastructure? The government should look at alternative options,” he said.

The other pressing issue is that almost 46% of water which BWSSB pumps out of the Cauvery river continues to remain unaccountable.