Well-diggers can resolve Bengaluru's water woes

The unhurried way of life in Bhovi Palya gives no indication that the village in Sarjapur is located just alongside the Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) project and the new-age technology companies that have driven up the real estate value. The prosperity in one of Bengaluru’s fastest growing residential hubs has clearly evaded the residents of this small village — skilled Manuvaddars (traditional well-diggers) whose struggle to eke out a living increases as more Bengalureans ignore the option of open wells and prefer borewells and water tankers.

“There are 120 families carrying the same occupation here but there is just not enough work for all of us,” said Ramakrishna, a fourth-generation well-digger. His great-grandfather, Hanumanthappa Bhovi, was among the earliest settlers of the village. During his time, Bengaluru was a “city of thousand lakes”, where water needs were met by constructing a series of tanks and each house had an open well. To dig a 20-ft deep, 3-ft diameter well, the Manuvaddars invested over 15 hours of digging, pulling up buckets and mud and ensuring that the earth does not cave in.

An exploding population and the creation of new residential localities after the bubonic plague of 1898 led to a search for water bodies outside of Bengaluru. In 1892, water was pumped from the Hesaraghatta lake, followed by the Thippagondanahalli scheme in 1930 and finally the Cauvery scheme in 1970. The latter continues to satisfy most of the old city’s water requirements today. Gradually, the tanks started diminishing, and with them, the wells went dry. The 1980s marked the advent of borewells, which gradually started replacing open wells as people began to dig deeper for more groundwater.


Ramakrishna’s 65-year-old father Ramaswamy said that he had started to feel the pinch a decade ago, which is why he started focussing on farming ragi and avarekai (beans) on a one-acre plot to supplement the family’s income.

Another well-digger Rajappa said, “We now build rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems and dig recharge wells for people. We go from house to house in areas like Shivajinagar, Sadashivanagar, BTM Layout, Rajajinagar and Vidyaranyapura, asking people if their existing wells need cleaning.” While digging a new well would earn them about Rs 45,000, cleaning fetches them just Rs 5,000.

Bengaluru’s growth has also resulted in a slight shift in the gender dynamics of their jobs. Lakshmamma, 65, recalls how many decades ago, there were at least 20 women in Bhovi Palya who earned by well-digging. “When the city expanded and more residential complexes were built, women moved to domestic work, leaving well-digging to the men. But even they are finding it difficult to earn a living these days,” she said.

BOREWELLS GO DRY, NOT WELLS
There is, however, one doomsday call that could turn into a ray of hope for the Manuvaddars, who are 2,000 families spread across 15-odd villages in and around the city.

Bengaluru is said to be staring at a water-scarce future, with its water table shrinking from 10-12 metres to 76-91 metres in the past two decades. The number of waterbodies has reduced by 79% due to urbanisation and encroachment. Borewells are being dug up to 1,200 feet or more, only to find no water. According to an assessment by Down to Earth, a publication of the Centre for Science and Environment, Bengaluru seems to be following in the footsteps of Africa’s Cape Town and is likely to run out of drinking water if preventive measures are not taken anytime soon.

The focus on groundwater recharge, as a result, is increasing and people are turning back to local water sources to meet future needs. “We are hoping this interest and awareness about wells will help more work come our way,” said Ramakrishna.

The shift seems to have started already. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has earmarked ?12 crore in its Budget to implement public rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems in Bengaluru. This includes ?5 crore towards constructing structures in all the 1,146 public parks, ?5 crore towards creating systems in buildings, schools, colleges and open spaces of the city corporation, and ?2 crore towards establishing water pits in nurseries to preserve groundwater levels. An official from the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) told ET that they are also strengthening enforcement of the rainwater harvesting policy, which makes RWH systems mandatory in homes and commercial spaces.

Individuals and apartment complexes are also turning to open wells as a primary water source. Balasubramanian’s Vidyaranyapura home, for instance, has a 40-feet deep well lined with concrete rings. “Even during April summers, it has around 30 feet of water,” said the 82-year-old. “This meets the entire needs of the nine-member family and the quality of water is good too.”

In the growing residential suburb of Kengeri, an upcoming sustainable residential project called Good Earth Malhar has a 10-metre deep stone well catering to 400 homes. Rainwater harvested and fed into smaller recharge pits around the well replenishes the water table and the well. The well is on a downward slope, which also allows stormwater from houses above to flow into the ground near it. “We just want to explore and demonstrate a sustainable model that can be easily replicated by others. Going forward, water scarcity is a problem that needs to be tackled collectively,” said Prashanth Palanisamy, general manager of the property.

COLLECTIVE ACTION
Harini Nagendra, professor of sustainability at Azim Premji University, pointed out that the 1880 maps of Bengaluru showed 1459 public wells in the city centre, which drastically reduced to 49 in 2015. “Their disappearance from the maps only shows that they were built upon,” she said, calling for more community action.

Taking a step towards collective responsibility is ‘A Million Recharge Wells Project’. Led by S Vishwanath of the Biome Environmental Trust and voluntary citizen network Friends of Lakes (FoL), it aims to revive the city’s open wells, recharge groundwater and engage with the community to find solutions. “RWH and groundwater are natural recharge mechanisms with a potential to provide Bengaluru up to 400 million litres of water per day,” said Vishwanath, who is employing and training Manuvaddars as part of the campaign and has already rejuvenated seven open wells in Cubbon Park.

Dr Sharadchandra Lele of the Centre for Environment & Development at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment said that open wells act as a thermometer that could tell people exactly how much they are consuming, unlike borewells. There are problems related to equitable distribution of water, public awareness of water-related norms and regulation of groundwater usage that should be tackled at the government level. “The BWSSB must realise that its job is to explore multiple water supply sources instead of just pumping it from the Cauvery,” he said. “To reduce borewell dependency, decentralise water usage. Bringing borewells under municipality jurisdiction is also a way to regulate groundwater extraction.”