Bhargavi Ghosh, Grade 7
Mega city of Bangalore gets its drinking water from KRS Dam which is roughly 140 km away.
It is a Mammoth task for the government agency to collect clean filter and pump this water to Bangalore.
Dozens of gigantic pumps, pump this water from KRS Dam in Mysore to up the gradient to Bangalore. Once reaching they are again pumped into huge water tank using smaller motors.
The amount of electricity spend on the process is mind blogging. Once water reaches houses, residents of Bangalore have to pump this water again to their overhead tanks from the sumps. Only a Bangalorian will understand the importance of Cauvery water. There are places in Bangalore where Kaveri water is supplied only once in a week and some newly come up areas don’t even get water. The ground bore well water which we get in Bangalore is not feasible for drinking and cooking .
With an average of 900 to 1000 mm of rainfall and fast depleting under ground water we are already facing a crisis mode. There are areas where groundwater is found at 1000 feet below. This water from that depth has lot of soluble salts which are harmful for health.
Even an average middle class resident of Bangalore buy canned water or spend thousands of rupees in advance filtration gadgets.
Now Civic bodies have made rainwater harvesting mandatory. It is not only recharges groundwater but also prevent unwanted flooding.
It is well understood that too much and too little water both are problems. Last year due to heavy rain and no proper drainage and an inefficient water harvesting system there was flash flood and many of effluent areas of Bangalore was underwater. Losses was worth thousands of crores of rupees .
So water management should be given highest degree of importance as children we must understand the importance of clean drinking water. A lot has to be done and understood as now we are moving away from plastics. Most water for domestic use are stored in plastic tanks, cans and bottles.