Current water shortage
1. Rise in demand and changes in landscape: The population and urban landscape in Karnataka has grown over the years and is today fast facing different problems due to climate change and depletion of resources.
2. Problems faced today: The state of Karnataka faces a water shortage due to deficit in rainfall and the rising demand of its consumers. There has been due mention of this in different articles newspapers like the Times of India, Bangalore Mirror. .
3. Nature of problems: a. Deficit in overall water supply b. Deficit of water in reservoirs and hydel power dams c. Deficit of water for agriculturists d. Extreme concerns for regions that solely rely on rainfall and government aided water supply e. Lack of enough drinking water f. Drying up and wasting away of tank beds, lake beds and deterioration of canals
4. Remedial steps that can be taken by large: a. Rejuvenation of rivers, river front development, lakes, canals and exploring options of inter-linking lakes, tanks, and canals on a priority basis. b. Government aided renewable water utilization (seed funding and investment to achieve reuse of waste-water (primarily) to a large extent and suitable reuse of grey-water or black-water (in the second stage)). c. SMART Water Management (deployment of SMART meters to intelligently meter and help provision water supply to categories of consumers). d. Panels to develop a strategic solution for conservation of dam structures with on-site surveillance to incorporate sensitization, awareness and preparedness to respond to climate change, and man-made or natural threats etc. e. Integrating dams into a National Asset Grid (framework), where SMART technologies and grid technology insights are used to connect to, monitor, manage and ensure reliability and fault tolerance at these sites. f. Deployment of Water ATMs in cities in a staged manner. Linking of these sites via GIS services. g. Construction and deployment of Water Bhandars (either at the ground level or via exclusive towers that work on the principle of gravity) in choicest locations of cities or regions reporting shortage or showing vulnerability.
Added to this work there may be a need to include the locations of Water Bhandars, so the same can be accessed via GIS services. The old notion of constructing large-scale high rise water tanks may need revisiting keeping in mind that we may need “new” at-specific-location arrangements and amenities.
The important point is that R&D in the industry has evolved. We could use this progress to deploy SMART technologies enabled Water Bhandars. At the same time, we will also need to keep in mind that these sites will be vulnerable to threats and attacks, so there must be sufficient steps for disaster mitigation and management.
h. Design and development of SMART City grids for development & setting up of, and maintaining of water transport routes and facilities, so there are interconnections to all locations of the city or region, where focus is given on a priority basis to vulnerable regions. There have been issues of people from certain regions facing the brunt of lack of planning, and missing responsiveness. The government will also need to keep in mind that with the onset of water shortage problems, people should not become victims or should not be exploited by private parties that may want to earn more g. Design and development of SMART Consumer solutions that help in the surveillance of bore well installations, swimming pool installations, storm water drains and rainwater harvesting systems all over the city. Endeavors to recharge ground water table must become a well-developed vision and programme.
5. Further steps: The expert panel could include staff from the following departments: a. The Municipal corporation b. Water Supply and Sewage Services Board c. Meteorology department d. Private organizations (working on solutions for water management and conservation etc)
6. Remedial NEXT Steps: Proactive thinking and planning to design and develop a “macro level and micro level focus” in the solutions for water management and conservation. Utilizing of SMART technologies in this effort will make the way to a safer and sustainable tomorrow.