Bengaluru, February 04, 2015: Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today organised the Annual Water Conference with the theme ‘Smart Water Management for Cities’. The conference emphasized the role of smart and sustainable solutions for water conservation and sharing the best practices and ideas for ‘Smart Water Management’ that can be adopted for multiplication of benefits across the urban freshwater and waste water ecosystem. The focus of the Conference was on three primary themes, Smart Planning for Urban Water Management, Smart Operations – Designing and executing optimum water use strategies and Smart Communities – Collaborative initiatives for water security.
According to Ms. Ratna Prabha, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary to Government of Karnataka, Dept. of Commerce & Industries, we tend to take water for granted it is only when there is shortage of water we realize its importance. It is only now that the thought process has changed and planning for water is gaining in importance. When you come to a city like Bangalore where population has increased many fold in the last 10 -15 years, now the time has come when women need to get up at 4 a.m. to fill water, sometimes water comes only on alternate days, now the need for water is felt by everybody. There is pressing need to start water conservation practices, reduce wastage and implement measures to judicially use water. She welcomed CII’s initiative on water conservation and termed it a necessary initiative to bring all state holders together for water conservation.
Water is the most undervalued and exploited natural resource because of subsidies and abundant availability from free sources, such as bore wells and lakes. In Bengaluru, water is reportedly drawn from more than 300,000 bore wells, in addition to the public water supply. While the size and scale of the water distribution system is significant, it is insufficient to meet the needs of the current and future population.
Mr. Anjum Parwez, IAS, Chairman, BWSSB, said that we are very lucky today that we are able to get water in Bangalore once in two days, the future of Bangalore could be much worse. The city has grown enormously and today the total demand for water is at a whopping 1600 million liters per day. Most cities are on the banks of rivers however for Bangalore this is not the case, the water currently for the city comes from 150 km away by three stage pumping of 1500 feet. Half of the operational and maintenance cost of BWSSB for bringing water to Bangalore goes towards electricity charges for pumping. Within the next 20 to 25 years the demand for water in Bangalore will double. The Rain will not increase and Cauvery will not give more water, we need to find alternative sources. The thought process need to focus on how a drop of water can be used multiple times. In Bangalore we get 900 mm of rainfall annually which is roughly 26 TMC of water which is more than enough to take care of the drinking water for the city for the next 30 years. The issue is how we are going to tap this water resource. 80% of water consumed goes as waste water and we reuse only a tiny portion of this. If we can reuse just 50% of waste water (about 500 MLD) we will not need to squabble for water.
The website of Karnataka State Water Network was launched by Mr Gaurav Gupta, IAS, Commissioner for Industrial Development and Director of Industries and Commerce Department, Government of Karnataka during the conference.
While delivering his address Mr Gaurav Gupta, said that the state government has taken various measures to ensure that water supply or the lack of it will not be detrimental to Industrial Growth in the State. KIADB has taken steps for establishment of tertiary treatment plants and supply treated water to industrial areas for industrial use. The government has come out with a technical support scheme to support technology up gradation and provide incentives to industry for reducing the water consumption, power consumption etc.
Department of Commerce and Industries will conduct a benchmarking study in major KIADB industrial areas in the State keeping in view the international industry standards and best practices to map the water consumption pattern, energy consumption pattern, solid waste management and discharge practices of various companies.
Mr. Sandeep K Maini, Chairman CII Karnataka, said that the Planning Commission projects that the household consumption of water in the country will rise to 92 TMC/a (2.6 billion m3/a) by 2025. Industrial water consumption may rise to 125 TNS/a (3.5 billion m3/a) by 2025. Industrial groundwater drawings are estimated to account for 3.6% of the total ground water utilization. The World Bank’s estimate that 70% of the population of developing countries will live in cities by 2050. Given these statistics the need for smart water management has never been more urgent. To effectively tackle the issue of water scarcity we will require all vested parties i.e. government, industry and society on one platform to engage on a continuous basis.
Mr. Hariprasad Hegde, Convenor, CII Water Task Force, said that the demand supply gap, which was estimated to be 750 MLD in Bangalore City for 2013, is expected to reach 1300 MLD by 2020. While existing fresh water sources are stressed, new sources are not being explored effectively. Water distribution systems are aging and leakages are common. Natural water reservoirs are of questionable quality due to contamination from untreated sewage flows from neighbouring areas.
CII’s water taskforce has worked relentlessly in putting together the Karnataka State Water Network with a single mission of addressing the water problems that we are facing today. The existing structural and political restraints continue to impede speed of action on ground. Much good work is happening in various pockets of the state and the need of the hour is to bring all entities, big and small, together to tackle the problem.
Photo Caption: Mr Hariprasad Hegde, Conference Chair & Convenor, CII Water Task Force; Mr Anurag Behar, CEO, Azim Premji Foundation & Chief Sustainability Officer, Wipro Limited; Ms Ratna Prabha, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary to Government of Karnataka, Dept. of Commerce & Industries; Mr Sandeep Maini, Chairman, CII Karnataka State Council; Mr Shekar Viswanathan, Vice Chairman and Whole-time Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd; Mr. G K Moinudeen, Director, CII Karnataka during the inaugural session of CII’s Annual Water Conference 2015.
FOR : CITY HILIGHTS.
