Bengaluru: Buoyed by the success of filling up 14 parched lakes with tertiary treated water from its sewage treatment plants (STPs) to tide over the summer water crisis of 2024, BWSSB says it will now fill up over 30 lakes across the city by drawing treated water from nearby apartment complexes.
The water authority’s plans come even as apartment complexes have been complaining that the ambitious plan announced last year to facilitate diversion of treated water to industries hasn’t made any headway.
The utility, however, said it would lay dedicated pipelines from these apartments to nearby lakes. BWSSB officials said they have already rolled out tenders in south zone for laying pipelines from Splendid Lake Breez apartments to fill up Begur Lake (at a cost of Rs 1 crore) and from Prestige Casabella and Elite Greenwoods apartments to fill up Chikkathogur Lake and Yelenahalli-BTM Residency Lake (at a cost of Rs 1.7 crore).
“We need to fill up as many lakes as possible as this will only benefit the city in the long term. The move will not only recharge groundwater but also restore the health of the waterbodies by creating a vibrant ecosystem. This summer, we’ve identified about 30 lakes in various zones of Bengaluru to fill up with treated water from our and apartment STPs. About 16 of these lakes are in Mahadevapura zone as it has reported severe exploitation of the groundwater table and is reeling under major scarcity of potable water,” explained Ram Prasath Manohar, BWSSB chairman.
According to him, most apartments are reusing up to 50% of their treated water for non-potable purposes while releasing the rest into stormwater drains as they have no storage space.
Daily quality checks
Manohar also said BWSSB engineers would keep tabs on the quality of treated water on a daily basis. “We’ll be filling up lakes with treated water from apartment complexes which are within a radius of 3-4 km. The greater the distance, the more the capital expenditure will be. Resident welfare associations needn’t do anything for this, BWSSB will lay the required pipelines from apartments to the lake to divert excess treated water,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF) said it would extend full support to the water authority on the matter. Vikram Rai, president of BAF, said, “We always favoured the reuse of treated water and even inked an MoU with BWSSB for the 2024 summer to put treated water into use. There is availability of 500-600 MLD of treated water every day from all the apartment communities. All that we require is a permanent infrastructure (pipeline) between apartment communities and nearby lakes which can facilitate this exchange throughout the year.”