"No Water To Drink, Wash Hands": Bengaluru Crisis May Force School Closure

Some Bengaluru schools may be forced to shut down temporarily due to the growing water shortage in the city. These schools say the lack of water means they are unable to give children any protection from the sweltering heat; temperatures in the Karnataka capital have already crossed 30 degrees Celsius, with Thursday's high at 33 and the mercury expected to touch 37 by next weekend.

The city faces a severe shortfall - of over 1,500 MLD, or million litres per day - in its daily water requirement, which ranges from 2,600 to 2,800 MLD. According to the state government, more than 3,000 bore wells in the city have dried up and 223 of the state's 236 talukas are drought-affected.

Muruga, a Class 7 student of a state-run school in the city's Hosakerehalli area, told NDTV there is no water to drink. "There is a problem of water shortage. We are not getting water to drink and we don't have water to even wash our hands after eating. There are no tankers available too..." he said.

The crisis is so acute that even schools or residents willing to pay for water tankers are unable to secure supplies. And worried locals are already initiating measures to conserve or recycle water.

Against this backdrop, ensuring water for schools remains a challenge.

"There is no facility for filtered water at the school. Children come to my shop for water and we give them. If you are building a school, then you need to make arrangements for water. There is no water in this school... even in monsoons," Dilip, who runs a small tuck shop near Muruga's school, said.

Experts have pointed to the destruction of lakes in Bengaluru - it was once called a 'city of lakes' as it had 285 small and large water bodies catering to basic needs, such as maintaining and recharging ground water, a habitat for aquatic ecosystems, and sustaining food and agricultural activities.

"Water scarcity is not sparing anybody... be it school children or IT professionals. We only have ourselves to blame. This whole exercise of destroying lakes could have been stopped... had the government been a lot more responsible," Joseph Hoover, a conservationist, told NDTV.

Karnataka Water Crisis

In an effort to at least reduce the severity of the crisis, the state has taken over private water tankers - over 200 have been deployed already, on a contract basis - to standardise rates.

The cost of water tankers had doubled to over Rs 2,000 in the past few days, prompting complaints by residents that private suppliers were extorting money in the face of adversity.

"We pay three times the price for one load of water. When we pay Rs 2,000... they arrive soon. When we negotiate to Rs 1,500... we need to wait 3-4 days," a Bengaluru resident told NDTV.

For now, though, it costs Rs 600 for a 6,000-litre tanker to deliver its precious cargo within a five kilometre radius, while that rate is doubled for a 12,000-litre tanker.

For deliveries beyond five km (but within 10 km), the rates are Rs 750 and Rs 1200, respectively.

But even when deliveries are made, in some areas, like RR Nagar, there are rules imposed by residents associations that say each person can only fill one can of water at a time.

It isn't just Bengaluru that is suffering, or is expected to suffer. Anticipating a severe summer this year, the state expects over 7,000 villages to face a drinking water crisis in the next months.

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Tumakuru district tops the list with 746 vulnerable villages and Uttara Kannada has the highest number of vulnerable wards. Bengaluru Urban district is not exempt, with 174 villages and 120 wards identified as susceptible to the impending water shortage.

READ | As Bengaluru Suffers Water Crisis, A Raging Political Blame Game

Meanwhile, as Bengaluru's people struggle for water, their political leaders are involved in an all-too-predictable blame game. The opposition BJP has accused the ruling Congress of having failed to manage this crisis, and have threatened protests if the problem is not solved.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has said the state is "looking into this very, very, very seriously" and intends to take control of private tankers, bore wells and irrigation wells.

READ | "Borewell At My Home Also Dry": DK Shivakumar On Water Crisis

He also pointed out that even the bore well at his own home had run dry.

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