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Twenty-one cities in India will run out of groundwater by 2020
11–20 of 74 posts
Re: Twenty-one cities in India will run out of groundwater by 2020
#12I always thought watersheds were a great way of defining state-level regions. They're more stable than boundaries set by rivers, and are more natural than arbitrary lines of latitude/longitude. In the (near) future, there's going to be a lot of hand wringing over who has what rights to which water. The only way to completely solve it is to have one region be in control of the entire course of the water's flow. https:…
Watersheds may be a little too large to work well as administrative regions.
Re: Twenty-one cities in India will run out of groundwater by 2020
#13They’ve already run out in some, and truck in water. Those with money are able to pay for fresh water.
Re: Twenty-one cities in India will run out of groundwater by 2020
#14Is there a way to limit the size of these big cities? What if they start requiring a domestic visa process to let in the people from other states? Everyone wants a life of high standards of living which cities provide along with employment. If we do not limit the number of people who can get in, it will naturally result in whole population of India moving into these cities. This will result in people making wherever…
> If we do not limit the number of people who can get in, it will naturally result in whole population of India moving into these cities.
The population of France does not all live in Paris, nor that of the USA in New York. Even in as small a country as Luxembourg not everyone lives in Luxembourg City.
Re: Twenty-one cities in India will run out of groundwater by 2020
#15There have been a flurry of alarmists posts like these but somehow I cant wrap my head around how will we run out of water. I stay in Bangalore and some people do have the problem of water - but for the most part it doesnt seem to be an issue of 'lack' of water perse but mostly distribution issues.
Bangalore has been having intermittent rains throughout the summers and even though few people use them now, but if situation gets dire almost everyone should be able to setup a rain water harvesting system and get by.
India is also installing solar at a rapid pace and the cost of electricity is going down. The next level solution could be just to use sea water that India is surrounded by, and use some of that solar power to filter this water.
Somehow I dont get all this alarmist news. Maybe im missing something.
Re: Twenty-one cities in India will run out of groundwater by 2020
#16There have been a flurry of alarmists posts like these but somehow I cant wrap my head around how will we run out of water. I stay in Bangalore and some people do have the problem of water - but for the most part it doesnt seem to be an issue of 'lack' of water perse but mostly distribution issues. Bangalore has been having intermittent rains throughout the summers and even though few people use them now, but if situ…
> Somehow I dont get all this alarmist news. Maybe im missing something.
Population growth + increased quality of life = more resource use
Re: Twenty-one cities in India will run out of groundwater by 2020
#17Is there a way to limit the size of these big cities? What if they start requiring a domestic visa process to let in the people from other states? Everyone wants a life of high standards of living which cities provide along with employment. If we do not limit the number of people who can get in, it will naturally result in whole population of India moving into these cities. This will result in people making wherever…
The way it's generally balanced out is exploding property prices and an unlivable mess of traffic and perhaps pollution.
However, people are willing to endure a lot if living standards are generally low.
Re: Twenty-one cities in India will run out of groundwater by 2020
#18There have been a flurry of alarmists posts like these but somehow I cant wrap my head around how will we run out of water. I stay in Bangalore and some people do have the problem of water - but for the most part it doesnt seem to be an issue of 'lack' of water perse but mostly distribution issues. Bangalore has been having intermittent rains throughout the summers and even though few people use them now, but if situ…
The twitter link posted by abhshkdz (https://twitter.com/jslaternyc/status/1144483586042548225) took me to this article:
>"Dear BBC, Bengaluru isn’t running out of water soon. Here’s why!" http://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/bangalore-water-scarcity-...
So, I am confused about whether we really have a problem or there is some other agenda. I know lot of people in Bengaluru don't get govt water supply (Cauvery water). Was speaking to a friend just yesterday who was complaining about the quality of the tanker water they get in their apartment, that some people are getting skin diseases because of it and that they use filtered water for washing their baby and their hair.
Desalination seems to be expensive:
>"Rs 1.36 crore a day for just 200 million litres of water; can Chennai really afford desalination plants?"
http://chennai.citizenmatters.in/chennai-cost-of-desalinatio...
The above article concludes that
>Our water problems are essentially due to mismanagement of water bodies, and Chennai is not a rain-starved city. “Chennai’s average annual rainfall of 139 cm is sufficient to recharge its aquifers. We don’t have perennial rivers, but we have abundant surface water resources. The city of London, with just 60 cm of annual average rainfall, relies on surface water resources. It is shameful that we have opted for the extravagant choice of desalination plants instead,” said Sai Praneeth, Director, Hydro-Meteorological Innovative and Explorative Solutions (HYMIES).
Also just came across this Twitter account. They seem to be posting a lot of info about India's water situation. https://twitter.com/zenrainman
Re: Twenty-one cities in India will run out of groundwater by 2020
#19India does not have a water issue, they have a population issue, but it’s really hard to mange the population, so natural resources are being consumed beyond sustainability. This problem is not confined to India, it’s a problem with humanity. Nature is working on a correction.
I beg to differ, India's population density is comparable to many Western European countries. They a problem of population distribution. Like many developing nations, populations cluster in large cities leading to pressures on resources.
Re: Twenty-one cities in India will run out of groundwater by 2020
#20There have been a flurry of alarmists posts like these but somehow I cant wrap my head around how will we run out of water. I stay in Bangalore and some people do have the problem of water - but for the most part it doesnt seem to be an issue of 'lack' of water perse but mostly distribution issues. Bangalore has been having intermittent rains throughout the summers and even though few people use them now, but if situ…
If you already have rainwater harvesting, good for you, but if you depend on borewells and tankers for water, then news like this is not alarmist and is worrisome. Borewells are already becoming dry throughout the city, and digging deeper results in more brackish water. Cementing every single part of land, and not building recharge wells only adds to the problem. (Tankers are reliable for now, but it's silly to put the control of a vital resource in the hands of a private entity that will always be attracted to the highest bidder. The poorer sections of society will be affected first and hardest)
As the population of Bengaluru increases, the demand for water will increase. It's not just a distribution issue, it's a civic planning and ecological issue. Encroachment of lakes[0] and the booming real estate market aren't helping the situation at all.
Also, desalination is not as easy as one thinks [1].
Better solutions to this problem are effective civic planning, ensuring that the groundwater table is recharged, (as you rightly mentioned) rainwater harvesting, and preserving the lakes Bengaluru has.
[0] http://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/bangalore-water-bodies-nd...
[1] https://www.hydrofinity.com/blog/why-desalination-is-not-the...