Currently, over 14 million residents in Bengaluru are facing a severe water crisis as groundwater levels have sharply depleted due to low rainfall. Businessmen including restaurant and hotel owners are very troubled and have been finding it extremely difficult to tackle the issue. Water Bills have doubled, leaving them struggling and financially strained.
The National Restaurants of India Bengaluru has expressed concerns regarding the upcoming summer season when the demand for water will increase even further.
“In the last 30-40 years we had not seen such drought; though there was drought earlier we had never declared such a large number of taluks as drought-affected”
-DK Shivakumar (Karnataka Deputy CM)
Bangalore Restaurant Owners Innovate Amid Water Crisis
The water crisis is especially impacting the restaurants and businesses along Sarjapur road that do not have a BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewage Board) connection.
Many restaurant owners in Bangalore are now considering using disposable utensils so that they do not have to use water for washing them. Others are putting up signs in washrooms to rely on the conscience of their customers so that they save water.
A few are also training their employees for performing their daily duties using less water.
Many restaurant and business owners have now shifted to rainwater harvesting and Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) due to the worsening water crisis in Bengaluru. Certain businesses have also installed diffusers to water taps effectively reducing water flow by 30%.
The Bengaluru Water Crisis has not just affected restaurant and hotel owners but also schools, large apartments, gated communities, and fire brigades.
Government’s Strict Response
The Karnataka Government and city administration has taken several steps to mitigate the issue. They have taken control over all the tanks, initiated a large scale crackdown on all unregistered water tankers, banned the use of drinking water for gardening, washing cars, etc., approved the use of unused milk tankers for water supply, and allocated a total of Rs 556 crore to the cause.
The Bengaluru water crisis has also seeped in the political tussle between the Congress party of Karnataka and BJP. DK Shivakumar has accused the BJP of making it a political issue right before the Lok Sabha elections.
