IT is intriguing to those familiar
with the history of water
resources in Indore that the city is
now being forced to bring in
from outside. The wells
water
and the tanks had been more
than adequate once to meet
Indore's water needs, Whenever
the demand went up, the rulers
built a new tank. This was the
case even afterthe Indore municipality took overwatersupply
in the '20s. The Indore State Gazetteer recorded in 193 1: "As
during years of insufficient rainfall, (the government)
designed a combined scheme ofwater supply and drainage for
the city and Residency areas ... it is proposed to construct a
huge reservoir by throwing a masonry dam across the
Gambhir river at Badrakha (about 20 krn from Indore) and
pump up water."
That was the most extravagant measure until then to bring
water to the city elite. But the bulk of about 100,000 residents
continued to draw water from the wells and tanks in and
around Indore, which could supply as much as 15 million gallons per day (MGD) in a good year. The oldest of the city tanks,
Pipalya Pala, regularly yielded an average of about 2.5 MGD
water since its takeover by the municipality in 1893. But, within the next hundred years, most tanks had dried up. Even the
biggest and the most recent, the Yashwant Sagar, with a capacity of about goo million cubic feet (mcfT), had more or less
dried up. However, none of those who joined the public
uproar in the wake of the water crisis spoke of the lakes.
instead, they were unanimous that fndore should get more
water from the Narmada. Logic?
Most people see tanks as "sources too
small", says R K Agarwal, chief engineer of
the public health engineering department
(PRED), Indore. "People have stopped worrying about their maintenance because they do not fit into the popular aspirations of round-dw-ciociti
supply," he says.
Bhopal, lacking a big river in the vicinity or Am
groundwater, has from the very beginning depen" a
lakes. The biggest of them, the upper lake, with a
area of 30.7 sq km, is over 700 years old and still canink
about 25 MGD out of the 55 MGD that Bhopal n-k EM
smaller lakes have just been reduced to sewage ponds.
Till 1989, the upper lake was the only source of woo
the city. However, with the population expected to ca
million by the turn of the century and the water I
assessed to be in the region of 200 MGD, fresh options
considered. The lakes clearly cannot keep pace
demand and hence, the government has to bring surfimi
from outside, says N K Dighe, chief engineer of the
Bhopal. A committee set up by the government to identify new
sources of drinking water for Bhopal recently reported that
water from the Narmada - from 100 km away - alone would
be able tomeet requirements. The cost: over Rs 200 crore.
However factors like high cost and uncertainty over the
on a a boon for Bhopal's lakes. The government
id a manive scheme, called the Bhoj Wetland
am the Bow of solid and liquid waste into the
hA dwrtL The project, costing Rs 249 crore, is
a wagmenting the water potential of the upper
t 33 per tent. The main components of the project
stan catwive underground sewage network to
lWs waste water and divert it to a 50 MGD treatment
ment plant on the outskirts of the city. The other plans include
desilting and dredging of the upper lake and developing 2,000
ha of plantations around it.
Officials of the municipal corporation and the PHED doubt
whether, after all this expenditure, the environmental degradation of Bhopal's lakes can be reversed. Dense settlements
have sprung up on the periphery of the upper and the lower
lake while the other smaller lakes seem to be overwhelmed by
habitation. While there have been some attempts to remove
the unauthorised dwellers, it is impossible to remove most of
the settlements around the lower lake and other smaller lakes.
Officials also feel that it is not realistic to imagine laying
sewers through a city as old as this. And given Bhopal's population growth rate - one of the highest in the country - it
would be difficult to ensure that shanty towns did not spring
up either around the lakes or in its catchment areas.
The farmers around the tank and city residents have
shown no greater wisdom either. The banks of the Sirpur tank
in the city had been eroded so much due to removal of soil by
people for construction that during the monsoons it was on
the brink of breaching and the officials had to hastily put 200
sandbags to abort flooding, The common people in the area
have their own arguments. Says Vishnu, a resident of
Piplayarao, "We don't use these tanks for water
any longer, and where can we go if we need soil?"
The grossest example of avarice was the
beginning of a breach in a 5.78 hectares (ha)
tank near Talawali Chanda, as its banks had been
cut into heavily by a rich farmhouse owner last
July to make way for a car park.
While mindless measures like breaching
and levelling of the tanks may still be
preventable, it is pollution which has really
sounded the death knell of many an urban lake
all over the country.
In Bhopal, for instance, where there are no
sewers in most parts of the city, the lakes are the
only repository of wastewater, while the nullahs act as drains.
According to an estimate made by the Environment and
Pollution Control Organisation (EPCO), the lakes of Bhopal
receive about 42 mGD of untreated sewage, as the city's sewage
treatment facility can only handle 3 MGD waste water. EPCO
estimates also show that while the upper lake receives about 42
tonn es of garbage everyday, the lower lake, with an area of j ust
over 100 ha, receives a daily burden of over 78 tormes of solid
waste. The condition of the other smaller tanks inside the city
is, if anything, worse.
Problems caused by agriculture seem to be far more acute
in the cue of Indore's tanks, especially the Yashwant Sagar. In
fact, there was a scare in Indore in August 1985, that intensive
vegetable and seasonal fruit cultivation in and around the lake
bed had caused pesticides polluting the water. While subsequent investigations reported that the chemical levels were still
iow, it definitely indicates the problem.
unlike in the cases of Bangalore, Hyderabad, Madras
or Calcutta, what is sad about the urban wetlands in
central India is the absence of a vociferous 'save tanks'
movement. And most people seem convinced that their utility
are a matter of history.
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