CAG warned Bangalore on verge of collapse. Nobody listened

“I’ve never seen anything like this in Bangalore in all my years here.”“This is all because so many outsiders have come into the city making it unlivable.”“It’s all because of bad governments.”These are just a few of the statements repeated interminably on social media and in real life when the conversation turns to the catastrophic floods in Bengaluru. To hear these people – and there are thousands of them – you’d think that these floods were unforeseen and unexpected. And sure, nobody has any control over the rains. To that extent, unexpected is right. But urban infrastructure is not something that should give way in the first bout of heavy rains. That could not have been unexpected. And indeed it wasn’t. medium94070252Back in 2021, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India had released a report called “Performance Audit of Management of Storm Water in Bengaluru Urban Area”. Sounds like a typical boring sarkari report. What it is, however, is an indictment of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and an eye-opener on the state of water-related infrastructure in the city. medium94056877Why was the audit done?The CAG report answers this best. Here’s what it says: “The city of Bengaluru is a victim of a paradoxical situation — urban flooding on one hand and depletion of groundwater table levels, on the other. There is an urgent need for urban managers to address this issue from the water security/environment and urban planning perspectives.""Rapid increase in the frequency of flooding in the city over the last few years, leading to the destruction of roads, traffic congestion lasting several hours and extensive damage to public property and health has highlighted the need for a thorough examination into the design, agility/adaptability of the infrastructure for the management of storm water and other relevant issues; hence this performance audit (PA).” medium94057039What did the report say about storm water drains?This was the primary reason to conduct the audit, so let’s look at this first. Storm water drains (SWDs) are important because this is how waterlogging can be reduced if not prevented. A good network of SWDs can keep a city safe from devastating floods when the weather acts up. Bengaluru, per the CAG report, did not have a great storm water drain infrastructure. “Sewerage lines were drawn inside the SWDs and [a] large quantity of sewage was illegally let into SWDs. Joint inspection of drains confirmed the existence of sewerage lines within SWDs and sewage being discharged into the SWDs directly or through fractured manholes at many places.”Why does this matter? Because it could lead to the rise of waterborne infections. “Since the water in SWDs is not treated in the same manner as sewage, the untreated sewage is flowing into water bodies and affecting the quality of groundwater adversely. This carries substantial risk of spurt in vector/water-borne diseases such as dengue, typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, etc., and adverse environmental outcomes including disappearance of biodiversity and aquatic ecosystems.”Watch: How heavys rains flooded Bengaluru's poshest addresses medium nocaption94019394Whose fault is this?The report makes no bones about BBMP’s culpability. “Severe blockages of surface drains/ SWDs indicated absence of periodical inspections as well as its regular maintenance of drains. BBMP failed to adopt quality monitoring measures and install sewage treatment plants, despite court directives leading to continuous contamination of water bodies. BBMP did not take up any information, education and communication activities/awareness camps for educating people regarding importance of SWDs and their proper upkeep and did not enforce penal provisions for violation/dumping of debris in SWDs. Consequently, BBMP failed to protect and maintain the drain infrastructure resulting in continuous misuse of the drains.” medium94056863It’s not just about drainsWhile the CAG report was mainly about the storm water drains audit, it also looked at the wider issue of water bodies in Bengaluru and how they have been used or destroyed. This is one of the main reasons given for the present flooding. Much of the area that is under water today is reclaimed land that was once under water. Here’s what the report says: “The PA revealed that Bengaluru witnessed large-scale encroachment of lakes/drains and depletion of natural drainage systems. The changes in land use such as decrease in vegetation cover and open spaces and increase in built up area resulted in loss of inter-connectivity between water bodies impacting effective recharge of groundwater and increase in runoff of storm water. medium94056166A study by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) states that the city (covering an area of 741sq km) had 1,452 water bodies with a total storage capacity of 35TMC [thousand million cubic feet} during [the] early 1800s. By 2016, the number of water bodies in the same area reduced to 194 with a storage capacity of 5TMC.The current storage capacity which has further declined due to siltation is merely 1.2TMC (2016). Out of 210 lakes under the jurisdiction of BBMP as at the end of December 2020, 18 lakes with a total area of 254 acres and 17 guntas [1 gunta = 121sq yd] were identified as disused lakes; making them vulnerable to encroachments and future conversions.” medium94056276Conversion of lakesBengaluru city was once known as ‘city of lakes’; a 2016 IISc report said the city had around 1,452 water bodies during the early 1800s. These were gradually reduced due to conversions/ encroachments.The CAG study revealed that about 41 water bodies in Koramangala and 51 water bodies in Vrishabhavathi valley (according to a cadastral map prepared through field survey during the early 1900s) were reduced to eight and 13 by 2008 indicating the severity of lake conversion.Equally important, the CAG states that BBMP failed to ensure the linkage of drains with water bodies which resulted in drying up of a number of lakes in Bengaluru city and in turn facilitated the conversion of lakes for other purposes, particularly construction.Untitled Carousel 94044791