Thiruvananthapuram water plans lack future

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Cape Town in South Africa is expected to run out of water in four months while various cities in the world have already planned rationalisation in consumption and projects for the years when their water runs out. However, even though water bodies are in trouble, Thiruvananthapu-ram and the state, in general, had not audited or rationalised their consumption, experts said.  The Kerala Water Authority utilises surface water bodies which have become more water-deficient in the past four-five years.

“The number of rainy days in the State has decreased and the intensity of rains has gone up. Due to the sloping terrain, all this water quickly gets drained. We should go for a multi-pronged approach that uses rainwater harvesting, groundwater and surface resources to meet our requirements,” said Subhash Chandra Bose, former Director of the Water Resources Department.

As per Kerala Water Authority (KWA) claims, around 30 percent of the people will be brought under its ambit. Ironically, many recently commissioned projects such as the ones at Vamanapuram couldn’t take off as rivers dried up. “The claim that Peppara dam will cater to city’s needs until 2020 is based on the assumption that we will get rains. Also, there is no estimate of what could happen beyond 2030. We need to plan it now rather than searching for quick fixes like bringing water from Neyyar,” said an activist.

The per capita consumption of purified water will have to be capped and grey water should be used for non-drinking purposes, experts say. As per estimates, each citizen in the water scarce city of Bengaluru consumes around 90 Litres Per Day (LPD) water. In Thiruvananth-apuram city, though KWA projects a consumption of 120 LPD, it goes up to 500 LPD. “Proliferation of rooftop farming in the city, massive use of purified water for washing cars etc are taking away the water. Apart from this is the wastage due to leaks in the system,” added another expert.