Guest Column: Solutions are simple but Bengaluru does it all wrong'

Resigning ourselves to our fate while cribbing and cursing the government has become the norm of the day. It’s the same response when our roads and homes are flooded every year in rain. All through the year no one cares about the drains until they start overflowing into  houses and roads, disrupting normal life. Scientists, urban planners, activists and well meaning citizen groups have innumerable times explained the importance of drains or rajakaluves,  but this has fallen on deaf ears in the governing bodies. The drains’ floors are cemented, increasing the run -off ,  more than the percolation. When the city has access to so much rain water, it still has to beg for water and remain at the mercy of other districts for it's water security. Simple solutions  like rainwater harvesting to push the water into the shallow aquifer region and use it when needed through open wells are seen as too simple.  The “Million Recharge Wells” campaign is intended to reduce flooding and  increase the water security of the city. It calls on people to demonstrate as much responsibility as the governing bodies and make a contribution to the future and present generations.

The lakes of Bengaluru too are important assets that not only work as flood mitigation structures, but also as recharging agents of the groundwater. So it is the duty of the citizens to protect them for their own sake and for the well-being of future generations. So my advice is : Contribute a recharge well to yourself and the city, and save the lake near you.