Bengaluru Loses 37 Per Cent Water Supply To Leakage; ‘Need Three Decades To Make It Five,’ Says BWSSB Chairman

Bengaluru’s infamous water leakage issue seems to have gotten worse as the Chairman, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has said that the citizenry would have to hold up for three more decades for the problem to be fixed.

Bangalore Mirror quoted the Chairman, Tushar Girinath, as saying, “Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and Singapore are giving their people well-planned administration. Water leakages in those cities are down to 4 – 5%, whereas Bengaluru has a leakage of 37.59%. We can bring it down to 5% only by 2050.”

He added that even cities like London were struggling to prevent the water leakage problem.

Currently, 1,350 million litre out of the total capacity of 1,400 million litre Cauvery water is being supplied to the city every day. 37.59 per cent of this, that is 507.46 million litre water is going waste due to leakage.

“We are working towards controlling leakage, and hope to bring it down by .25% by the end of 2030,” the chairman stated.

In order to pump the water to the city, the body spends about Rs 10 lakh a day. Not only the pipelines are old and rusty but the distance adds to the woes as the water has to be supplied to the city from centres far away at the outskirts. Additionally, 7,000 illegal connections add to the woes.