Bangalore (officially called Bangaluru) has become the enduring symbol of the economic transformation that makes India the envy of much of the developing and developed worlds. Its population and economy accelerated as just about every global information technology has set up operations in this city of 8.4 million people.
Bangalore (officially called Bangaluru) has become the enduring symbol of the economic transformation that makes India the envy of much of the developing and developed worlds. Its population and economy accelerated as just about every global information technology has set up operations in this city of 8.4 million people.
But the influx of people and investment came with a price: an uncertain water supply. Perched on a plateau 3,000 feet above sea level, the city has a complicated system of storage lakes and infrastructure necessary to haul water from a river located over 50 miles away. But those systems have not been able to keep pace with Bangalore’s dizzying growth.
“Neglect, not surprisingly, gave rise to scarcity,” wrote Samanth Subramanian in his profile of the city’s water crisis on Wired.
The result is, at best, a Wild West of water delivery systems that are run by syndicates that adopt tactics typical of any big-city mafia, which Subramanian vividly described in his report. At worst, Bangalore’s failure to grasp the impact that overheated development would have on its water security forecasts a future that some say could become apocalyptic.
Read more at Triple Pundit
Photo credit: Eirik Refsdal via Wikimedia Commons
