Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru — high on the list of India’s water-stressed districts.
This is a cause of concern for the Union government’s Jal Shakti Abhiyaan (JSA) initiative.
The initiative addresses the water and irrigation needs of 255 water-stressed districts across the country.
Bengaluru received an abysmal 200th rank in terms of water conservation work done under JSA, with a score of a mere 11 percentage.
Laws were placed since 2008 that mandate construction of rainwater harvesting structures in all public spaces and residence buildings.
Still the city has been under considerable stress over depleting water sources and immense pollution in its several lakes.
Also, Karnataka’s 2017 wastewater policy also advocates for interventions similar to those described under JSA and allocates a 20 per cent reuse target.
None of these was reflected in the Bengaluru district’s scorecard that gave it a zero on all fields except for uploading details of five conservation sites.