Audit flags ₹3,000 monthly drinking water burden on poor families in Bengaluru

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Residents collect water from a tanker in Bengaluru. BWSSB has no power to regulate the prices charged by private water tanker operators. | Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN

With a drinking water crisis looming over Bengaluru in the coming summer months following a 43% deficit in the south-west monsoon, the Water Satyagraha campaign has flagged the mounting financial burden on economically weaker families, who increasingly depend on private water tankers to meet their daily needs.

The preliminary water audit findings of the household survey conducted by the campaign revealed that economically weaker sections, particularly residents of slums, were spending a disproportionately large share of their income on drinking water purchased from private tankers.

The campaign, whose volunteers have been conducting household surveys across different localities, has predicted a shortfall of more than 600 million litres a day (MLD) in the city’s water supply.

“Poor families spend around ₹3,000 a month on drinking water, which is higher than the ₹2,000 monthly assistance provided to women under the Gruha Lakshmi scheme of the government of Karnataka,” said Syed Ahmed Hussain, convenor of the campaign and KPCC vice-president.

Mr. Hussain pointed out that the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) had no power to regulate the prices charged by private water tanker operators.

Bengaluru currently receives around 1,470 MLD of Cauvery water against an estimated daily demand of more than 2,100 MLD, according to the findings. The city generates around 2,120 MLD of sewage daily, of which 1,348 MLD is treated, leaving 772 MLD untreated, Mr. Hussain said.

The household survey also found that some middle-class families were spending as much as ₹54,000 annually on drinking water alone.

Sharing the preliminary findings with journalists, Mr. Hussain, who hails from Kanakapura, said, "Bengaluru contributes about 40% to Karnataka’s economy, yet many of its families have to wait for days for water to flow from their taps. The city extracts groundwater at nearly twice the rate at which it is replenished, loses about 400 million litres of piped water every day, and leaves residents of its peripheral areas dependent on private tankers that they can barely afford.”

Across Karnataka, 226 of the State’s 240 taluks have been declared drought-hit this year, while contaminated drinking water has claimed lives in Raichur, Chitradurga, and Mysuru districts, he said.

Pointing to the 772 MLD of untreated sewage generated daily, Mr. Hussain said every taluk in Bengaluru Urban district had been categorised as over-exploited in terms of groundwater extraction. Nearly 27% of the city’s piped water was lost through leakage, theft and unbilled consumption, he added.

Referring to the legal framework governing access to safe drinking water, he cited the Supreme Court’s judgment in Subhash Kumar v. State of Bihar (1991), which held that the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right to pollution-free water and air. The United Nations has recognised access to safe drinking water and sanitation as a human right.

Expressing concern over deaths caused by contaminated drinking water in different parts of Karnataka, Mr. Hussain said drinking water and sewage pipelines often ran alongside each other, with leaking joints creating the risk of sewage contaminating drinking water supply. The BWSSB tested between 80 and 150 water samples a day but did not publish ward-wise data on contamination and pipeline leakage, he alleged.

The Water Satyagraha volunteers are expected to complete their survey of three lakh households across Bengaluru by March 2027, and submit a report to the government.

Mr. Hussain said the campaign was also significant in the context of the centenary of the Mahad Satyagraha led by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on March 20, 1927, when he led Dalits in asserting their right to draw drinking water from a public tank in Mahad, Maharashtra.

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