"Water War" - Green Glen Layout and Sobha Apartment complexes, Belandur, Bangalore.

To all my friendly neighbors of Green Glen Layout and Sobha Apartment complexes -

The world's next wars could be about water. I recall reading in one of the articles from Deccan Herald. It has almost become true in case of our smaller and widely known Green Glen Layout and the Sobha Apartments(Hibiscus, Jasmine, Aquamarine, Quartz) at Belandur, Bangalore.Yes a PROXY WAR has already started with every new developer building an apartment complex in Green Glen Layout and surrounding areas digging bore well over 100 feet more than the neighbors bore well to ensure he has sufficient water for his housing complex which is resulting in shortage of water for the existing apartment complexes. Well, to be precise every bore well is dug in our area is beyond 700 feet and off late we have seen the machines digging well beyond 1000 feet which has become a norm. The water table has gone down drastically. The general conception of digging deeper well means getting more water BUT THAT IS NOT TRUE. The developers should look at alternate means like Rain Water Harvesting/Ground water Recharging. I heard from my family that our bore well has gone dry already and we are getting water from the water suppliers since 3 days this is a real concern not just for me but for many of us. We had sufficient water untill last week. I got to know the reason the neighboring site developer dug a borewell which was deeper than ours and I am sure he has hit the same source of water that we were utilizing. I don't blame him for what he did.I really dont want to see my wife calling me at office and saying there is no water at home. This is really ALARMING. Remember A spark neglected burns the house and we are already seeing the smoke and its high time we do something to douse this off. I am sure all of us do understand this but still we have not taken any action on it yet. The summer is already here well in advance which we can see with increase in temperature and surprisingly summer fruits (Jackfruit, Mango, and Water Melon) already hitting the shelves well ahead of time I am not here to quote GLOBAL WARMING, WATER HARVESTING, GREEN REVOLUTION reports/research etc I know much has been talked about and less has been done to which we are indirect contributors. I am writing this petition for couple of things which I feel we should immediately action on within our Layout and neighborhood -

1.Request all Apartment Residents Association to look at - implementing Rain Water Harvesting aggressively. While I understand some have done it but most of them have not taken any actions yet. We can request and bring awareness to adjacent neighborhoods about the same as well. Remember the water you are harvesting need not necessarily charge your ground water alone someone else might benefit as well so we need others to help you recharge yours as well.
2.Request water suppliers to stop mining water for commercial purposes within layout rather look at getting water from other sources where water is abundant. I know it means increase in cost for them they can pass this on to the consumers obviously. Not all suppliers are mining the water out within layout but for couple.
3.Move our petition to BBMP and Local MLA and see when we can get the BWSSB water supply (Cauvery) to our locality remember we all have paid the necessary BWSSB fees combined fees actually runs into several crores of rupees.
4.Invoke a thought process and get valuable comments on what other things we can do to ensure we become self-sufficient and a role model to other developing communities like ours.
5.While I understand all of us are literate enough to understand the need to save water but I still feel there is a need to create more awareness amongst the community.So let's start this signature campaign to show our support to this cause and think of other means to spread the awareness.

Remember every day approximately 120 truck loads (6000 litres) of water enter into Green Glen and Sobha Apartment complexes at Rs. 270/load totaling around Rs. 32,400/day and a whopping 10 Lakh rupees a month - which I am sure is quite a high price we are paying for our very own mistakes. Lets do something before the next summer cooks us up and lets raise the toast for what we will do this summer. Water Harvesting ---- Way to Go.

I had a discussion this morning with our Layout Association President Venkat he had couple of points to make one is that we need to look at Rain Water harvesting yes we have discussed this above. And the second is that many of us are ready to have a dialogue with the water suppliers mining water within the Layout for commercial purpose we are not talking about any fights with them we are talking about how we can settle this with them amicably through "Gandhigiri" and ensure GREEN stays in our neighborhood and we are not left DRY. Let's try and get in touch with local Government office bearers and get a perspective of what can be done to our problem. Kindly sign this petition and provide us your valuable support. Help us to help you.