For years, water experts have been warning about the precarious water situation in Bangalore, capital city of India’s southern Karnataka state. A report from the Indian Institute of Science in 2016 warned that Bangalore could become unliveable by 2020. Between 1973 and 2016, the built-up area in the city increased from 8 per cent to 77 per cent, and over 372 hectares of water bodies disappeared.
Rapid unplanned urbanisation fuelled by the near doubling of population from 2001 to 2011 has made Bangalore especially vulnerable to water risks.
For a city routinely referred to as the Silicon Valley of the East, sewage-filled lakes and frequent urban floods may come as a surprise. However, with a sewerage coverage rate at 66.3 per cent, a drainage coverage rate under 40 per cent, and less than 63 per cent of the sewage being treated in sewage treatment plants, one can guess where all this sewage ends up.
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