Brief Snapshot of nine lakes around Sarjapura road

The lakes in and around the Sarjapura road area need to be understood in greater detail to study their role in the ground water situation in the Sarjapur - Bellandur region. A quick tour of nine lakes revealed the following information.

v  Singasandra lake: Located at 12º52’56.71” N latitude, 77º38’40.84” E longitude, and an altitude of 842 m. BBMP has de-silted the lake with an aim to convert it into a park. The lake area is about 10acres, of which the water body occupies about 8acres. By de-silting, the idea is to make the lake fit for collection of rain water; discharge of wastes into the lake is also being stopped.

 

Illustration 1: Singasandra Lake

v  Kudlu lake: Located at 12º53’10.47” N latitude, 77º39’58.8” E longitude and 813 m altitude. The lakebed is at present dry. A small pond of water is found inside the kudlu village which is surrounded by naturally formed rocks. This is important as the water looks clean. This pond is located at 12º53’1.66” N latitude, 77º39’21” E and 842 m altitude.

 

Illustration 2: Kudlu Lake and nearby ‘Bandi’

v  Parappana Agrahara lake: Located at 12º52’46.8” N latitude, 77º39’36.48” E longitude and 831 m altitude. According to the residents of the area, the lake has been filled.

Illustration 3: Parapana Agrahara Lake

v  Kodige Singasandra lake: Located at 12º52’46.30” N latitude, 77º38’32.32” E longitude and 846 m altitude. According to a local, till a couple of years ago, the lake was used as a source for drinking water and fishermen were earning their livelihood by catching the fishes from the lake. But now, the apartments and garment industries around the lake discharge untreated sanitary wastes and the chemical wastes into the lake. The person also added that people have complained about the sorry state of the lake to the BBMP but the authority has failed to take suitable action against the polluters.

Illustration 4: Kodige Singasandra Lake

v  Begur lake: Located at 12º52’41.43” N latitude, 77º37’57.24” E longitude and an altitude of 818 m. The lake was filled with wastes. 

v  Chikka Begur lake: Located at 12º53’1.38” N latitude, 77º38’17.63” E longitude and 816 m altitude. A large number of plants can be seen in this lake.

Illustration 5: Begur and Chikka Begur Lakes

v  Doddakanneli lake: Located at 12º54’46.17” N latitude, 77º41’44.77” E longitude and 809 m altitude. The lake was de-silted, the sanitary waste, previously discharged into this, is now diverted to a separate gutter. The lake will be soon surrounded by roads, and will only depend on rainfall for its water.

Illustration 6: Doddakanneli Lake

v  Dommsandra lake: Located at 12º52’36.19” N latitude, 77º45’4.09” E longitude and 828 m altitude. Lake is filled with soil, it has a borewell nearby which is in working condition.

Illustration 7: Dommasandra Lake

v  Somasundra Palya lake: Located at 12º53’56.77” N latitude, 77º38’55.14” E longitude and 860 m altitude. The lake is filled with sewage. The lake area is about 16 acres and 29 guntas.

 Illustration 8: Somasundra Palya Lake

 

 

Open Well in Kodathi Village, Off Sarjapura Road

Beautiful old open well in Kodathi (Off Sarjapura Road) . Said to have last held water about 15 years ago. We were glad the well had not been filled up and closed. It could revive. Would be good if people

could get together and do ground water recharge in the area.

Groundwater does not have to be got from depths > 800ft (yes - even on Sarjapura Road). There seems to be ample evidence (in the form of old and abandoned open wells)  to support the fact that there was a shallow aquifer in this area at a depth of 20ft and below

An inspiring story on people going back to open wells in the Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/bidding-adieu-to-borewells-this-village-embraces-open-wells/article5752126.ece

Open Well adjacent to Bellandur Lake

Finally found what we had been looking for. An open well about 10ft in diameter, adjacent to Bellandur lake. The well had water at about 6ft below ground level. The water quality didnt look too good. But the water was certainly being pumped and used for irrigation. Could not find anybody who could tell us more about this well

The well

Subhomita by the well

Pumping the water

Large Open Well adjacent to Kaikondanahalli lake, Off Sarjapura Road

This is a beautiful step well in the busy Kaikondanahalli area, adjacent to the Sarjapura Road. About 30ft in diameter and 50ft deep. The water level used to come upto about 3m below ground level (about 8 years back) but now the well has very little water. To think that now borewells in the area  yield little or no water even upto 1200 ft depth and that not very long ago shallow wells like these had water at about 10ft below ground level.

And incidentally, it is Dr Himanshu Kulkarni of ACWADAM inside the well :)

Another picture of the well from better days - about 9 years ago

 

The design of the house was done by Biome and the well was integrated as part of the building design with a bridge on top.

En route to a water sensitive city: The story of Jakkur Lake

Aajwanthi Baradwaj does some great work in developing a communication package for a lake in Bangalore. The idea is to do this documentation for all lakes https://jakkurlake.jux.com/

Meeting with Dr. Sawkar, GSI

With an intent to understand any groundwater studies undertaken in Sarjapura road in specific and Bangalore in general, we met Dr. Sawkar of the Geological Society of India. The GSI releases monthly journals which features peer reviewed articles covering Earth Systems Science. Dr. Sawkar explained the Bangalore water supply situation and how multi pronged efforts are being carried out to ensure sufficient supply for the ever increasing population of the city. From bringing waters from far off west flowing rivers to recharging of groundwater table using storm water flows, Dr. Sawkar explained the different scenarios.

Dr. Sawkar was lamenting on the fact that there was no specific body at the state level to deal with water. Though the Mines and geology department was the overarching body responsible for water as well, more often than not minerals garnered priority over water.

Though no specific study was carried out in the Sarjapura road area, Dr. Sawkar expressed interest in the proposed participative study which will have WIPRO, Biome, ACWADAM (Advanced Centre for Water Resources Development and Management) and Mapunity as partners. He in fact suggested enrolling schools and colleges to be ideal entities for data collection which can contribute to the study.
Dr. Sawkar suggested that a study on the groundwater of Bangalore with data from the 30 observation wells spread across the city which has been published as a research paper in the book "Bangalore:Water Problems of the Fastest Growing City" could be a good starting point in terms of secondary data on Bangalore's ground water.



 

RWH as a USP for an apartment

A billboard at the Sarjapura Road and Outer Ring Road junction proclaims that the apartment complex for sale has implemented rainwater harvesting. This is quite a change from selling apartments with "fancier tiles" and "fancier bathroom fixtures"

In the same vein, heard of a person today who chose a home to stay on rent in a particular layout simply because the layout had implemented rainwater harvesting and hence the tenant felt that his water supply would be secure

ps: Picture taken from a moving bus and hence the billboard is at the far right end of the photograph