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Flint's residents mad over health problems caused by changing water

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Flint's residents mad over health problems caused by changing water

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Newsela | Flint residents angry over health issues caused by switch in water supply

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Flint's residents must now pay for their water, but can't drink it

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Flint's residents must now pay for their water, but can't drink it

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Newsela | It's been three years since Flint residents have had access to safe water

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California's drought emergency finally ends

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California's drought emergency finally ends

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Newsela - After years of dry weather, California’s drought status is finally lifted

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South African city braces for strict water limits as well runs dry

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South African city braces for strict water limits as well runs dry

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Newsela | South African city on shut-off notice as water crisis worsens

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Reservoirs around drought-stricken Cape Town are almost dry, forcing major water use limits

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California's drought is part of a much bigger water crisis

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California's drought is part of a much bigger water crisis

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Why do I keep hearing about the California drought, if it's the Colorado River that we're "killing"?

Pretty much every state west of the Rockies has been facing a water shortage of one kind or another in recent years. California's is a severe, but relatively short-term, drought. But the Colorado River basin - which provides critical water supplies for seven states including California - is the victim of a slower-burning catastrophe entering its 16th year. Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California all share water from the Colorado River, a hugely important water resource that sustains 40 million people in those states, supports 15 percent of the nation's food supply, and fills two of largest water reserves in the country.

The severe shortages of rain and snowfall have hurt California's $46 billion agricultural industry and helped raise national awareness of the longer-term shortages that are affecting the entire Colorado River basin. But while the two problems have commonalities and have some effect on one another, they're not exactly the same thing.

Just how bad is the drought in California right now?

Most of California is experiencing " extreme to exceptional drought," and the crisis has now entered its fourth year. This month, signaling how serious the current situation is, state officials announced the first cutback to farmers' water rights since 1977, and ordered cities and towns to cut water use by as much as 36 percent. Those who don't comply with the cuts will face fines, but some farmers are already ignoring the new rules, or challenging them in court.

The drought shows no sign of letting up any time soon, and the state's agricultural industry is suffering. A recent study by U.C. Davis researchers projected that the drought would cost California's economy $2.7 billion in 2015 alone.

In addition to the economic cost, the drought has subtle and not-so-subtle effects on flora and fauna throughout the region. This current drought may be contributing to the spread of the West Nile virus, and it's threatening populations of geese, ducks and Joshua trees. Dry, hot periods can exacerbate wildfires, while water shortages are making firefighters' jobs even harder.

And a little bit of rain won't help. NOAA scientists say it could take several years of average or above-average rainfall before California's water supply can return to anything close to normal.

What about a lot of rain? Couldn't that end the drought in California and across the West?

Not necessarily. A half-decade of torrential rains might bail California out of its crisis, but the larger West's problems are more structural and systemic. " Killing the Colorado" has shown that people are entitled to more water from the Colorado than has flowed through it, on average, over the last 110 years. Meanwhile much of the water is lost, overused or wasted, stressing both the Colorado system, and trickling down to California, which depends on the Colorado for a big chunk of its own supply. Explosive urban growth matched with the steady planting of water-thirsty crops - which use the majority of the water - don't help. Arcane laws actually encourage farmers to take even more water from the Colorado River and from California's rivers than they actually need, and federal subsidies encourage farmers to plant some of the crops that use the most water. And, as ProPublica has reported, it seems that "the engineering that made settling the West possible may have reached the bounds of its potential" - meaning that even the big dams and canals we built to ferry all this water may now be causing more harm than good.

Water use policies-perhaps more than nature-have caused the water crisis in the West. As the former Arizona governor and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt told ProPublica: " There is enough water in the West ‚ [but] there are all kinds of agriculture efficiencies that have not been put into place."

While there are mixed views on whether climate change can be blamed for California's drought, a recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report found climate change was not the cause. Global warming has caused excessive heat that may have worsened the drought's effects, but it isn't necessarily to blame for the lack of rain. It's true that recent years have yielded much less rain and snow than previous times in history, the NOAA report explains, but that's just a result of "natural variance" and not necessarily because of man-made pollution. But in both California and the larger Colorado River basin, mismanagement of the water supply has left the West more vulnerable to both short and long-term changes in climate.

What do you mean by mismanagement?

When officials divvied up rights to Colorado River water nearly a century ago, it happened to be a wetter period than usual. The result? The states vastly overestimated the river's annual flow. Today, the river's reserves are especially low and states are still claiming the same amount of water from the Colorado River that they always have - which is 1.4 trillion gallons a year more than the river actually produces. This sort of oversubscription is similar in California, where historic water rights give many farms first rights to California's streams and rivers, and haven't been adjusted as the state's population has increased and its cities have grown.

Wait - don't we all have equal water rights?

Well, if you believe Steve Yuhas, a resident of affluent Rancho Santa Fe, California, "we're not all equal when it comes to water." (Yuhas made the unfortunate mistake of complaining on social media that he and his neighbors deserve more water because they pay more property taxes, and "should not be forced to‚ golf on brown lawns," and was pilloried by readers of the Washington Post article that drew attention to his comments.) But actually, every state has its own laws about who gets how much water-and it has nothing to do with property taxes.

To the uninitiated, "water law" is arcane and confusing-hence the need for, yes, water lawyers). Sometimes, water law seems to defy common sense. For instance, in Colorado, if you put a barrel in your yard to collect rainwater for your plants, you are technically "stealing" that water right out of the sky; under water law," nearly every drop is spoken for."

But the underlying rule of water in the West is that the first people to show up and claim it were the first people to get it, and everyone who came after took a place further back in line. Called "prior appropriation," this remains the dominant thread in Western water issues, more than 100 years later.

So where is all this water going?

For all of the warnings people in the West get about taking shorter showers and turning off sprinklers, the fact remains that agriculture uses the most water, by far. Farming and agriculture use more than 70 percent of the water that flows from the Colorado River to the seven river basin states.

In addition to those crops, cotton is one of the thirstiest crops a farmer can grow, especially in a desert. As it happens, many of the crops that use less water entitle farmers to fewer federal subsidies, and so farmers don't have much of an incentive to switch crops. Though cotton production has dropped steeply in California, since 1995, California farmers have gotten $3 billion in federal subsidies to grow it. On top of subsidies, " Use it or Lose It" clauses in state water laws actually encourage farmers to flood their fields with much more water than they need lest they lose the right to that amount of water in the future.

Urban development is also a big factor. Las Vegas has grown faster than any other city in the West, its footprint doubling in the past 25 years as more and more people have moved there. It is far from the only urban strain on the West's water supplies, but its approach to growth is emblematic of cities from Phoenix to San Diego. Denver's metro population hit 2.7 million in 2013, more than three times what it was in 1960. For all its problems, Las Vegas pioneered ways to save water and incentivize efficiency more than a decade ago that Los Angeles is only beginning to adopt today.

What is California doing to address its water problems? Is it working?

Californians do seem to be answering the call to use less water in their daily lives after Gov. Jerry Brown imposed cutbacks in March. The state's " water czar," Felicia Marcus, continues to crack down on water waste, and creative ad campaigns are finding varying degrees of success. The state has cut deliveries of water to farmers through the state and federal aqueduct systems, and is now beginning to tackle the tough tasks of reforming water rights and curtailing some of the state's most senior users.

The federal government is also sending millions of dollars in " drought aid," and local counties are exploring how to desalinate ocean water to replenish water supplies. Some enterprising individuals are even proposing to revive old plans to tow icebergs or haul water down from Alaska.

Meanwhile, like any prolonged crisis, the drought is drawing out the best and worst in people. Some people are conscientiously conserving water in their homes in little ways-by not washing their cars or by capturing shower water from inside for their gardens outside, for instance. The drought has also inspired innovation in water conservation for restaurants, pools and lawns. Meanwhile, others have been caught stealing water from their neighbors and drought-shaming campaigns have multiplied online.

To the extent that climate change exacerbates the drought, California's efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions may eventually help. In 2006 the state passed a law mandating that it buy less coal-fired energy. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is now also selling its stake in the Navajo Generating Station to invest in clean energy alternatives, though the plant ( which generates more climate-warming gases than almost any other plant in the nation) will continue pumping Colorado River water to Arizona.

Will California cutbacks alleviate the larger Colorado River problem?

California uses almost one-third of the entire Colorado River flow, having a larger share than any other Colorado River basin state. California gets 16 percent of its surface water - water that comes from snowpack, streams and rivers - from the Colorado River via two huge aqueducts. The California Aqueduct runs beneath mountains into Riverside County and eventually toward Los Angeles, providing a substantial supply for both L.A. and San Diego. The All-American Canal moves water along the tail-end of the Colorado River near the Mexican border, nourishing one of the state's most valuable agriculture areas, Imperial County, where a large proportion of the nation's winter fruits and vegetables are grown.

Of the seven basin states, California holds the most senior legal rights to the Colorado, which entitle it to keep drawing water even as Lake Mead runs dry and the rest of the Colorado River states suffer through shortages. That means in the short term, not much that California does will change the situation on the Colorado, unless it were to voluntarily surrender more of its entitlement to the river. But should Colorado River shortages worsen to the point that the states ever re-negotiate that division of water, a reduction of California's Colorado River water rights could have a brutal impact on California's remaining supplies. Officials in California, like every other state in the region, are now facing a "new normal," as nature places new limits on the state's previously unchecked growth.

I don't live in California or the West, so why is this my problem?

California grows and exports a majority of the fruits and nuts eaten by the rest of the country, so water shortages there affect food supply everywhere. Calculations by the Pacific Institute indicate that, by eating food grown in California, each American indirectly uses more than 300 gallons of the state's water each week. Almonds, which require a comparatively huge amount of water to produce, have become the most visible scapegoat for an enormous problem of which they are only one small part. One almond takes almost an entire gallon of water to produce-but so does a tiny slice of cantaloupe, four strawberries, two florets of broccoli, or a fraction of an egg.

In fact, some of the biggest "water hogs," indirectly, are meat and dairy. Cows and chickens and other animals eat a lot of crops, which in turn require a lot of water. So it takes 86 gallons of water to make just 1.75 ounces of beef. Some research has suggested that the country's meat industries create such a high demand for water-thirsty feed crops, that if every American ate meat one less day a week, it could save as much water as flows through the Colorado River in an entire year.

Regardless, if the water crisis gets worse, Americans across the country can expect the cost of their food to go up, and some of it, perhaps, to not be available at all. Power prices may also rise as hydroelectric plants have difficulty generating with low water flows-and to the extent that very complicated power distribution affects a larger region, consumers far away from the Colorado River basin might feel the pinch. Finally, California and the rest of the Colorado River basin amount to the world's seventh largest economy, and contribute significantly to the country's GDP. When California struggles economically, the nation is close behind.

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California's Drought Is Part of a Much Bigger Water Crisis. Here's What You Need to Know

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Pretty much every state west of the Rockies has been facing a water shortage of one kind or another in recent years. California's is a severe, but relatively short-term, drought. But the Colorado River basin - which provides critical water supplies for seven states including California - is the victim of a slower-burning catastrophe entering its 16th year.

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What it's like to live through Cape Town's massive water crisis

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What it's like to live through Cape Town's massive water crisis

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What It's Like to Live Through Cape Town's Massive Water Crisis

I knew we were in trouble when I found myself Googling dry composting toilets. That was on Feb. 1, just after the mayor's office here in Cape Town announced new water restrictions. We are now limited to using 13 gallons of water per person per day. That's enough for a 90-second shower, a half-gallon of drinking water, a sinkful to hand-wash dishes or laundry, one cooked meal, two hand washings, two teeth brushings and one toilet flush. I figured I could save an extra couple of gallons by forgoing the daily flush in favor of a dry composting toilet. Hippie friends living off the grid in the country do it. How bad could it be?

According to current projections, Cape Town will run out of water in a matter of months. This coastal paradise of 4 million on the southern tip of South Africa is to become the first modern major city in the world to completely run dry. And even though residents aren't responsible, the burden of making sure it doesn't happen rests largely on our ability to cut down on water usage. Dramatically.

Millions of people around the world live without sufficient access to water. But Cape Town is no developing-world urban quagmire. It is a prosperous metropolis, a well-managed global tourist destination responsible for 9.9% of South Africa's GDP, full of multimillion-dollar beachfront properties, art museums and two of the world's top 50 restaurants. Cape Town running out of water is like San Diego going dry. Which, if you factor in the looming threat of climate change, may not be that far off. California's five-year drought, which ended in 2016, had state officials scrambling to enact their own water restrictions. At one point, NASA warned that the state had less than a year's supply in its reservoirs. As with the California dry spell, climatologists at the University of Cape Town say man-made global warming is a likely factor in the continued drought and that we, like many other cities around the globe, are facing a drier future with increasingly unpredictable rains. What is happening to us in Cape Town might not be an outlier. It could happen to you too.

The Cape Town crisis stems from a combination of poor planning, three years of drought and spectacularly bad crisis management. The city's outdated water infrastructure has long struggled to keep up with the burgeoning population. As dam levels began to decline amid the first two years of drought, the default response by city leadership was a series of vague exhortations to be "water aware." The water-saving appeals became more urgent in the past year. The rest of us prayed for rain.

It was only in September that Capetonians were given a limit of just over 23 gallons of water per day per person. By then the reservoirs were at a third of their capacity. But less than half of city residents met that goal-the tragedy of the commons, in action. As a result, with reservoirs down to the last dregs of accessible water, the 13-gallon limit we are asked to meet is less than the minimum U.N. daily recommendation for domestic water needs.

An even grimmer scenario now looms: Day Zero, when the government will turn off the taps for most homes and businesses in the city to conserve the very last supplies. Hospitals and other vital institutions in the city center will still get water, according to officials, but the majority of residents will have to line up at communal water points to collect their daily allotment of 6.6 gallons-about half our current, meager recommended limit-under the gaze of armed guards.

This dystopian scenario is no bluff. As of Feb. 5, Day Zero was predicted to fall on May 11, according to an analysis of current usage patterns and dam levels. Although a decline in agricultural use has shifted the date forward since the beginning of the year, there has been no significant reduction in urban consumption, according to the mayor's office. Day Zero could just as easily be moved closer if city residents don't continue to conserve. The looming shutdown has prompted chaos, with a run not only on bottled water but also on water tanks and jerricans. Once lush city parks and golf courses have withered, and public restrooms now urge visitors to flush only when absolutely necessary. High-end cafés use paper cups and plates to cut down on dishwashing. Many fear for their livelihoods; analysts estimate that the water crisis will cost some 300,000 jobs in agriculture and tens of thousands more in the service, hospitality and food sectors. If employees have to take time off from work to wait in line for water, it's going to have an even greater impact on the economy.

Which brings me back to the composting toilet. Come Day Zero, there is no way I am going to flush more than a third of my precious daily water supply down a conventional toilet. Suddenly, spending $250 on a high-tech composting commode seems like a good deal. Until I read the fine print. The contents of the toilet must be allowed to mature for several months on a patch of well-drained soil, several meters away from human habitation. I live in a row house with a concrete terrace the size of two ping-pong tables. Now I'm picturing myself hauling buckets of human waste to the nearest farm.

City officials are urging families to stock up with an emergency supply of drinking water. It's a wise suggestion, except for the fact that bottled water, especially the five-liter (1.1 gallon) version, is impossible to find. They sell out the minute they arrive in stores. My husband now drops off our daughter at school a half hour early so he can hit the supermarkets as soon as they open, hoping to score whatever water may have been delivered overnight. So far, he has had no luck. Even the shopkeepers don't know when the next shipment will come in.

The next best option is to go to one of the city's natural springs to fill up a jerrican, in an experience that feels like an early rehearsal for what is to come on Day Zero. At the Newlands spring, on the premises of a beer-bottling plant, lines undulate for hours down the street. People arrive long before the 5 a.m. opening, and brewery security guards police the crowd to ensure order. Official plans for Day Zero state that there will be approximately 200 water-collection points around the city, but many questions remain. A quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that even if only a quarter of residents show up to get their family allotment, each site will see some 5,000 water seekers a day. How will they transport the water? Where will they park? Even if each site has 50 to 200 taps each, as the city promises, the lines are likely to take hours.

Lucky are the neighbors with pools-a built-in bathing option and emergency supply of water combined. For the past six months, it has been illegal to top up pools with municipal water; instead, most people buy well water trucked in by the tanker, sourced from outlying areas unaffected by the restrictions. The newly lucrative business sits in a legal gray area.

Technically, it's illegal to sell water from wells or rivers, but you can charge for labor and transport. In listings on the local version of Craigslist, aquapreneurs are offering to "deliver" water for 4.5 rand, or 36¢, a gallon. If you want drinkable water, it will cost more.

Despite lacking a pool, I figured stockpiling that kind of water would help mitigate any Day Zero chaos. All I needed was a big tank. I wasn't the only person with this idea. All the hardware stores told me there was a six-to-eight-week waiting list for new stock, but a friend knew someone who knew a guy who could get one quicker, if I was willing to pay. I pulled into a sand-dusted parking lot only to be shown a pair of plastic barrels that didn't look as if they would hold a cup of tea, let alone hundreds of gallons. He was charging $350 each, nearly twice the market price of even the best-quality tanks.

I kicked myself for my lack of foresight. Four months ago, I could have filled up an affordable top-of-the-line tank with the spring rainwater gushing from my roof. Instead I let myself be swayed by soothing assurances from Mayor Patricia de Lille that she would "not allow a well-run city to run out of water." Like the rest of us, the mayor was in denial. It is no small consolation that she has since been removed from her water-crisis-management duties and is facing a vote of no confidence in city government.

But the crisis didn't start with one deluded mayor. It goes back decades. "City will run out of water 'in 17 Years,'" declared a Cape Times headline as long ago as April 26, 1990. The story, quoting a Water Research Commission presentation in the country's Parliament, went on to recommend a sewage-recycling plant to augment supplies from the city's six rainfall-fed dams. Instead, Cape Town embarked on a laudable conservation effort, but it wasn't enough.

Now the city is playing catch-up, installing expensive desalinization plants to purify seawater and scrambling to tap the underground aquifer. Only two of the seven water-augmentation projects are expected to be up and running by the time Day Zero kicks in. As with my back-ordered water tank, a little extra planning would have gone a long way toward staving off a crisis of unprecedented proportions.

Cape Town may be the first major city to run out of water, but it won't be the last. In Mexico City, residents are already experiencing cuts to their piped water supply, and officials in Melbourne (another city affected by drought) warn that the city is little more than a decade away from exhausting current water supplies. At one point, before a sustained deluge in 2015, the city of São Paulo was down to less than 20 days' worth of water, according to the World Resources Institute, a Washington-based research organization that tracks the use of natural resources around the world. It reports that more than a billion people currently live in water-scarce regions and as many as 3.5 billion could experience water scarcity by 2025 if steps are not taken to conserve water now.

As the clock to Day Zero counts down, Capetonians are joining together to share water-saving tips online, and on air through call-in radio shows. Don't boil food; bake it or cook it on the grill. Use paper plates, and wrap your serving platters in plastic wrap that you can peel off after each meal. Order pizza and eat straight from the box. Shower over a plastic tub and then use the water to wash clothes. Keep a bowl in every sink to collect water from washing hands. Use that and laundry water to flush toilets.

The tips, and the attention, have begun to work. On Jan. 30, Mmusi Maimane, head of the Democratic Alliance, a political party that has controlled Cape Town for a decade, announced that residents' efforts were having an impact. But, he warned, unless consumption fell by at least 25%, Day Zero was still inevitable. The problem is, short of turning off neighborhood taps, there are few effective ways to cut off profligate users. Instead they are fined, in amounts that range from $41 to $248-which in some wealthy neighborhoods is hardly a deterrent.

The urge to flee before the taps are switched off is strong. Some of our friends are planning to temporarily repatriate themselves to homes in the U.S. and Europe. Businesses are thinking of relocating to Johannesburg, a two-hour flight away, for the duration. I, for one, plan to stick it out. After all, for the large number of South Africans who don't live in the mainly white and affluent suburbs that still define Cape Town 25 years after the end of apartheid, Day Zero is just another day in the life. Many township residents already line up at a central tap to get their daily water supply. In a nod to this reality-and out of fear of massive social unrest-city officials have said that townships and informal settlements will be exempted from Day Zero plans to shut off water mains.

I'm sure I can handle 6.6 gallons of water a day. I'm already down to two showers a week, and my daughter would go down to once a month if I let her. I've sacrificed a corner of my terrace to make way for my back-ordered water tanks. Once they arrive, I will start praying for rain and interspersing my bucket baths with baby-wipe top-ups. I'll be cooking my meals on the grill and eating with my fingers. The toilets? Until now, I've been using my shower water to flush. But once the taps run dry, we won't even have that. So I reopen my Internet browser and again type dry composting toilets. With any luck, they won't have sold out.
Aryn Baker is TIME's Africa Bureau Chief, based in Cape Town. Follow her on Twitter @arynebaker. Mikhael Subotzky is a photographer represented by Magnum Photos. Follow him on Instagram @mikhael_subotzky. Johnny Miller is a photographer and drone pilot based in Cape Town. He is the founder of AfricanDrone, a pan-African drone pilot community. Follow him on Instagram @millefotosa.

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'I Knew We Were in Trouble.' What It's Like to Live Through Cape Town's Massive Water Crisis

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This coastal paradise of 4 million on the southern tip of South Africa is to become the first modern major city to completely run dry.

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Bangalore, IndiaWhen Shalini Sahni moved back to India after eight years in the U.S., she craved a waterside home like the one she had in Austin, Texas. This was not an easy thing in Bangalore (also known as Bengaluru), a landlocked, densely populated city in the middle of South India. But the electronics engineer found something similar in an apartment complex fringing Bellandur Lake, the city's largest. Less than a year after moving in, her beautiful view of the lake was one of flames on the water.

The January 19 blaze burned for more than 30 hours and rained down ash on balconies and cars more than six miles away. Less than two weeks later, the lake caught fire again. Bellandur Lake made international headlines last February when videos of a fire went viral. But there have been major fires going back to 2015.

Another searing image of the 900-acre lake is a snow-white foam that often covers its canals. It has even bubbled up to a height of several stories and toppled onto roads and buildings nearby.

"Why in the world would a lake catch fire?" Sahni asked. "Water should be used to extinguish, not be fuel for a fire."

But what's in the water is the same thing fueling the fires and the froth. It's a potent mix of domestic and industrial waste.

Boomtown Blues

Unchecked development propelled Bangalore, once a sleepy "pensioner's paradise," to India's outsourcing and IT hub of 10 million people. About 40 percent of the city's untreated sewage flows into Bellandur Lake every day. Industries discharge effluents directly into the water. City residents find the banks of the lake an easy place to throw their garbage, as do trucks, which regularly dump construction debris. What results is a lake that can catch fire, whether through solid or liquid waste floating on its surface, or flammable methane generated from its oxygen-starved waters.

Seen in a larger context, the toxic waters of Bellandur Lake are just one example of India's struggles to protect its environment. The country slipped to the bottom five worldwide on the recently released Environmental Performance Index, a program by Yale and Columbia Universities and the World Economic Forum that measures environmental health.

"The fire in the lake was a first-of-its-kind event in India. But this is a warning for every other city in the world which is developing," said Priyanka Jamwal, an environmental scientist.

Jamwal studies the water quality of Bangalore's lakes at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment. By coincidence, she tested Bellandur Lake just a day before the first fire of this year. She found that 70 million gallons of sewage enter the lake every day. Jamwal said the solution is sewage treatment and regular monitoring of streams feeding the lake.

But the government is struggling to keep up with Bangalore's rapid urbanization. Large-scale sewage treatment plants won't be in place until 2020. Bellandur and other lakes in the city-manmade and constructed for irrigation in the 16th century-are nearly all polluted. But managing waterbodies is complicated by a tangle of oversight among five state and local agencies. ( Learn how India planted 50 million trees in one day.)

Complex Oversight

One of those overseeing agencies, the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority, was created in 2015 to monitor illegal activities, including by other government bodies. But Seema Garg, its chief executive officer, said her agency is understaffed and she has no police personnel to round up lawbreakers.

Garg said the lake authority is overseeing the creation of 150 acres of wetlands near Bellandur's inlets before the summer monsoon as a stop-gap measure before sewage treatment plants are built in two years. Even India's federal environmental body is now involved, demanding answers from local government on the slow pace of clean-up after last February's fire.

Sharachchandra Lele studies the governance of Bangalore's lakes, also for the Ashoka Trust. He is a member of an executive committee comprising scientists, government officials, and residents that oversees Bellandur Lake. That group has documented the presence of heavy metals and a decline in native fish species. The committee's last report recommended a list of short-term and long-term goals to improve the lake's water quality. Since it was published in November 2016, Lele said the government has met only one short-term goal-reducing invasive water hyacinth plants.

Lele also advises some perspective on Bellandur Lake and its very visible fires and foaming.

"If you look at it from the consequences of public health, the lake is not that crazy," he said. "It's not like lead in the pipelines of Flint, Michigan. We don't use any lake water for drinking. So it becomes a public image issue."

But that's a tough sell to many residents living near the lake. ( See how an India man saved his island.)

Hope for the Future

"The burning of the lake is a sum of apathy and politics," said Seema Sharma.

From her floor-to-ceiling windows in a spacious apartment overlooking the lake, isolated pockets of white smoke indicated small fires in progress. Sharma, a manager at an analytics company, said she saw all three of the very large fires on the lake. But there are small ones along the lake banks every day, she added, along with a steady parade of trucks dumping garbage and debris. She said the sight is so depressing that she often keeps the curtains closed.

The view is not the only problem. A frequent stench floats up from the lake, once getting so bad that her husband initially thought someone in the family had not flushed the toilet. The smell lasted on-and-off for three weeks.

Sharma is also a member of the Bellandur Lake Citizen Group and said she'd like to see more lake oversight handed to private citizens. Bolstered with funds from nearby IT companies, she believes citizen groups could be more effective in cleaning and managing the lake.

Last August, she helped organize a lake festival, a chance for government officials and residents to connect with each other and learn more about Bellandur Lake. It was held about a half-mile from the shore. For those few hours looking at its waters, a safe distance from its smell and garbage, Sharma said she could see what the lake could be.

"We are putting up a fight because there is so much potential," she said. "We live on the hope that something will change."

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Why Bangalore, India's Bellandur Lake Catches Fire: Water Pollution

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Bangalore, IndiaWhen Shalini Sahni moved back to India after eight years in the U.S., she craved a waterside home like the one she had in Austin, Texas. This was not an easy thing in Bangalore (also known as Bengaluru), a landlocked, densely populated city in the middle of South India.

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This class 9 boy has a solution to Bellandur lake froth

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This class 9 boy has a solution to Bellandur lake froth

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While citizens and authorities battled the polluted Bellandur and Varthur Lakes contaminating waterbodies in Kolar, a class 9 student of the district decided to take the matter in his own hands.

Shivashankar has come up with a solution to purify the water naturally. He presented the solution at the state-level youth scientists' convention 2017-18 organised by the Karnataka Rajya Vijnana Parishat in the city, where young students from across Karnataka presented their innovations.

"I decided to find a solution naturally for the frothing, and conducted a research on the chemicals present in the Bellandur Lake by visiting the treatment plants in Bengaluru. After various tests, I have come up with this model that purifies the contaminated water naturally," said Shivashankar.

Explaining his solution step by step, Shivashankar said: "Initially, the anaerobic bacteria should be added to the contaminated water to help in getting rid of the waste particles. In the next step, we can detect the deadly bacteria through the fixed film reactor. To stop the multiplication of waste particles, the powder of banana's skin should be sprinkled into the flowing water. In the last stage, a corncob will help in the removal of the metal content from the water."

Providing artificial hands for patients suffering from essential tremor was another innovation presented by a student from Bengaluru. Models showcasing the solution for traffic problems and methods to make concrete land absorb the rain water were some other innovations presented by the students.

P C Jaffer, commissioner, department of public instruction, inaugurated the event. The Karnataka Science Centre had received 188 applications across the state, out of which 102 students are participating in the event.

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the state level youth scientists convention 2017-18

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This class 9 boy has solution to Bellandur Lake froth

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While citizens and authorities battled the polluted Bellandur and Varthur Lakes contaminating waterbodies in Kolar, a class 9 student of the district decided to take the matter in his own hands. Shivashankar has come up with a solution to purify the water naturally.

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How deforestation is starving Sao Paolo of water

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How deforestation is starving Sao Paolo of water

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São Paulo could face more devastating water shortages if farmers continue to clear the Amazon forest, warns the utility chief who recently steered the biggest city in the Americas from the edge of drought catastrophe.

Jerson Kelman, president of water company Sabesp, told Guardian Cities he felt a duty to speak out because he was a citizen as well as the head of a company who had seen firsthand how close this metropolis of 21 million people had come to a breakdown.

"We should not transform the Amazon into pastureland," he said in an interview. "The Amazon creates a movement of water. If you could follow a molecule of water you would see that most of the clouds that are over São Paulo have passed across the Amazon. If the forest is cut, we'll be in trouble."

As one of the foremost authorities on water supply and hydropower in Brazil, Kelman's comments are likely to reignite a debate - resisted by the country's powerful agriculture lobby - about the link between the world's biggest forest, climate change and a possible recurrence of the 2014-15 drought.

If things went wrong, we didn't know what might happen. There could have been riots in the street.

Jerson Kelman

The mayor of São Paulo, João Doria, appears to have been persuaded. In an interview with the Guardian he said recognised the importance of the link between the Amazon and the city's water supply.

"We need to preserve the rainforest to preserve the cycle of rain in central and southeast Brazil," he said, also stressing the need to reduce demand and promote recycling. His government, however, has made little progress in putting these words into action.

The 2014-15 drought was no ordinary dry period. Over a 12-month period, rainfall was half that of the previous worst year on records stretching back to the early 20th century. By January 2015, the volume of water at the main Cantareira reservoir system was down to 5% - barely a month's supply.

Dozens of municipalities on the periphery of São Paulo declared "states of calamity", which allowed for military intervention and emergency funds from the federal government.

At Itu - the worst affected city - there was fighting, theft and the looting of emergency water trucks. Many communities' taps flowed for only a few hours every four days. In some condominiums, residents took buckets from swimming pools to flush toilets, argued over scarce communal supplies and denounced neighbours who washed their cars.

The dystopia even reached the city's main commercial district around Avenida Paulista, where the swanky Bassano restaurant served guests with plastic plates and cutlery because there was insufficient water supply for dishwashers, and Starbucks only offered bottled beer and cans of Coke because there was not enough water for coffee.

With elections due the following year, the São Paulo state and city governments refused to declare an emergency. But Guardian Cities has learned from multiple sources that the authorities were far more worried than they admitted to the public at the time.

Today there is a mood of calm at the control centre of Sabesp (the Basic Sanitation Company of the State of São Paulo), the water utility that is 50.1% owned by the government. Real-time data displayed on giant screens and a dozen individual monitors show reservoirs are almost back to pre-crisis levels. Automated pumping stations - where water pressure to 220 neighbourhoods can be adjusted at the click of a mouse - are functioning normally.

But asked to recall how different it felt at the height of the crisis, Silvana Franco, a senior official in the control centre, loudly sucks in a breath and shakes her head.

"We were desperate. The reservoir level was just going down and down. We knew that when people don't have water, they go crazy. We had seen the protests in smaller cities where people were breaking into property to steal water. We imagined what they would be like here with 21 million people. We thought about the hospitals unable to treat patients and children having to stay home from school. It would be chaos."

She said her boss was so worried his hair turned white.

At the nadir, she said, the military came to check whether the gates and perimeter were secure. This had never happened before, and added to the staff's fears of being on the edge of an apocalypse.

"There were about five of them in uniform with guns," she recalls. "They wanted to see how resilient this centre could be because we control the water."

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A resident walks his dog across the dry bottom of the Paraibuna dam, part of São Paulo's Cantareira water system. Photograph: Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters

There are limits to what Kelman is able or willing to do about the city's water crisis. Sabesp, he says, has planted 45,000 hectares of trees on its land and seen the benefits in terms of climate regulation. But it has no authority over Amazon conservation and - because it is a business that must generate profits - there is no incentive to scale back demand (and sales).

In small cities people were breaking into property to steal water. We imagined what would happen with 21 million people

Silvana Franco

Sabesp has already dropped the measure that was most effective during the crisis: a financial reward for households that reduced water use. Eighty percent of customers received these incentives, which eased the pressure on the supply system more than other emergency measures such as tapping "dead water" from the reservoirs and interlinking networks. The benefits of these behavioural changes are still evident today as consumption remains more than 10% below pre-crisis levels even though the taps are flowing freely.

On the corporate side of its business, however, Sabesp offers discounts to companies who are heavy consumers. Highlighting the negative impact of market pressures, this controversial policy was introduced to dissuade major clients from digging their own wells or seeking rival suppliers.

Longer term, Sapesb has strengthened drought resilience by focusing on expensive, supply-side engineering works that expand the water footprint of the city.

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An engineer works on a giant pipe at the Jaguari dam, which will create an 11-mile link to the Cantareira system. Photograph: Flavio Forner

At Jaguari reservoir - about two hours drive from the city centre - engineers are putting the finishing touches on a series of giant pumps, pipes and tunnels that will create an 11-mile link to the Cantareira system.

It is one of three mega-projects that will together cost close to R$3bn (£695m) - a huge chunk of Sapesb's budget - but should provide enough extra back-up capacity to withstand a drought as bad as the one that hit two years ago.

"I know that in three of four years, some politicians will complain we are wasting money on infrastructure that sits idle. People forget easily," said Kelman. "But now nature has shown us what she can do, the least the population can expect is that decision-makers prepare for rare events ... If something worse comes, then we have a problem."

There is already criticism. Business groups want more of a priority on profitability so a bigger share of Sabesp's stock can be privatised. Environmental groups are unhappy that more spending on infrastructure means less for sewage treatment and reforestation of areas near water sources that are currently occupied by shanty towns. If these problems could be solved, the city could once again tap its two most central reservoirs - Billings and Guarapiranga - and the river Tiete, all of which are currently too contaminated for use.

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Illegally built housing on the edge of São Paulo's Billings reservoir. Is it currently too contaminated for use. Photograph: Paulo Whitaker/Reuters

"It's possible to improve by investing in forests and water treatment, but that's not happening," said Malu Ribeiro of the conservation movement, SOS Mata Atlantica. "So of course this [kind of drought] will happen again. The city is still growing. There is more deforestation. More people are living next to water sources. We have learned little or nothing from the crisis."

Alexis Morgan of the WWF agreed the government's response has been piecemeal. "A good crisis has gone to waste in terms of the public level response," he said. "Businesses have learned that demand-side solutions are cheaper and easier. That should be the place to start. But engineers invariably want to put more supply in the system. They fail to recognise that green assets [forests] appreciate over time unlike grey assets [concrete dams]. The government should be looking at both."

Water crisis - megacities

The challenge of building climate resilience is increasingly important and not just in Brazil. According to a new WWF study, São Paulo ranks only eighth in the list of the world's most drought-vulnerable megacities (population above 10 million). In terms of all cities, the No 1 is Cape Town, which is currently in the midst of its worst ever water shortages and now facing many of the difficult decisions that Kelman and others had to grapple with two years ago.

In São Paulo, a full meltdown was avoided. The most extreme contingency plans were not needed. But it was close. If it had not been for a little rain and some drastic measures, Sabesp could have faced the fury of 21 million thirsty customers.

There is more deforestation. More people live next to water sources. We have learned little or nothing from the crisis

Malu Ribeiro

For Kelman, the lessons are fourfold: good supply-side engineering, sensible demand-management through pricing mechanisms, transparency so that the public are on the side of the government in saving water, and accepting that past data was no longer a reliable guide as a result of climate change and land-use change. "The São Paulo experience shows us we can not rely on past assumptions. We need to hope for the best and prepare for the worst."

He is also looking at the causes. Global climate change and regional deforestation are top of the list.

Kelman says the loss of the Amazon is raising climate risks for São Paulo because the forest helps to circulate water down from the tropics in a process known as evapotranspiration. "Now I enter a minefield," he says, reflecting the sensitivity of the topic.

There are no statistical models for this yet and the science remains controversial due to the implications for the powerful agricultural lobby, which clears trees for farms, and the hydropower industry, which floods forest for dams.

The best-known exponent is Antonio Nobre, a climatologist at the Space Research Institute who calls the Amazon a "biotic pump" that provides the energy for "rivers in the sky" to flow thousands of miles to São Paulo. Without this booster, he warns, the southeast of Brazil would likely be a desert like many other regions at the same latitude.

Fears of water riots in a country that boasts 12% of the world's rivers and lakes would once have seemed outlandish, but they are a real and growing concern due to increased consumption and climate disruption on a global and regional level. Kelman believes there are lessons here for the Brazil government and cities across the world.

Among the most important is that past records are no longer a reliable guide to future risks. This came as a shock to Kelman, who wrote his doctoral paper on a historical data analysis - technically known as the stationary series statistical method - which is used to set the parameters for the climate resilience of water and hydropower supply systems.

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A resident of São Paulo's Brasilandia neighbourhood prepares rainwater to use in the bathroom and to clean the floor of her house. Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters

Based on these old statistics, he calculated the chance of a drought like that of 2014-15 as 0.4%, or once in 250 years. It was twice as severe as the planner's worst forecasts, forcing him into a period of philosophical self-reflection.

"We had excellent data - 83 years worth - and we were prepared for the worst on record," he says. "But nature showed us that we cannot rely on stationary series statistics as we did in the past. We should prepare for the unknown."

Another Sabesp official who asked not to be named described the situation as "completely out of control." A senior government adviser, who also asked for anonymity, concurred. "The risks we discussed in private were far greater than those discussed in public at the time."

Due to fears of a mob invasion, the authorities established a back-up control centre in a different location. They also installed special pipes to circumvent the main distribution system and ensure water could be directly provided to the 500 most important buildings in the city, including large hospitals, dialysis centres and prisons, even if the rest of the city ran dry. Everyone else, they imagined, would have to take buckets and kettles to city squares where they would have to line up for supplies from water trucks. "It would have been like sub-Saharan Africa," said one senior official.

This priority list was kept secret. Kelman, the founder of the Brazilian Association of Water Resources, who was drafted in as drought buster in January 2015, said transparency was generally desirable, but in this case the authorities had no choice.

São Paulo - anatomy of a failing megacity: residents struggle as water taps run dry

"It was like wartime. We couldn't tell anyone which buildings were on the list because the supply might have been disrupted," said Kelman. "If things went wrong, we didn't know what might happen. There could have been riots in the street."

The theory has been attacked. Benedito Braga, the head of the sanitation and water resource secretariat in the São Paulo state government dismissed any link between the drought and the Amazon. "If deforestation was causing this impact then how do you explain the floods that we saw in 2016," he told The Guardian. "I would say they are both signs of natural variability. 2014-15 was an outlier, not a sign of a trend."

There is more acceptance among meteorologists who believe the Amazon serves as a link between two key corridors of humidity - the Intertropical Convergence Zone along the equator and the South Atlantic Convergence Zone that stretches down to the southeast of Brazil. The latter is crucial to water supply and the hydropower industry because it brings consistent rainfall for several days which fill the reservoirs far more effectively than occasional drizzles.

"Before 2013, there would be three or four convergence rainfalls in São Paulo every years. But in 2015, there was only one. Last year there was only one and this year there has so far been only one. That means we are still using more water than is naturally replaced," said Camila Ramos of Climatempo, a private forecasting agency. "If the Amazon forest disappears it would be plausible to assume that the rainfall volumes would drop in Sao Paulo as the the humidity supply towards the southeast might decrease."
Guardian Cities is in São Paulo for a special series of in-depth reporting and live events. Share your experiences of the city in the comments below, on and using #GuardianSaoPaulo, or by email to saopaulo.week@theguardian.com Topics

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The Amazon effect: how deforestation is starving São Paulo of water

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São Paulo could face more devastating water shortages if farmers continue to clear the Amazon forest, warns the utility chief who recently steered the biggest city in the Americas from the edge of drought catastrophe.

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3 Maps Help Explain Sao Paolo's Water Crisis

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3 Maps Help Explain Sao Paolo's Water Crisis

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The worst drought to grip São Paulo, Brazil and neighboring states in 80 years is wreaking havoc on the local population. As of late October, key reservoirs hold less than two weeks' worth of drinking water. Schools and health centers are closing early, dishes sit unwashed in sinks, and restaurants are steering customers away from restrooms. Significant crop production declines are of deep concern, and because 50% of Brazil's electrical energy comes from hydropower, possible power cuts loom. The president of Brazil's Water Regulatory Agency warned that if the drought continues, the state faces "a collapse like we've never seen before."

Brazil has more freshwater than any country in the world - 12% of the entire planet's total volume. So how is São Paulo - the richest, largest city in South America - running out of water? Three maps help tell the complicated story.

1) It's a distribution and management problem

Brazil's water resources and population are very unevenly distributed. The Amazon River basin contains roughly 50% of the country's water, but only 4% of its population. About 80% of Brazilians are concentrated in megacities along the east coast, like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which rely on their own local river basins. Many of these cities are water stressed, due to their rapid growth and development.

WRI's Aqueduct project recently analyzed water stress in Brazilian cities with more than 1 million people. About 40% of the population in these largest cities faces medium to extremely high water stress. This means that, depending on the particular location, as much as 80% of the water naturally available to agricultural, domestic, and industrial users is withdrawn annually, leaving businesses, farms, and communities vulnerable to scarcity.

Based on this relationship of demand and supply in a typical year, São Paulo, in fact, faces low to medium water stress. But this is far from a typical year. On top of São Paulo's epic drought right now, a series of interconnected water management failures across the metropolitan area have hindered its ability to adapt to those conditions, according to Brazilian researchers. São Paulo demonstrates how destabilizing a drought can be - even in less-stressed areas - without adequate management. Other more-stressed cities in the region could therefore be at even higher risk.

2) It's a variability problem

Water supplies can vary significantly from season to season and from year to year in Brazil. Most of Brazil experiences pronounced wet and dry seasons, otherwise known as high seasonal variability. Northeastern Brazil has also experienced considerable fluctuations in total average water supply from year to year - called high inter-annual variability.

The ongoing drought in Southeastern Brazil offers a prime example of how damaging a major supply drop can be over the course of a year. It began last summer, between December 2013 and February 2014, historically the wettest time of year. The region received only half its usual amount of rain, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. In the eight months since, rainfall has hovered at 60% below normal levels. There is concern among Brazilian experts that inter-annual variability may be increasing in southern and southeastern Brazil due to heavy deforestation of the Amazon (see section below).

Where variability is high, it's important to store freshwater underground and in reservoirs during wet periods to sustain companies, farms, and people through dry periods. The city of São Paulo depends, among other reservoirs, on the Cantareira System. Its six reservoirs, linked by 48 km (30 miles) of tunnels and canals, provide water to half the people in its metropolitan area. Sabesp, São Paulo's water utility, reported on Oct. 23 that Cantareira system was reduced to 3 to 5% of its maximum capacity. The utility is currently pumping water from the reserves below the intake pipes of the reservoirs.

3) It's a deforestation problem

Expert consensus is building around deforestation as a major driver of this year's drought and other serious dry periods in Brazil. In 2009, Antonio Nobre, a scientist at Brazil's Center for Earth Systems Science - CCST/INPE, warned that Amazonian deforestation could interfere with the forest's function as a giant water pump; it lifts vast amounts of moisture up into the air, which then circulate west and south, falling as rain to irrigate Brazil's central and southern regions. Without these "flying rivers," Nobre said, the area accounting for 70% of South America's GNP could effectively become desert.

In recent years, Brazil has been hailed for its efforts to reduce deforestation - the average rate of clearance decreased 70% between 2005 and 2014. However, deforestation in Brazil jumped during the last officially recorded period, between August 2012 and July 2013, marking the first increase since 2008. Satellite analysis from Imazon, a Brazilian NGO, also indicates a 190% surge in forest clearing this August and September when compared with last year. See the animation above, showing tree-cover loss equivalent to an area almost five times the size of New York City.

In January and February of this year, when rain is usually abundant in central and southern Brazil, the flying rivers failed to flow south, according to data from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The animation of tree cover loss alerts from Global Forest Watch is meant to be illustrative only. The exact science of how forest clearing affects the performance of the Amazon's "hydrological pump" is still emerging, and further analysis is needed to determine how the timing and location of forest loss affects precipitation elsewhere. The " Flying Rivers Project," an effort by Dr. Nobre and other Brazilian scientists to quantify the dynamics of atmospheric water vapor and forests in Brazil, provides some of the most robust data on the subject, including real-time and historic maps of air flows and water vapor in the region.

A need for action

This drought's effects on Brazil will be complex. And the effectiveness of the country's water management will deeply impact its energy, agricultural and industrial sectors, as well as its growing population. São Paulo's ongoing emergency offers an extreme example of how dangerous a supply change can be, even in an environment with low to medium water stress in normal years.

In response, experts from NGOs - including WRI - formed an " Alliance for Water," which proposed hundreds of short - and long-term measures to adapt to the current crisis and prevent future emergencies. WRI is also working with IUCN, the Atlantic Rainforest Restoration Pact (PACTO), government representatives, and civil society leaders on building landscape restoration strategies to help re-establish environmental services where they are needed most, like the São Paulo watersheds.

But as the drought's impacts continue to ripple throughout the country, it's clear that more work is needed. Decision-makers across the country must learn from the lessons of this drought and increase water-use efficiency, enhance water-storage capacity, and halt deforestation in the Amazon.
This article also appears on WRI Insights. Rachel Biderman, director of WRI Brasil, also contributed to this blog post.

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Three Maps Help Explain São Paulo, Brazil's Water Crisis

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The worst drought to grip São Paulo, Brazil and neighboring states in 80 years is wreaking havoc on the local population. As of late October, key reservoirs hold less than two weeks' worth of drinking water.

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Despite massive effort to correct Flint water crisis, issues remain

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Despite massive effort to correct Flint water crisis, issues remain

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Newsela | Five years after Flint water crisis, unresolved issues remain

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Bellandur lake-Bengaluru's largest lake, hits headlines often for all wrong reasons. The once bountiful lake has gradually transformed into a sewage tank. Formation of foam is a cause for concern among the citizens living around. The authorities claim to be doing their best to solve the problem. Fed up with the lethargic attitude of the authorities in solving issue, residents and activists have recently decided to launch a massive campaign to fix the problem once and for all. They say that if this is not sorted out now, it is going to be impossible to continue living in the neighbourhood. In this backdrop, here is all you need to know about Bellandur Lake and its problems.
" What did Bellandur lake look like earlier?

Bellandur lake, which is one of the oldest and largest lakes in Bengaluru, was the lifeline for surrounding 18 villages a few decades ago. Old time residents of Bellandur village recall the good times when lake was full and the land next to it fertile (till 1970s). People used to cultivate paddy, grow vegetables like cauliflower and tomatoes in abundance and also do fishing. Apparently, over 400 fishing families were living in this neighbourhood.

The lake water then was used for irrigation as well as for drinking purpose. People of Bellandur and nearby villages used to celebrate annual 'Theppotsava' (boat festival) on this now infamous lake.

This was also a 'sea-plane' channel that was built into the Bellandur lake in the 1940s.

" How big is the lake?

According to Lake Development Authority (LDA) Bellandur lake spreads over 891.9 acre and its water storing capacity is 17.66 million cubic feet. This is the original size of the lake, but some portion of the lake is believed to have been encroached over the years. A Committee constituted by the High Court of Karnataka in 2011 has estimated the present size of the lake at 797.21 acre. However, lake activists estimate the lake size to be not more than 726 acre.

" What is the issue with Bellandur Lake?

Bellandur lake is part of Varthur lake series and is one of the highly polluted lakes in Bengaluru. It has become more or less a sewage tank because of untreated sewage water entering into the lake through various inlets. In theory, clean rainwater from Koramangala and Challaghatta (K&C) Valley should flow to Bellandur lake through stormwater drains. However, Bellandur lake gets sewage inflow due to two reasons.

1. Improper sewage system due to which untreated sewage water overflows and joins storm water drains, mixes with rain water, which in turn flows to Bellandur lake via Koramangala and Challaghatta Valley.

2. Lack of effluent treatment plants to treat industrial wastes from small factories which also get into the storm water drains.

The STPs at the lake are not effective and limited in capacity. Thus domestic sewage as well as industrial effluents flows into Bellandur lake.

There are three major STPs of 248 MLD treatment capacity in the K&C Valley. They are located on the upstream of Bellandur lake to treat sewage water before it enters Bellanduru lake. However, improper functioning of these plants ensures that Bellandur lake receives untreated sewage from Agara pumping station. Of the 17 inlets, four main inlets from where sewage enters Bellandur lake are: Koramangala, Agaram, Challaghatta and Iblur.

All in all, Bellandur lake receives 40 per cent of the treated / untreated sewage water of Bengaluru (approximately 400-500 million litres of sewage), primarily from areas of BBMP including Bommanahalli, HAL, Byatarayanapura, K R Puram, K R Market, Jayanagar etc. 110 villages which were later added to the BBMP largely contribute to Bellandur lake pollution, thanks to lack of a sewage network.

" When did the problem start? What has happened till now?

The problem in Bellandur lake began in late 1980s. According to old residents of the area near the lake, foam formation existed even 25 years ago. However, with the increased urbanisation and more apartments in the vicinity, the problem has escalated. With the increased instant communication through social media, the matter is getting more publicity these days. Since 1999, STPs attached to Bellandur lake have been either dysfunctional or not performing to capacity.

In 1997, just before the National Games were held in Bangalore, environment activist Ramamurthy and his friend surveyed the lake and found the depth of the lake at the centre to be just 5 feet because of silt and muck, whereas it should have been closer to 20 ft.

This prompted some of the residents and activists to take up the cause of saving Bellandur lake. Ramamurthy filed a PIL in the High Court against the inaction of the government and other government agencies to protect environment and lakes in Bengaluru. The High Court in its order issued in November 1999, directed BWSSB to provide proper sewage network in the city to stop sewage from entering lakes. When BWSSB did not follow the court order, the petitioners filed a contempt case. The HC referred the case to Lok Adalat for follow up.

Copy of the order - http://bit.ly/1GuPObr

In 2002, Lok Adalat directed all government departments including BBMP, BDA, BWSSB, Minor Irrigation, KSPCB and Revenue Department to form a committee and look into the status of Bellandur Lake. However nothing has changed since then and the case is still pending before Lok Adalat.

In the last few months, far end of Bellandur lake has constantly witnessed the phenomena of foam formation. The stinky froth that irritates skin has been a matter of concern for people residing in Bellandur area. This lather forms specially during monsoon, when large volume of rainwater mixed with sewage enters the lake. It happens when detergent and other chemicals present in the sewage mixes with lake water. The phenomenon is prominently seen at the far end of Bellandur lake and in Varthur lake, though there are reports of other lakes such as Kaikondarahalli witnessing lather when it rains. Read this article for more information on foam in lakes.

Fire at the lake is another phenomena that attracted photographers. The cooking oil thrown from households that enters the lake from untreated domestic sewage is said to be the cause behind the fire.

Thus, both the froth and flame in the lake point to the flaws in the system that can kill a lake with pollution.

" How has pollution affected the lake, people and fauna of the area?

Historically Bellandur lake was part of a natural cycle. It used to have clean water during monsoon and became shallow or dry during summer. Now, the lake is filled with stinking water in all seasons, thanks to sewage that flows in everyday. The lake is covered with weeds and filled with silt. Water pollution has led to disappearance of fishes in the lake.

Most importantly, it has resulted in pollution of groundwater table in the surrounding areas. An independent study conducted by the Indian Institute of Science in 2013 revealed that borewell water in Varthur village (close to Bellandur) was high in nitrate, ammonium, and phosphorous.

Silver articles in the neighbouring houses turn black owing to the chemical nature of water, claim residents. People also complain of lung infection, skin allergy and frequent dengue cases reported in neighbourhood.

" Who owns Bellandur Lake?

The lake falls in BBMP limits. However, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is the present custodian of the lake with regard to rejuvenation.

" Who has to rejuvenate Bellandur Lake?

Onus is on the BDA to rejuvenate and restore the lake. But, the BDA is not ready to take up restoration work, until and unless Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) ensures that sewage water does not enter the lake. BDA claims that restoration will be a futile exercise, if sewage water continues to enter the lake.

BWSSB needs to divert the sewage from the lake and treat it in an existing treatment plant or construct a new plant to treat it. In fact the BWSSB has plans to construct a sewage treatment plant on the eastern side of the lake. The lake could be handed over to BBMP, only after BDA finishes rejuvenation work.

" Who is responsible for the mess?

Government agencies, elected representatives and people are equally responsible for the current state of affairs at Bellandur lake.

BWSSB is largely blamed for the mess, as its failure to manage sewage in the city has led to the lake pollution. Due to defunct STPs in several apartment complexes and absence of ETPs in industries, the lake continues to get filthy.

BDA too is responsible. Though the government has allotted Rs 3.30 crore for fencing the lake, the BDA is yet to complete the work, due to which lake land continues to be encroached. According to lake activists, only 2/3rd of the lake is fenced, while 918 metres area has remained open.

LDA is partly responsible. A CAG report in 2015 has blamed Lake Development Authority for its inability to restore and conserve Bellandur lake, despite allocation of funds.

KSPCB has a role to play in the mess. Had KSPCB been strict in its monitoring, the situation wouldn't have been worsened.

This apart, the people of the city have largely contributed for the mess. Here's how:

Unmindful of the laws, people have encroached the lake land and storm water drains adding to the trouble.

Though constructing a sewage treatment plant is must for all apartments, many of the apartments in the catchment areas of the drains that lead to the lake have no STPs. This makes sure untreated sewage enters the lake.

There are people who leave their sewage to the stormwater drain though they have sewage line connections. They too contribute to the mess.

" What has been done so far to fix the problem and what is on the card?

The total capacity of existing STPs at K&C Valley is 305 MLD, whereas the sewage entering through K&C Valley is over 605 MLD. According to BWSSB officials, the existing STPs function up to 70 per cent of their capacity.

In order to solve the problem, BWSSB says they have taken up the construction of two additional STPs with total capacity of 150 MLD, one at K&C Valley and another at Bellandur Amanikere. The work on these two plants is expected to be completed by August 2016. BWSSB has made yet another proposal to set up a plant of 150 MLD capacity at Bellandur.

Two Intermediate Sewage Pumping Stations (ISPS) too are under construction at Sarakki and Agaram. The Board intends to establish new STPs at source areas including Begur, Hulimavu, Sarakki and Agaram, says BWSSB Chairperson T M Vijay Bhaskar. He believes that new treatment plants will solve the major issue related to Bellandur lake.

In addition, the government has made an ambitious project to supply treated water from STPs in Bengaluru to water-deprived Kolar district.

" What is the hindrance?

The government agencies claim finance as the main constraint for implementing works. The former BWSSB Engineer-in-Chief Venkat Raju had submitted before the Upa Lokayukta that setting up STPs in all inlets involved huge expenses. It may require Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 crore for which government sanction is necessary. "Around 110 villages located around Varthur and Bellandur lakes do not have UGD connection from which sewage flows to the lakes. In addition, there are more than 500 industries from which effluents enter the lake," he had said.

A few days ago, even BDA Commissioner has reportedly said that the agency will not be able to take up the development work of Bellandur lake due to lack of money.

" Where does Bellandur lake water go?

The sewage water that enters Bellandur lake mixes with fresh water and the excess water flows downstream into Varthur lake. Both these lakes are interconnected). Varthur lake empties itself in South Pennar River, also known as Dakshina Pinakini. The river which originates in Nandi Hills flows to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh states. Three dams have been constructed on the same river, which supply drinking water to Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts of Tamil Nadu.

" Who are the people trying to save the lake?

A group of people including lake and environment activists and residents of Bellandur-Varthur area are trying to preserve the lake. A few years ago, it was activists like C H Ram, Anil Kumar and Ramamurthy who tried to preserve Bellandur lake by taking up a legal fight. Now, a large number residents have joined their hands in the movement. A Facebook page ' Save Bellandur, Save Bengaluru ' too has been created to discuss and create awareness about the plight of Bellandur lake. In a recently held public meeting, former Bellandur Gram Panchayat President Jagannath and other residents discussed many options, including breaking the barrier of the river to let polluted water out, as a symbol of protest.

Another resident of Bellandur, Sanchita Jha started an online petition "Clean Up Bellandur Lake" on Change.org in September 2015. The online campaign has garnered over 20,580 supporters and intends to get support from 25,000 people before submitting the petition to the Chief Minister.

" What are the demands / opinions of the people?

1. Transfer ownership of lake to an accountable authority - BBMP, with proper budget.

2. STPs treat only domestic wastewater. What about establishing effluent treatment plants for industrial waste?

3. An expert study has to be conducted on the impact of government's project to supply treated water to Kolar, on Bellandur lake.

4. Learn lessons from Hussain Sagar lake in Hyderabad where studies have shown excess water pollution and groundwater contamination.

5. What is the logic behind setting up STP at Amanikere when it is at a distance of 10 km? Sewage water coming from Bengaluru has to go through Bellandur lake before it reaches the site where Amanikere is constructed.

" What needs to be done to save Bellandur lake?

Since Bellandur lake is connected to different agencies like BBMP (manages storm water drains), Revenue department (catchment areas / encroachment), BWSSB (sewage), LDA (overall lake management), BDA (lake rejuvenation), an integrated plan should be made to rejuvenate the lake.

B S Patil Committee formed by the High Court in 2011 has underlined the need for lake restoration. The process involves survey, removal of encroachments, settling litigations, preparation of DPR, technical approvals, tendering process and restoration work.

Transforming the lake to its original form is perhaps a gigantic task. It includes de-silting, removal of weeds, clearing encroachment, setting up treatment plants, diverting sewage water, re-establishing wetlands on the lake inlets and maintaining buffer zone.

A report by IISc Professor T V Ramachandra and team titled " Pathetic status of wetlands in Bengaluru " offers some solution to control 'Varthur - Bellandur - Yamalur' fiasco. The report bats for single agency with statutory and financial autonomy to be the custodian of natural resources (ownership, regular maintenance and action against polluters). It also suggests removal of encroachment based on reliable cadastral maps, regular removal of macrophytes in lakes.

In 2012, BDA signed a MoA with a US based private firm to prepare a vision plan for preserving Benagluru lakes. The Vision Plan titled 'Better Lakes, Better Bangalore,' too advocated a sustainable water plan for the city with special emphasis on Bellandur lake.

According to the researchers, rejuvenation of Bellandur-Varthur lake involves, de-silting, treatment of wastewater through constructed wetlands and algae ponds, re establishing inter-connectivity among lakes, ban on alterations in the topography, maintaining 30 m buffer zone around the lake etc.

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All you need to know about Bellandur Lake and its problems

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Bellandur lake-Bengaluru's largest lake, hits headlines often for all wrong reasons. The once bountiful lake has gradually transformed into a sewage tank. Formation of foam is a cause for concern among the citizens living around. The authorities claim to be doing their best to solve the problem.

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For the past four years, California has had the worst drought in its history. A rise in temperatures and a decline in rainfall have endangered several species of native fish. Lakes have dried up, crops have withered, and once-green lawns have turned brown.

As a result of the statewide water shortage, California residents have had to limit the amount of water that they can use. "Water is like the new oil around here," said Brandon Woo, a Math teacher at Foothill Middle School in Walnut Creek, California.

What has caused the drought? Scientists say that a combination of factors are to blame, including steadily rising temperatures because of climate change, a decrease in rainfall, and an increased demand for water as the state's population grows.
WHAT ABOUT THE ANIMALS?
The drought has not just affected people and land, but also wildlife. "The dry lands are causing more parasites [ticks, lice, and flies] to attack wildlife," said Alison Hermance, Communications Manager of WildCare Bay Area, an organization that helps protect local wildlife. "Almost all wild animals, including mammals and even birds, are being affected. The parasites not only annoy the animals tremendously, but they also cause a deterioration in their health."

Wildlife hospitals in the Bay Area of California have seen a significant increase on the number of animals affected by dehydration. Hermance's organization recommends that residents leave water in their yard for animals.

Wildlife experts are also seeing an increase in the number of animals being killed by rat poison. As rodents in distress invade an increasing number of homes, more people, who are unaware of the consequences, are putting out poison. Hawks, owls, and other animals may become sickened by eating a poisoned rodent, so WildCare strongly advices against the use of rat poison.
HELP FROM EL NINO
In January, just days after California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency to further limit water consumption, a miracle happened. El Niño, a rare climate shift that causes a change in temperature and rainfall, led to huge rain and snow storms-and a replenishment of the state's water supply.

But experts caution that people must continue to preserve water. "Even if the drought ends, we still have to watch our water consumption carefully, because it's limited," said Lynn Cassidy, the librarian at Foothill Middle School.

Kids can change their habits faster than grown-ups. Although we still need to shower, for example, we can decrease the number of water balloons we throw.

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For the past four years, California has had the worst drought in its history. A rise in temperatures and a decline in rainfall have endangered several species of native fish. Lakes have dried up, crops have withered, and once-green lawns have turned brown.

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Taps start to run dry in Brazil's biggest city

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Taps start to run dry in Brazil's biggest city

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For some in this traffic-choked megacity of futuristic skyscrapers, gated communities and sprawling slums, the slow-burning crisis has already meant no running water for days on end.

"Imagine going three days without any water and trying to run a business in a basic sanitary way," said Maria da Fátima Ribeiro, 51, who owns a bar in Parque Alexandra, a gritty neighborhood on the edge of São Paulo's metropolitan area. "This is Brazil, where human beings are treated worse than dogs by our own politicians."

Some residents have begun drilling their own wells around homes and apartment buildings, or hoarding water in buckets to wash clothes or flush toilets. Public schools are prohibiting students from using water to brush their teeth, and changing their lunch menus to serve sandwiches instead of meals on plates that need to be washed.

Officials are promising ambitious solutions, like new reservoirs. But they are a long way off, and many people in this vast metropolitan region of 20 million are frightened by forecasts at Brazil's natural disaster monitoring service that São Paulo's main reservoir system could run dry in 2015.

Experts say the origins of the crisis go beyond the recent drought to include an array of interconnected factors: the city's surging population growth in the 20th century; a chronically leaky system that spills vast amounts of water before it can reach homes; notorious pollution in the Tietê and Pinheiros rivers traversing the city (their aroma can induce nausea in passers-by); and the destruction of surrounding forests and wetlands that have historically soaked up rain and released it into reservoirs.

Deforestation in the Amazon River basin, hundreds of miles away, may also be adding to São Paulo's water crisis. Cutting the forest reduces its capacity to release humidity into the air, diminishing rainfall in southeast Brazil, according to a recent study by one of the country's leading climate scientists.

Officials also point to global warming. "Climate change has arrived to stay," Geraldo Alckmin, the governor of São Paulo State, said this month. "When it rains, it rains too much, and when there's drought, it's way too dry."

Shrinking water supplies are afflicting Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, two other powerful states, while some smaller cities in the region are canceling Carnival festivities this week over worries about the lack of water to clean trash-strewn streets after celebrations.

But São Paulo's crisis is particularly acute. Officials at Sabesp, the water utility controlled by São Paulo State, have acknowledged lowering the water pressure in the distribution network. While that effectively reduced the amount of water flowing through the system, the authorities have frequently insisted it is not the same as rationing, sowing confusion and anger among those unable to get water.

The water utility says it is pursuing a grandiose project to draw water from a nearby river basin and the construction of new reservoirs, though some efforts are not expected to be completed until well into next year.

"It's a water system which clearly hasn't been managed well," said Newsha Ajami, director of urban water policy at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, who recently met with water authorities here. "They're going for these megaprojects, which should be the last solution," when aggressive measures should have been taken months ago "to reduce consumption and leakage."

More than 30 percent of the city's treated water is estimated to be lost to leaks and pilfering. In a statement, the water utility said it was seeking to reduce leaks. It has been offering discounts to reduce consumption, while starting to impose steep fines this month on high water use.

Outright rationing - in which service would be cut entirely for certain periods, not just reduced - is "still under discussion and study," said Sabesp, the water utility, after rains in recent weeks slightly raised reservoir levels. But for people already experiencing what they describe as de facto rationing, the position of the authorities has been perplexing, at best.

"I feel hatred, hatred of the governor and of Sabesp," said Márcia Oliani, 54, the finance manager of an art gallery who endured six days without water in her apartment. "I'd like to take them out and set fire to them. They completely failed to warn us, and have just continued to lie about this throughout."

Water specialists warn that the crisis could still be in its early stages, meaning that the shortages in São Paulo, Brazil's economic capital, could hamper efforts to strengthen a sluggish national economy grappling with low prices for the commodities Brazil exports.

"They haven't hit the worst of it yet if they're not trucking in water in large amounts," said Steven Solomon, the author of "Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilization," comparing the crisis with the situation in cities in India and Pakistan where residents go foraging for water or buy it on the black market from truck-size tankers.

In a country where abundant water is a source of national pride, where crystal orbs containing the water from more than 15 Brazilian rivers have been displayed in the grand Ipiranga museum here, the crisis has some questioning how Brazil's mighty global city arrived at this point.

Ignácio de Loyola Brandão, a writer whose 1981 novel, "And Still the Earth," imagined a São Paulo grappling with ecological degradation and chronic water shortages, told reporters that he was not surprised at its water problems, citing the reluctance of many households to curb their own water consumption and what he called the nonchalance with which many people in Brazil treat scandals or natural disasters.

"The majority doesn't get indignant with anything," he said, "as if we're comfortably strolling toward our own demise."

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companhia de saneamento basico do estado de sao paulo

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São Paulo Water Crisis Linked to Growth, Pollution and Deforestation

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For some in this traffic-choked megacity of futuristic skyscrapers, gated communities and sprawling slums, the slow-burning crisis has already meant no running water for days on end. "Imagine going three days without any water and trying to run a business in a basic sanitary way," said Maria da Fátima Ribeiro, 51, who owns a bar in Parque Alexandra, a gritty neighborhood on the edge of São Paulo's metropolitan area.

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With no rain in SA, thousands wait for trucks to bring water

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With no rain in SA, thousands wait for trucks to bring water

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Newsela | In South Africa, volunteers deliver water to ease drought emergency

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Bellandur Lake, spread over 906 acres in southeastern Bengaluru, is the city's largest lake, and one of the only 70 that survive from the 272 of four decades ago. Until the Eighties, the lake was a vibrant ecosystem that nurtured a variety of birds, fish and insects, and a popular picnicking, boating and fishing site. Today, the lake, with a catchment area of nearly 279 sq km, is severely polluted. The dramatic growth of Bengaluru over the last two decades has led to massive amounts of domestic and industrial waste flowing into the lake. The encroachment of vast swathes of its catchment area by hundreds of apartment blocks, and the dumping of garbage on its shores, have throttled the flow of water into the lake and killed its biodiversity over time. The flow of untreated sewage and industrial waste has rendered the lake's water unusable for even irrigation. Bellandur Lake is now infamous for the gigantic clouds of froth that accumulate on its surface, spilling over into the many busy roads that skirt its shores several times a year.
A study by the wetland research group at the Indian Institute of Science's Centre for Ecological Sciences reported last year: "Land use analyses using temporal (1970s to 2016) remote sensing data show an increase in built-up area (paved surfaces, buildings, roads) from 5.4 per cent (1973) to 92.3 per cent (2016) with the decline in vegetation cover (58.0 per cent to 4.1 per cent), water bodies (4.3 per cent to 1.4 per cent) and other (open lands, agriculture) land uses (32.3 per cent to 2.1 per cent). Predication of likely land uses reveals that 94 per cent of the catchment would be concretised by 2020."

The Fire
It is not clear how a nearly five-acre area of the lake bordering an Army property caught fire on January 19. The fire raged for over seven hours, and required some 5,000 Army and fire service personnel to extinguish. Police and the state Pollution Control Board suspect the blaze started after miscreants set on fire dry grass on the lakeshore. But experts like environmentalist A N Yellappa Reddy believe that the deadly chemicals and large amounts of methane in the lake may have resulted in an accidental or small fire spreading over a vast area.

Bellandur Lake has witnessed occasional fires on its surface in the past as well, for which scientists have blamed the pollutants in the water. "Discharge of untreated effluents (rich in hydrocarbons) with accidental fire (like throwing cigarettes, beedi) has led to the fire in the lake," the IISc study said. "Incidence of foam catching fire are due to compounds with high flammability, i.e., mostly higher hydrocarbons and organic polymers from nearby industries..."
The largescale frothing on the lake's surface has also been attributed to the inflow of phosphorus from detergents and personal cleaning products through domestic sewage. "High wind coupled with high intensity of rainfall leads to upwelling of sediments with the churning of water as it travels from higher elevation to lower elevation forming froth due to phosphorous," the IISc study reported.
The Failure
One reason why the pollution-linked frothing on Bellandur Lake has continued for over three decades now, is the absence of any real accountability for the death of Bengaluru's lakes. Civic agencies have failed to upgrade in step with the unplanned growth of the city, resulting in the unregulated flow of sewage and industrial pollutants into water bodies like Bellandur Lake. The political will to act has been lacking, as the builder-politician nexus has rendered agencies like the state PCB largely ineffectual over the decades.
Is it Unique?
Of the 200-odd lakes that Bengaluru has lost over the past four decades, the government itself has reclaimed several dozen - to create bus stands, sports stadiums, housing complexes, and for public sector organisations like ISRO to set up facilities. Real estate firms have also been major beneficiaries of land allotment on lakeshores.

While Bellandur is most frequently in the news for the froth it throws up and the fires that break out on its surface every year, it is only one among several similarly polluted lakes. Varthur Lake, the second major lake in the city, is in an almost equally bad state. Again, the Vrishabhavati River in the western part of Bengaluru is now recognised only as an open sewer; like the Bellandur Lake, this river was once a source of drinking water for the city.
Way Forward
The IISc study recommended a "ban on phosphorus use in detergents or regulation of detergents with phosphorus in the market" as one of the most important steps to stop the incidents of fire on the lake. It also recommended a decentralised treatment of sewage, enforcement of the "polluter pays principle" for industries dumping untreated waste, and protection of the catchment area from further deterioration due to real estate projects, garbage dumping and encroachments.

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Growth gone rogue: Why Bengaluru's Bellandur lake keeps catching fire

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Bellandur Lake, spread over 906 acres in southeastern Bengaluru, is the city's largest lake, and one of the only 70 that survive from the 272 of four decades ago. Until the Eighties, the lake was a vibrant ecosystem that nurtured a variety of birds, fish and insects, and a popular picnicking, boating and fishing site.