‘Water is Future’: Charting a water secure, climate resilient Karnataka

Our bond with water begins before birth and endures beyond death. From a child’s first bath to the final rites, water is life’s sustainer, purifier, and healer. As I travel through Karnataka, I see it in the farmer’s sweat, the river carrying ashes and the village well yielding hope. Water is not a resource—it is life. Honouring this elixir of life is our duty to future generations.

A critical juncture:

Karnataka is at the water crossroads. Over seven per cent of India’s desertified land lies here, with droughts having become routine.

The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and Karnataka Ground Water Directorate data reveal groundwater extraction rose from 66.3 per cent (2023) to 68.4 per cent (2024), with annual drawal up from 11.3 to 11.6 billion cubic metres despite slight recharge decline. About 20 per cent of taluks are over-exploited.

Urban areas suffer most:

Bengaluru Urban and Rural hit 100 per cent extraction in 2024. The Dynamic Groundwater Resource Assessment flags 45 severely over-exploited taluks—Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Bengaluru Rural, Chitradurga—with rates of 147–193 per cent. Dry wells, deeper boreholes, and long treks for water are everyday realities. Yet, targeted Lift Irrigation Schemes (LIS) and conservation structures have downgraded six over-critical, four critical, and 10 semi-critical taluks in two years. This amply illustrates that intervention works and quite well, at that.

Globally, the UN Special Rapporteur on water rights warns that treating aquifers as private property fuels abusive extraction, jeopardising marginalised communities. Karnataka must view groundwater as a communal fixed deposit—preserved and grown, not recklessly drawn.

Lessons from success:

Karnataka has reversed decline before. The K&C Valley, Hebbal–Nagavara, and Vrishabhavathi treated-water recycling projects—Asia’s largest—treat Bengaluru’s wastewater to NGT/CPCB standards via BWSSB, then replenish tanks across Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Bengaluru Urban/Rural, and Tumkuru through minor irrigation. Extraction fell 58–73 per cent, earning UN recognition as a replicable model.

The Minor Irrigation Department maintains 3,785 tanks and has built over 8,000 conservation structures. Under Atal Bhujal Yojana, 736 structures rise across 1,199 stressed Gram Panchayats, with 2,214 Digital Water Level Recorders tracking levels daily. Science, technology, and community convergence recharge aquifers—but scale and institutionalisation are urgent.

Reduce, reuse, recharge and recycle:

Born of necessity, ‘Water is Future’ unites conservation under the 5A Framework:

Aspiration – A water-secure Karnataka where no child drinks contaminated water, no farmer abandons land; rooted in dignity and the right to water.

Action plan:

There is a need to classify gram panchayats (GPs) into red, yellow and green categories via a Master Atlas mapping wells, aquifers, and structures. Deliver localised plans: Check dams, percolation ponds, crop-water budgeting, extraction regulation. Establishing GP-level water knowledge centres for capacity building.

Awareness campaigns: Multi-channel outreach via schools, workshops, digital platforms, and conducting Nirridare Nale Grama Sabhas on World Water Day. There is a need to empowering women, youth and citizens as stewards.

Awards for accomplishment: Celebrate innovators in harvesting, irrigation, and agriculture to spark replication.

Achieve Prosperous Karnataka – Link water security to growth via industry-academia-civil society partnerships.

Institutional backbone:

A Project Management Unit (PMU) within the Groundwater Directorate must anchor the execution. It will house a Centre of Excellence, deploy a digital water stack using satellite imagery and AI to monitor lakes/aquifers, and oversee GP plans.

KPIs: Groundwater trends, geo-tagged recharge structures, extraction cuts in red zones, data drives agile and, governance accountability.

SDG alignment:

‘Water is Future- advances multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

SDG 6 (Clean water): Sustainable withdrawal via recharge, harvesting, reuse.

SDG 3 (Health): Cleaner aquifers reduce contamination.

SDG 2 (Zero Hunger): Equitable irrigation supports climate-adaptive farming.

SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities): Treated wastewater reuse, borewell regulation.

SDG 9/12: Digital monitoring, efficient practices.

SDG 13 (Climate action): Healthy wetlands and aquifers build resilience.

From data to duty:

The 2024 national data shows recharge at 446.90 BCM, extractable 406.19 BCM and extraction 245.64 BCM. Safe units rose from 62.6 per cent (2017) to 73.4 per cent (2024); over-exploited fell from 17.24 per cent to 11.13 per cent.

One should note that progress is possible—but Karnataka’s local crises demand urgency.

Governance sets frameworks; citizens drive change. Shift from extraction culture to ‘reduce, reuse, recharge, recycle—the Prime Minister’s mantra. Install harvesting pits, reuse treated water, recharge collectively, diversify crops and adopt precision irrigation.

Time, one joins ‘Water is Future’. This is not just a programme, but a people’s movement. Every drop saved, tank revived, borewell regulated is patriotism. Let cradle and pyre, field and factory, hamlet and metropolis share one truth: clean, abundant water. That is the future we owe our children.

(The writer is Minister for Science and Technology and Minor Irrigation, Karnataka)