Why is this Project needed?

For those who do not closely follow water issues and are wondering why a project like this is needed, I came across a very nice concise video at India water portal. It can be accessed here

It covers all the points which make you wonder where we are heading without getting into the details.

1. 50% of water supply gets lost due to inefficiencies.

2. The role of bottled water and tankers in our current water requirements.

etc.

The Bangalore Water Index

What is the Bangalore Water Index?

The Bangalore Water Index project aims to develop a means of quantifying the 'water health' of the city. This published index will track a judiciously selected set of parameters relevant to the water domain, using data released by government bodies like the BWSSB, technical information provided by NGOs and research institutions, information extracted through RTIs, as well as crowdsourced feedback from citizens.

Over a period of time, the index will draw a comparative picture of the quality, quantity, accessibility and reliability of water supply across various demographics and parts of the city, as well the responsiveness and effectiveness of government bodies in charge.


Why do we need a Water Index?

Bangalore Water Index Kickoff Meeting

A few of us are meeting on Saturday to kick off and plan the water index project. Details as follows:

Date: Saturday, 3rd April

Time: 11:00 am

Venue: Alliance Francaise

Agenda: Scope of index. Best representation. Parameters to be tracked. Information sources. Partners. Next steps.

Interested Praja members are welcome to join.

P.S.: You can read about the water index idea here.

Water Index parameters

Participants: Vishwanath Sir, Jenny, Rajesh Shah, Neha Dar, Rithesh, Shekhar, Srivatsva, Swati Dandekar
 

We met today at Alliance Francaise to define the scope of the water index and chalk out our next steps.

The scope of the index has been divided into 5 categories. The following is an initial list of parameters we came up with during the meeting. This list will continue to be built incrementally before we finalise a stable index.

1. Pipe Water

    a. Hours of Supply

    b. Coverage - Percentage of households having a bwssb connection.

    c. Unaccounted for Water- Calculated by measuring the amount of water that BWSSB bills to the amount of water that it supplies.

    d. Slum Coverage - Percentage coverage in slums. BWSSB mandates that every household in a slum must be given a water connection.

Create a PPT on the water index project

We need to create a presentation which can be sent out to all the experts, basically people who we think will be interested, detailing the project.

Bill Design Template

Zenrainman has to send out the current bill design details to all the project members.

New "<X- FACTOR>" Bill Design Template

Check out JNNURM benchmarks on water

List of Experts to Contact

Once we have the presentation and an initial list of parameters ready, we need to start reaching out to all the experts we can for feedback.

Let us create a list of experts we should get in touch with as well as the person who can be the point of contact.

This is a wiki so make the changes in the post itself.

1. Prof TV Ramachandra ( IISc) -- Neha/Manjari are trying to get in touch with him--DONE
2. Dr Shekhar Muddu ( IISc) -- He is a hydrogeologist. Zenrainman sir can get us in touch with him.--Meeting him on monday
3. Mr Tippeswamy (ex- BWSSB) -- Swati Dandekar is the point of contact. Consider checked out to Shekhar-DONE
4. Dr Harini Nagendra -- Who is he/she??--Sent out email--response awaited
5. Once we have reached out to all the above folks, we should also get in touch with Prof Ashwin Mahesh and Prof Rajeev Gowda.
6. Another name that came up at CiSTUP is of a Professor Mohan. It seems he has done a lot of work with BWSSB and was instrumental in getting RWH mandatory.---Sent out email--response awaited

Incremental List of Parameters

The following is an incremental list of the parameters we plan to track as part of the water index. We shall continue to add parameters until we finalise a stable index.

Request Praja members to review this list, focusing on
* Any broad category that has not been covered.
* Any parameter that has been left out.

To add to the list,

edit this wiki page and enter your suggested parameter(s) under the sixth category (Additonal Parameters). Please enter clear and concise parameters/descriptions. Rap on the knuckles for vagueness. :)

The first five categories form the initial list. Additonal parameters suggested by Praja members form the 6th category:

1. Pipe Water

    a. Hours of Supply

    b. Coverage - Percentage of households having a bwssb connection.

    c. Unaccounted for Water- Calculated by measuring the amount of water that BWSSB bills to the amount of water that it supplies.

Meeting Mr Tippeswamy

A meeting has been set up with Mr Tippeswamy (Ex-Bwssb) tomorrow. Thanks to Swati.

The venue is the IISc Cafeteria.

Time is 11am.

Kindly confirm who all are coming.

MoM - Meeting with Mr. Thippeswamy

Attendees: Shekhar Mittal, Jim Gowda, Zenrainman Sir, Manjari Vishnoi, Neha Dar

We met Mr Thippeswamy, Retd. Chief Engineer (BWSSB) on Saturday at IISc. Meeting minutes captured below.

• Mr. Thippeswamy reviewed our initial list of parameters and had the following remarks:       

             (1) Coverage - As per the Act, BWSSB must provide water supply to Bangalore Metropolitan Area. Only 50% has been covered.

             (2) Unaccounted for Water: This is really a subset of Non-revenue water. Both physical and commercial. Water is also lost due to cleaning of reservoirs, unexpected pipe bursts, supply to fire hydrants, etc.

             (3) Slum Coverage: It is not the BWSSB 's prerogative to proactively provide coverage to slums. Slum Clearance Boards/BBMP/BDA come to them with proposals, which they then implement.

Meeting with Siva from Indian Statistical Institute

Venue: Cafe Coffee Day at Outer Ring Road near Bellandur Junction

Info about him can be found here http://www.isibang.ac.in/~athreya/

The agenda is to figure out the representation of the parameters/data that will be collected for the water index.

MoM with Prof TV Ramachandran

Attendees: Neha Dar, Jim Gowda and myself.

We meet Prof Ramachandran from Center for Ecological Studies, IISc this saturday. Even though, he blasted us for not doing anything after our last meeting with him (read about it here), he spent over 2 hours with us discussing this project among other things. I like to call this meeting "He pulled up our socks" session.

Some of the points which were discussed are

Meeting with Prof Sekhar Muddu

Prof Muddu is a hydrogeologist at Civil Deptt IISc.

One can read about him here

All those who can make it, please confirm.

-Shekhar

BWSSB Data collection form

The data that we will ask from BWSSB on a regular basis. I think this is too much in detail, we will have to shorten up a bit. But it is a very nice starting point. So lets get the ball rolling.

Bangalore Bore well data

Total number of borewells in all BWSSB zones: 

31/01/09

28/02/09

31/03/09

30/04/09

31/05/09

Meeting with Gautham Ravichander from WISA-Janaagraha

I met Gautham Ravichandar who is co-ordinating the new WISA project at Janagrahaaa. I wanted to find out the extent to which they are tracking water in their index and see if there is any way we can collaborate.

So, WISA has hired around 50 people who are going to each and every ward to collect the required info. Once TOI publishes the data they plan to make it open for everyone. I am not sure whether they will make it online but people can go to their office and access that data.

Their focus is more on creating some sort of a quality of life index. The categories they are going to cover are 

1. BWSSB Supply - 1 thing to notice is that the plan to track the BIS Benchmarks measuring with the help of a NABH accredited lab.

2. Parks and Playgrounds

3. Sewage and Sanitation - Public Toilets

4. Mobility

5. Environment - Air Pollution, Green Cover

Need Volunteers for Sample Collection

Building on to the post made here and here

Janaagraha is collecting collecting info related to BWSSB water supply in all the wards. They need volunteers who  agree to get pressure meters installed in their houses and provide water samples to Janagrahaa. Janagrahaa folks will come to your house and install the meter themselves. You won't have to do anything.

The data generated will be useful for the water index which we are doing at Praja as well.

Volunteering for this requires no effort at all so I hope anybody who sees this post should agree to doing it.

Kindly make a comment giving your details: Area of Residence, Ward Number if you know it, contact details etc.

Thanks

Shekhar Mittal

MoM from meeting with Prof. M.Sekhar

Notes from our meeting with Prof. M. Sekhar, Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil Engg., Indian Institute of Science.

Participants: Shekhar Mittal, Neha Dar, Deepak Rajanna.

Our discussion mainly revolved around the IISc report on groundwater commissioned by the BMRCL. See bmrc.co.in/pdf/IISc-Report.pdf. Two important sources of information exist on the ground water situation in Bangalore.

1. The Department of Mines and Geology which has 8 collection points spread around Bangalore city that capture information on the ground water on a monthly basis. However, this data might not be available to the general public in it's raw form. Prof. Sekhar has given us references in the department who will be able to lend us the reports that they generate out of this data. See page 26 for more information; the "plus" signs on the map indicate the sampling locations.

2. IISc's ground water report for BMRCL. The main focus of the IISc Report is the impact of the underground sections of the metro on the ground water flow in Bangalore.

Create google map with all the bwssb zones mapped

 We need to create a map with all the BWSSB Zones mapped accurately.

This will give us a better idea of the situation in terms of Sewage Treatment Plants, borewells etc.

Rain Water Harvesting in Bangalore - A Report

Growth in the no. of buildings with RWH facilities over the last one year. 

 

Apr-09

Look up groundwater reports by BARC and NEIRI.

Meeting with Prof. Mohan Kumar

Prof. Mohan Kumar, http://cistup.iisc.ernet.in/files/mohankumar.pdf, Civil Engineering Dept., IISc

Participants: Shekhar Mittal, Deepak Rajanna, Manjari Vishnoi

The agenda of this meeting was to share the vision and approach of the Praja Water Index project with Prof. Mohan and to get his feedback and guidance. The feedback from Prof. Mohan was as follows

Bangalore Water Index - Project Proposal to the BWSSB

Folks,

Attached here is the project proposal we plan to go to the BWSSB with. Most of it is similar to Pranav's ppt, with a couple of edits - thanks for taking the lead on this, Pranav!

Have a look, and let us know what you think. Also - the parameters are not part of the presentation. That list will be enclosed separately.

Cheers,

Neha

Minutes of the meeting with Arghyam

Some notes from our freewheeling discussion with folks at Arghyam

Participants: Vijay, Deepak and Mrinalini from Arghyam. Manjari, Deepak and Neha

On Water Index

•  The feedback was that we should focus on a narrower scope (say, just collecting data on rainwater harvesting)
• If we are not able to get data from BWSSB directly are we going to take the RTI route? And if we do get data from BWSSB, will we be able to cross-verify it some way?
• Apart from collecting all the data, having an interface for smart queries might be a useful feature to build on Praja.

On Crowdsourcing

Meeting with BWSSB PRO

 We're meeting with Mr. Prahlad Rao, PRO (BWSSB) tomorrow to discuss the Bangalore Water Index.

Details as under: 

Time - 3:00pm

Date - Saturday, 28th August

Venue - BWSSB, 5th floor, Cauvery Bhavan, K.G. Road, Bangalore

Leave a note/call me if you'd like to come along. Or meet us there.
 

Cheers,

BWSSB presentation, Dec 6 2009

Dec 6 – 2009 Water Workshop

Presentation was made by BWSSB : http://www.slideshare.net/sanban14/bangalores-water-supply-situation-bwssb

Meeting with Chairman, BWSSB

Details:

• Time: 3:00 pm
• Date:  Thursday, 2nd September
• Venue: BWSSB Office, Cauvery Bhavan, KG Road, Bangalore
• Agenda: Bangalore Water Index proposal, data collection kickoff.

For reference: Proposal on Water Index

Water - Facts we should know!

"The world is not "running out water", but it is not always available when and where people need it."

"Every minute during the next 20 years, 30 Indians will leave rural India for urban areas. India will need some 500 new cities. If there were ever a time to focus on the smart growth of our urban areas, that time is now"

Water From Rainfall in Bengaluru!

Bengaluru city spread over 600 Sq Kilometers (266 Sq. Miles) receives an average rainfall of about 900 mm (35 Inches), Annually. Since rainfall is an important source of replenishing city's water sources, here is an attempt to tabulate the monthly and annual rainfall over a period and compute the same into total water received in terms of Cubic Kilometers (KM3).