| Changemakers

India's Silicon Valley Goes Dry
2008-07-03 14:54:18

The most surprising thing that’s going to happen in India is when Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, goes dry. Bangalore is known all over the world as India’s high tech city. It’s now impossible to get a house or a hotel room in Bangalore.

But it’s running out of water and there have been incidents. My assistant was watching a documentary where a couple of people that have moved back to Bangalore are now moving back to Canada or the U.S. because there is no water in Bangalore.

News item, June 18, 2008, Bangalore: We want water. So demanded a group of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) at a meeting with BWSSB officials in Indiranagar on Tuesday. Chief coordinator of the Coordinating Committee of RWAs, S C Burman, said Bangalore has seen tremendous growth in the last decade but the most basic requirement of a water supply system could not be developed.

July 1, 2008: As is the case in Bangalore, the Karnataka State Government is planning to make rainwater harvesting compulsory in all other cities and towns in the State. Urban Development Minister S Sureshkumar, who reviewed the department's work on Monday, told reporters that to raise the ground water table and meet the growing demands, the Government has decided to make rainwater harvesting mandatory in the limits of all 218 urban local bodies.

It’s been happening in the rural areas for a long time. One of the main reasons for drought and famine—and why people move to cities—is because the water table has gone down and there is drought. One of the ways we’ve adapted to shortages of food and water in Asia and Africa is by creating societies where it has become socially acceptable for some to over-consume food and water while others don’t have enough.

But these societies are about to crash because the people who are over consumptive—who are the decision making parts of the society and the elite—including, for example, people like the high tech engineers who are probably earning over a million dollars a year—will continue to buy water in bottles to drink, but they will not get water in their taps. They will have to wait for water to come. Then they will get into gated communities in which water is brought to their place in tankers under armed guard because there will be tension with the people who have no avenues for consumption—they live in the same city.

The people who are the elite will start to move out of Bangalore. Many of them will start to move back to the U.S., and a lot of them will say, “You know what? We thought India was great because there is big economic development, but hey! How can you handle it if there’s no water?”

You’ll see a large-scale movement away from Bangalore. The very people that came and created the economic development in Bangalore will move away from it.

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water film festival

by sayed irshad ali on September 16, 2008 - 20:06

respected sir
is a a pleasure to met u in bangalore when u came to inaugrate water film festival .
if u remember after finishing movies u came near by art work done by my friend and we had a small talk and u had a photograph with us i was with two girls . i am a art student doing masters in painting from bangalore but actually i am from udaipur (rajasthan ) one of the most beautiful place in india .but i am studying in bangalore
after watching some movies in festival . it really moved me and i was shocked by scenes that people r having so much problem with water .whatever u said about water in bangalore is going to be a future if we havent realiazed it right now . next day i manage to take my friend s to the film festival .and i am keep telling to all the students in college go and watch this festival on water.
i think we should show this movie to every city in india and especially in schools so that young upcoming genaration can understand the vlaue of water .
is really sad that in india many villages they dont have clean water i think we r equally responsible fo this .but i got y lesson from this festival
i should thank u bec i was there in the morning helping my friend to install her work over there . than i heard in background that u r coming there bec of u i stayed there till the last .
i heard u saying that u r making movie on water
i will wait for that .
sir i love your movie masoom a character driven story
i love each and every character in that movie
this movie is close to my heart too somewhere i can relate myself
is a pleasure to met u sir
insha allah see u next time u never know we can meet again