New study warns of water crisis in 80 B'luru wards by Feb 2025, expected to escalate in March-April
Bengaluru: A new study has raised alarms over a looming water crisis in over 80 wards in Bengaluru, especially in its peripheral areas, including K R Puram and Mahadevapura.
The study, conducted by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and cited by Deccan Herald on Tuesday, revealed that groundwater levels are set to decline as early as February 2025, with conditions expected to worsen further in March and April.
It mentioned that 110 villages located beyond the Outer Ring Road (ORR) are projected to experience a significant drop of 20 to 25 meters in groundwater levels. Although areas within the ORR will also be impacted, they rely less on groundwater due to a more stable supply of piped water.
The 80 wards most at risk depend heavily on borewells to meet their water needs, drawing approximately 800 million litres of water daily. This is due to the BWSSB’s incomplete water distribution network in these regions.
Few of the critical wards include Konankunte, T Dasarahalli, V Nagenahalli, Horamavu, Ramamurthy Nagar, Kammanahalli, Kadugondanahalli and Jakkur.
The urgency of the situation follows last year’s harsh summer, which highlighted the city's growing water scarcity challenges. In response, the BWSSB established a special task force consisting of IISc scientists and officials from both state and central groundwater development departments, DH stated.
Over the course of six months, the task force analysed water supply data and groundwater levels to develop a sustainable action plan to address the crisis.
BWSSB Chairman Dr Ram Prasath Manohar emphasised the importance of reducing reliance on borewells, especially in high-risk wards, and encouraged residents to switch to Cauvery water connections. He mentioned the increased availability of water under the Cauvery Stage V project, DH added.
However, despite these efforts, residents in some areas are still without Cauvery connections due to the lack of feeder and sub-feeder lines.
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AI-enabled sign language interpretation, live dubbing of PM's speech at AI Impact Summit
New Delhi (PTI): India's strides in artificial intelligence were showcased during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at the AI Impact Summit here on Thursday, which was dubbed live in 11 languages, along with an AI-enabled sign language interpretation.
The AI-enabled sign language interpretation was projected on a large screen behind the prime minister in the auditorium at Bharat Mandapam, ensuring the speech was accessible to everyone.
The speech was dubbed live in 11 languages: Assamese, Bangla, English, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.
Videos featuring the multilingual and sign language interpretations were shared on the prime minister's social media accounts.
