India: Tech hub Bengaluru's water crisis turns political

Once a week, Chitra Jayaraju and her children get up early in the morning to wait in line at a community water tap near a housing complex in the southern tech hub of Bengaluru.

"Earlier we used to get water twice a week, now we only get it once," she said. "In the past three to four months, the price of drinking water has also doubled," she told DW.

Bengaluru, one of India's most populous cities, primarily sources its water from the Kavery river and borewells. However, the wells are drying up as groundwater levels drop amid persistent droughts.

Many residents are now dependent on water from expensive tankers. One local resident, who asked not to be named, told DW that groundwater in his neighborhood had been depleted by too many wells.

He said a private water supply business in his locality dug several borewells to extract water, impacting the underground supply of the area. He said he was then forced to buy water from the same company.

In recent months, the price of tanker water has risen drastically. Water price inflation reached a point where the government had to step in and cap water tanker prices.

In March 2024, Karnataka state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the state capital Bengaluru, a city of more than 13 million people, was facing a daily water deficit of 500 million liters (roughly 132 million gallons) — almost 20% of its total demand.

Climate change gets political in India

Environmental topics rarely play a central role in Indian elections. However, as Bengaluru went to the polls on April 26 in the second phase of a mammoth general election, water shortages were a key issue.

The contest is centered on India's two top parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party, and the Indian National Congress, or Congress for short.

The political landscape in Karnataka is dynamic, with shifts between the Congress and the BJP in recent elections. The Congress is currently running Karnataka.

As India experiences more negative effects of climate change, issues that affect voters directly, like water shortages, are set to be weaponized politically.

The BJP has already criticized the incumbent Congress for allegedly mismanaging the water shortages in Bengaluru.

Malavika Avinash, BJP spokesperson in Karnataka, told DW that the water crisis will swing votes away from Congress.

"The failure of the Congress government in handling the water crisis will only increase the anti-Congress emotion in Bengaluru," she said.

She called the water situation "a making of the Siddaramaiah government," adding that the government was "completely ill-prepared to handle the [lack] of rains this summer."

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, of the Congress party, has placed blame with India's central BJP government led by Modi.

Shivakumar has alleged that the Modi government had a hand in exacerbating the crisis by stalling the Mahadayi and Mekedatu projects, which are planned river diversion and water sharing schemes that are meant to provide more water to Karnataka.

"There is no such scarcity of water in Bengaluru, it is the BJP that has created the scarcity," Shivakumar told Indian media in March.

Malini Ranganathan, an associate professor at American University in Washington, DC, who specializes in health and development, told DW it is "possible that the news media in India, largely captured by the BJP, is focusing on the water crisis because Karnataka is currently a Congress-run state."

"It is also undoubtedly true that the city and the state of Karnataka are periodically flung into a water crisis regardless of who is in political power at the state level," she added.

Still, according to Ranganathan, Bengaluru's water crisis "is political, not primarily ecological," and exacerbated by unchecked real estate development and corrupt practices.

Wealthy Indians have better access to water

Ranganathan also highlighted class politics behind water distribution in Bengaluru.

"Water is not only geographically differentiated, but also highly class- and caste-stratified in the city," she said.

Members of the upper and middle classes, which tend to be predominantly upper caste, live in approved residential areas, and receive water supply from the Kavery river. Other areas depend almost entirely on groundwater and tankers, Ranganathan said.

And left in the lurch are people like Chitra Jayaraju, who say the water issues will persist regardless of who is in charge.

"My neighbors and I have approached the local politicians of both the BJP and Congress party," she said, "but haven't been able to get our water woes addressed."

Edited by: Wesley Rahn