In India, the “man of the lakes” works to restore water reserves

For centuries, a lake system provided water to this city in southern India. But since Bangalore became India's tech capital, it has lost three-quarters of its lakes and may, according to experts, no longer be able to meet the water needs of its nearly 12 million residents.

This is what decided Anand Malligavad, a mechanical engineer, to take action.

“Lakes are the lungs of the earth,” insists this 43-year-old man, nicknamed “lake man”. Around him, he told people: "if you have money, you might as well spend it on the lakes. It will serve you for decades."

Water scarcity is a chronic problem in India, which has nearly a fifth of the world's population but only 4% of its water resources, according to government think tank NITI Aayog.

The engineer first tackled a dry site filled with rubbish, which he passed on his way to work.

“Precarious water table”

He began by studying the techniques used under the Chola dynasty, which ruled southern India for centuries and transformed low-lying lands into reservoirs.

Of the city's 1.850 lakes that stored heavy monsoon rains and helped replenish groundwater, only 450 remain. Many have been drained to make way for buildings. And the concreting of canals causes flooding during heavy rains, preventing water storage.

According to the local research center Water, Environment, Land and Livelihoods (WELL), almost half of Bangalore depends for its water needs on intensive underground boreholes which often end up dry during the summer period.

Many residents are forced to rely on expensive water transported from far away by tanker truck. And the problem could get worse with climate change.

“We depend on a precarious water table and which will become more and more so due to more unpredictable precipitation,” says Veena Srinivasan, director of WELL. “We already don't have enough drinking water,” she notes, and “the sources we have, we pollute them.”

Rehabilitating the lake system can help alleviate the problem even if the city needs a large-scale urban water management plan, said this specialist.

According to Mr Malligavad, who has toured more than 180 ancient lakes, restoring them is not too costly as it simply requires "land, water, plants and canals".

“The rain will come”

The process is simple, he says. It begins by draining the remaining water in the lake before removing silt and weeds. Then he strengthens the dams, restores the canals and creates lagoons, before replanting trees and aquatic plants.

Then, "don't put anything there. Naturally, the rain will come and an ecosystem will emerge."

He convinced his company, a manufacturer of automobile components, to pay around 110.000 euros to finance its first project, the 14-hectare Kyalasanahalli Lake.

Using mechanical excavators, the engineer and his workers took 45 days to clear the site in 2017. And a few months later, with the arrival of the rain, he was boating on fresh, clean waters.

Since then, he has devoted himself full-time to lake restoration, with funds he raises from businesses.

To date, more than 80 lakes representing a total of more than 360 hectares have been brought back to life and it has extended its activity to nine other Indian states. This allows, according to him, to supply water to hundreds of thousands of inhabitants.

Despite the violence from a gang and the threats from real estate tycoons that he says he has suffered, the “man of the lakes” intends to continue his mission. His “greatest happiness” remains seeing children swimming in one of the lakes he has restored.