Bengaluru, 22 March

Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board on Friday launched an innovative programme called 'Green Star Challenge' for hotels and restaurants across the City with an aim to conserve water, on the occasion of World Water Day. The first to join the challenge is Shangri-La Hotel, which has installed an aerator to reduce water consumption.

Amid severe water crisis in the City, V Ram Prasath Manohar, Chairman of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) assured that in the next 99 days, they will make Bengaluru self-sufficient. “So, today is World Water Day and on behalf of BWSSB, Bengaluru Jala mandali is launching a new programme called Green Star challenge. This is a competition with lot of responsibility. We want to have a self-sufficient Bengaluru in next 99 days. We are also taking up this challenge that we will make Bengaluru self sufficient in next 99 days. Only 99 days. For this, we are taking concerted efforts and lot of measures are being taken up. As part of the first measure, We are promoting panchasutras (five principles and actions) to promote water self sufficiency,” he told PTI videos.

“The first action is to save the water and use water efficiency technology and devices. Second principle is to use eco-friendly treated water for non-drinking purposes. Third principle is to maximise the recharge of underground water by putting lots of rainwater recharge structures,” he said.

"So, here in Bengaluru, the famous brand Hotel Shangri-La is taking up the first Green Star challenge to implement all these five star actions so that it will reduce the water consumption in next 30 days and at the end of the 30 days, they will be verified whether they have taken up all the five measures." “ If they have taken up and conserved the water…depending upon their conservation level, we will give them the “Green Star” certification. This certification will promote their brand and it will also promote water conservation and it will save our water,” he added.

Recently, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Bengaluru was facing a shortage of about 500 million litres of water per day (MLD) against the requirement of 2,600 MLDs. According to the government, 1,470 MLD water comes from the Cauvery river to Bengaluru and 650 MLD is sourced from borewells. There are 14,000 borewells in Bengaluru, of which 6,900 have dried. Water bodies have been encroached or died.