Over the past few years, Bengaluru ’s water crisis has been manifesting itself in multiple forms, from lakes spewing froth and bursting into flames to residential complexes almost entirely dependent on tanker trucks for water supply.Then came a recent report by the Centre for Science and Environment that the city was facing the same grim prospects as Cape Town in South Africa, which is counting down to the day it will have to turn off its taps to conserve water. There are many reasons why a city once renowned for its 280-odd interconnected lakes now faces a water crisis. This includes an explosion in its population, increase in built-up areas, wastage of water and pollution of its water resources.In its 2016 report, Water Situation in Bengaluru, the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science pointed out that the city had sufficient water but achieving sustainability would depend on political will, a willingness to adopt decentralised models and citizens asserting their right to water. That may well be a work in progress.But true to its identity as a tech and startup hub, Bengaluru has seen a few companies, from startups to multinationals, come up with technology-led innovations to tackle the various aspects of the water crisis.Some of these are being supported by the Karnataka government, as part of its policy to help startups working to solve the water crisis, in the form of a competition titled Grand Challenge Call 6. While it would be specious to argue that any or all of these would be a magic bullet to the city’s growing water woes, these might point the way forward for a city fast running out of alternatives.This is how much my sevenyear-old’s long bath has cost me this morning,” Vivek Shukla, says with a smile, pointing to the data displayed on his startup’s app, WaterOn, on his mobile phone. The app is one part of the startup, SmarterHomes, which uses internet of things to help users track exactly how much water each household is consuming, using a smart water meter.This solution was a response to one aspect of Bengaluru’s worsening water crisis: apartment complexes buying water through tankers, but not being able to track its use. Shukla and Kasturi Rangan, the cofounder, were colleagues at Wipro EcoEnergy and neighbours. They realised their apartment society was struggling with uneven water supply. “Everyone had to pay a flat fee of Rs 2,100 a month and people were complaining about that,” says Shukla.The solution, they realised, was metering. But conventional apartment designs made it difficult to track. The duo then came up with wireless meters that would be attached to each water inlet in a home, to monitor flow in real-time and send the data to the cloud, which can be accessed by users via the app.This meant users could track how much water they were using and if there were any leaks at the residences. Using the app, one can track daily and monthly consumption patterns as well as cut supply to individual inlets remotely.“With a smart meter, every single use is logged, including the length and quantity of consumption,” says Shukla. When people began to be charged for what they were consuming, they also changed their usage pattern. But the idea, he clarifies, is to curb wasting water.After the meters were installed, the company says customers have been able to reduce consumption by 35 per cent or more. The product was launched in July 2015 and the company has sold 14,000 units, each priced at Rs 9,500.But it has now pivoted to a model where it offers metering as a service, for which users can choose from monthly slabs ranging from Rs 45 to Rs 120. The startup, which got funding from Macquarie Bank, UK, is currently expanding to Oman and Kuwait.It is in talks with p a r tners in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand to launch in those geographies as well.With a population of around 10 million, the city of Bengaluru consumes approximately 1.4 billion litres of water a day. However, the installed capacity to treat its sewage is estimated at 58 per cent , with much of that wastewater being pumped into the city’s many lakes. A team of scientists at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru have now come up a solution to tackle this issue, which they say is low-cost and has zero wastage.Led by Sanjiv Sambandan, an associate professor at IISc who is also cross-appointed at the University of Cambridge, Openwater.in converts wastewater (grey water) to potable water that conform to the specifications of the International Organization for Standardization.“In Bengaluru, it would certainly help if wastewater treatment is done at the community level. But currently, this practice is not widespread because many existing technologies pose logistical difficulties,” says Sambandan.Openwater’s device applies an electric field to particles in water, which clusters particles to form big enough entities that can be arrested in a sieve. “You don’t need a fine membrane for this, thus removing that cost. And unlike in reverse osmosis, there is zero wastage of water,” says Karthik Raghunandan, the startup’s chief operating officer.It uses a plug-and-play model and capacity can be scaled up by increasing the number of devices or modules used, similar to solar panel cells. “Which means that in case one of the stages fail, it will only affect a small fraction of the output,” says Raghunandan. The device can treat 250 litres a day. The team estimates that the low-cost solution should be in the market by next year.Last year, Openwater got a grant of Rs 10 lakh from the Karnataka government, which would be used to make the device solar-powered, so that it can also be used in places where power supply is erratic. “We have received several enquiries from industries, which have to compulsorily treat their water,” adds Raghunandan.According to a World Bank Study, 32 billion cubic meters of water is lost every year in the form of leaks and thefts, half of this in developing countries.The water thus lost is referred to as non-revenue water (which cannot be billed or accounted for) and it is a challenge for every government to reduce this. The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), with its network of aging pipelines, is no exception to this problem. But over the past few years, it has been able to bring down its non-revenue water by 12 per cent , to 37 per cent , says executive engineer PN Ravindra.This is partly due to its adoption of technology in the form of a water information hub, designed by IBM and launched in 2015. Called the Intelligent Operations Centre, it provides a digital dashboard that enables the department to track the various parts of its water supply network and generate data using analytics.IBM: says it began working on the project some years ago with the idea of helping governments preserve natural resources, as well as monitor the quality of water.“There are several ‘assets’ involved in a government water supply system, such as a pipeline network, meters, service engineers, etc. We wanted to create an information hub that would monitor and connect all these and become a single point for data, so that there is a good visibility of the resource,” says Shalini Kapoor, director and distinguished engineer (IoT), IBM Watson. The pilot was launched in 2014 and the final rollout took place the following year.The system uses automated water meter readers to track use, flow meters to measure the flow and pressure. It also monitors complaints raised by users and service engineers. Billing and revenue have been integrated into the system as well, and revenue projections are also monitored. Dashboards are created using this integration, and analytics reports generated from the data.Kapoor says compared to the earlier system of manual monitoring, there is now clarity on how much water is being used in each region, for instance. “Today, the BWSSB knows exactly how many working meters are there, the status of complaints, the number of work orders created to address complaints and its status.”While governments in developing countries are conscious about the lack of access to affordable clean water faced by many and has invested money for solutions, these systems are often hobbled by its dependence on human intervention.“In villages, for instance, the person in charge of maintaining a purifying system might not be easily available when something goes wrong — he might have gone elsewhere after putting his acquaintance in charge who would not know what to do,” says Pavin Pankajan, executive director of AquaSafi.To overcome this, the Deshpande Foundation-incubated startup has come up with an automated water purifying kiosk, which uses a proprietary RO technology, and sells 20 litres of water for Rs 2.“We have reduced human dependency using IoT (internet of things), and the kiosks do not require an operator. People can come and collect water anytime,” says Pankajan.AquaSafi was set up by Chicago-based Kevin Cluff in March 2011, with the aim of building a sustainable business that would provide clean drinking water at a low cost and is thus accessible to the underprivileged.Pankajan, who has a master’s in water resource engineering from IIT-Bombay, came on board as executive director after meeting Cluff at a conference, where they realised they shared a passion for providing low-cost drinking water.AquaSafi has set up over 300 kiosks in Karnataka, including in Bengluru.Automation has also brought down the operating expense. The IoT-based system sends messages in case of any issues, and is capable of shutting it down automatically to prevent further damage.“When it gets corrected, it will restart automatically.” Thanks to using internet of things, the startup has been able to break-even, with an annual turnover of Rs 2 crore, though margins remain slim.The company has also received a grant from the state government for its next project, which is looking to automate sending a message to households “when the mechanic turns the valve on for water supply.”The long-term goal is to work on solutions to scientifically help recharge groundwater and surface water sources. “We need to look at sustainability. We are working with villages to help them be completely sustainable over the next 10 years.”Introduced by Cape Town in South Africa, which is facing a severe water crisis, Day Zero is when the city plans to turn off most of its taps to conserve water and citizens would have to line up at collection sites to collect a specific daily quota of water. It is supposed to be triggered when the city’s six major dams reach a storage level that is enough only for critical services.It is not a fixed target. For Cape Town, it has been moved from August this year to 2019, thanks to an improvement in its water situation. However, residents continue to live with a strict consumption ceiling of 50 litres per person per day.A study by Centre for Science and Environment’s Down to Earth magazine reported that Bengaluru was one of the 10 metropolitan cities that are “moving quickly towards Day Zero”. The analysis showed at least 200 cities across the world are fast running out of water