It’s a scene all too familiar to Bengaluru residents — waking up to dry taps, empty tanks, and unanswered calls to water tankers. The question of the morning isn’t “how are you?” but “did the water come?” For a city known as India’s tech capital, its struggles with basic water access have become a daily frustration.
But Dr Rohit Nara, a Bengaluru native and sustainability expert, believes the problem isn’t water scarcity — it’s water mismanagement.
Growing up amid these unpredictable water routines, Dr Nara developed a deep understanding of the structural inefficiencies, fragmented distribution, and overdependence on private water sources that have plagued the city. Rather than accept the status quo, he set out to fix it.
Bengaluru receives adequate rainfall, yet continues to suffer from severe water shortages, especially during summers. The unregulated borewell use, aging infrastructure, and patchy tanker networks have turned a manageable issue into a full-blown crisis.
According to Dr Nara, “It’s not that Bengaluru doesn’t have water — it’s that we don’t know where it is, how much we use, or where it’s wasted.”
To address the crisis, Dr Nara and his team developed a real-time water management platform that uses data analytics, community reporting, and smart sensors to track water usage, detect leakages, and optimise supply chains — including tanker dispatches.
His project, JalaTrack, is now being piloted in several wards across Bengaluru and has already helped reduce residential water wastage by over 30% in test zones.
Dr Nara isn’t just calling for high-tech solutions; he’s pushing for community awareness, rainwater harvesting mandates, and equity in water distribution — especially for lower-income areas often left out of tanker supply routes.
“There’s enough water for all of us — if we stop treating it like a private commodity and start managing it as a shared resource,” he says.
As Bengaluru continues to grow, Dr Rohit Nara’s model offers a hopeful path forward — one that blends local knowledge, modern technology, and civic accountability.
In a city where dry taps have become a norm, his vision reminds us that the solution isn’t just in more water — it’s in smarter, fairer, and more transparent water governance.
