Five-year housing construction ban, to deal with water crisis, is 'unrealistic': CREDAI Bengaluru

A leading real estate developers association, on June 18, 2019, termed as ‘unrealistic’, the Karnataka government’s plan to impose a five-year ban on the construction of multi-storeyed residential buildings in Bengaluru, in view of the acute water crisis. Reacting to the government’s intention, the chairman of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), Bengaluru chapter, Suresh Hari said it was unrealistic, ‘because it will bring development to a grinding halt’.

“Not only 10 lakh labourers will lose jobs and the whole industry will suffer but also the government will incur huge losses,” he said. The CREDAI president advised the government to conserve water, by reviving lakes, desilting water bodies, recharging groundwater and launching awareness campaigns on the judicious use of water.

However, the ‘People’s Campaign for Right to Water’ (PCRW) welcomed the decision, saying that the government was moving in the right direction. PCRW convener Kshitij Urs said: “The last two decades have been detrimental to Bengaluru’s growth, which was unprecedented and unregulated. Sustainability was not the agenda. We are going from one crisis to another.”

He said the water crisis in Chennai, in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, was a wake-up call. New water bodies should be created, instead of merely rejuvenating older ones, he added.

Deputy chief minister G Parameshwara had, on June 27, 2019, said that the state government was contemplating a five-year ban on construction of multi-storeyed residential buildings, in view of the acute water crisis. “Due to water scarcity, most of the apartment dwellers are dependent on water supplied through water tankers. This is resulting in water-borne and skin diseases. Hence, deliberations are going on, to ban the construction of apartments in Bengaluru for the next five years,” he said.

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