There are not many cities that can run out of water in April and struggle with flooding by September.

Bengaluru has lived with that contradiction for years.

But long before tankers, pipelines and pumping stations, the city had found a way to manage both problems at once. More than 500 years ago, it developed an interconnected network of stormwater canals called Rajakaluves that linked lakes across the landscape. During heavy rains, excess water flowed naturally from one lake to another instead of flooding streets. In drier months, the same system helped replenish groundwater and store water for the future.

One surviving stretch of this historic network is the K100 waterway.

Once an open drain carrying nearly 130 million litres of untreated sewage every day, it has now been restored into a thriving public corridor where people walk, birds have returned, and rainwater once again has space to flow.

Its revival is not just cleaning up a neglected canal. It is bringing back a centuries-old water management system that once allowed Bengaluru to thrive without a major river.

A city built around rain

Long before water was pumped from the Cauvery, Bengaluru relied almost entirely on rainfall.

In the 16th century, the city's founder, Kempe Gowda, developed a network of interconnected Rajakaluves that channeled excess rainwater from one lake to another through Bengaluru's........

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