Welcome to day number 12 of my blogging challenge for February 2022. Today’s theme is Sustainable Saturday. Last week I had written about water flowing out of a pipe, and the memories of water scarcity it revived. Lo and behold, the water crisis is already here. Tankers carrying municipal water have started feeding the pipes and tanks in the nearby neighborhoods. What worries me is that summer is yet to begin.
The Water Crisis is here
The water crisis is knocking at our doorsteps. In the current avatar, it is due to in efficient distribution network. Ideally, after an year of excess monsoon rains, Bengaluru should have a very high water table. But what might explain the row of water tankers in front of apartment buildings?The reason cited is “low pressure in the municipal water pipeline”.
Crisis appears man made
I suspect the current crisis is man made, and some people are out to make a quick buck or two out of it.
Getting water delivered through tankers to meet a part of the daily requirement is one piece of the puzzle. Poor distribution system inside neighbourhoods is another. For the past two weeks, we had to call up the maintenance people to fix the flush in the toilets. Till last year, the flush overflowed, or water would flow continuously for three or four minutes (The record is 32 minutes of non stop flow!)
Today, one of our flushes refuses to work. But one way or another water conservation becomes imperative. Which brings me to another thought.
Festival of Holi and the Hu Halla around Water Conservation
Ironically, this was not my original intention when I started drafting this post. But given the topic, and the time of the year, one is bound to come across some message or another promoting water conservation.Someone once posted on facebook,
“In a few days, you will start getting messages on saving water during Holi- from people who waste 4 liters of water everytime they flush.” That is quite true. As far as I am concerned, Holi is a festival of Colours, not water. But the “Water Warriors” pick the wrong occasion to raise their voice.
The fault lies with the planning
Globally, there is a movement to reduce water usage in offices, buildings, factories, and so on. Except for farming, water conservation is practiced either by owners voluntarily or because it is the law. But the municipal planners in our fine nation are to blame for the mess we are in. Who on earth decided that every individual needs 120 liters of water per day? And why are Urban planners planning for 150 liters, when globally the push is for 80 or even 70 liters per person per day?
More than half the water in the municipal systems gets wasted due to leaks, or due to illegal water connections. Increasing water supply is only going to exacerbate the situation.
Getting ahead of myself
This post is probably published one or two months before the water crisis hits real hard. Maybe an update of this post with facts and figures, with references and sources, and with charts and images, will make the message more relevant. In fact, I had voice recorded some of my thoughts in otter, and the message was inadvertently deleted. For good reason. The time for water crisis may be now. But the time to talk about it, is not.
About this blog post
This post was written as a part of #bloggingchallenge for February 2022. You can stay updated on my posts and wordcount by visiting the February 2022 Blogging Challenge Tracker page. The message was composed on Saturday February 12th, and the date of publishing reflects that time.
Wordcount for this post: 550. Time taken for drafting, editing and publishing: 40 minutes
This post was updated on 2022-06-04