It was really an unfortunate incident, in which a women died in a lathi charge during the recent protest against the water cut in Mumbai. I feel that it was bit harsh to take such action against the people demanding their rights. Mumbai has been reeling under water shortage for quite a few years now and the situation doesn’t seem to brighten up. There are no specific undertakings by the state governing body, for proper utilisation and storage of water. Neither are the bits and pieces initiatives taken up by various non government organisations enough for the ever expanding population of the ‘city of dreams’.
Mumbai has seen quite a lot of development at an alarming rate, without the provision for the basic necessities of mankind. The lakes serving the city have never been increased in capacity. But an increase in capacity would mean reduction in real estate, which fills up the pockets of our elected representatives. And no matter whatever directives come out from our administrators, implementation is always an issue. I could go on lengths on the subject of implementation in India, but it wouldn’t serve the purpose.
Its time for citizens to act responsibly. Housing societies could take up initiative to harvest rain water during our diminishing monsoon, water, which normally flows in to our ever filthy sewer and back to sea, without serving its purpose. Few societies have already implemented such projects with very good results. And also with reduction of water bills. Also citizens should start being responsible while using water. I come across many incidents of taps being kept open and water running( may by mistake). This sums up to the more water bills, water wastage and consequently,water shortage. Its in our hand to save ourselves from the troubles. Remember, a human being can live on water alone for about 2 months, but cannot survive without water for more than 3 days.
Well written post .
We seafarers , especially those who have wrked in old ships and those who hav wrkd in Indian companies know the value of water . Most of the times in the old vssls the FWG is not wrking or produces very less water , and sometimes ( this was during the time 7-8 yrs back) we used to get long anchorages before berthing .
And then there used to be water rationing . water is let out only for 1 hour in evening and 1 hour in mornings or sometimes that is changed to even only half an hour .
i have even come across a situation where we were rationed just 2 buckets of water per day. And for sanitary purposes we were using sea watr filled up in drums on the deck. Boiler suits were washed by tying a rope to them and letting them hang down from the shipside into the sea . (this is more effectiv if the ship is sailing and u tie it near the wake of the ship), altho they used to get worn out much faster by this method.
Charity as they say shud begin at home. Thats why i feel sad that i have noticd for a long time that in the organisation that we ( u – Nilesh and me) are wrking i hav seen that there is a lot of wastage of watr. many a times the taps or flushes in the bathrooms are left open and watr is continuously wasted , until someone next notices it. And for the common areas like bathrooms in the offic u cannot even blame it on any particular person, coz every one will deny responsibility.
we shud all be more conscientious and make sure that we do not repeat these mistakes and that we do not tolerate such behaviour
My husband has been working in the Merchant navy and I have sailed with him and we have had water rationing quite often due to long voyages or long time in anchorage.
The problem is now faced at home also.We live in a big complex at Andheri (E) with over 400 apartments and we have water rationing with a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening.So I try not to waste water because the more water is wasted the less is available for our use later on.