Dried and tested future

Water woes are upon us. Even as new crisis’ arise almost every day, the Silicon Valley of India which boasts of being a technological hub is looking at a grave and dry future. According to a recent report, Bengaluru comes second in a list of 11 cities worldwide that are likely to run out of drinking water, and cities like Cape Town are also on that list. According to UN-endorsed projections, the global demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40 per cent in the year 2030.

Everyday various construction projects in the city are wiping out water. Struggling under the problem of sewage, and water systems, rampant and unmanaged high rises are adding to this burden. An in-depth inventory of the city’s lakes found that 85 per cent had water that could only be used for irrigation and industrial cooling.  The city’s youth are a worried lot, and rightly so. We explore how they are making a difference, and what one can do to save our water resources.

Varsha Sankameswaran, a software engineer feels that as the city is on the path to becoming a technological hub, to achieve this, water scarcity problems have been gravely ignored and a wake-up call is the need of the hour, “I feel if this problem is not addressed even at this point, it will be too late. With a number of lakes having disappeared in the past decade, this issue needs to be addressed as a priority. The lake where I stay was to undergo desilting before the first rains, but the process was started late. If it had been completed earlier, we would have had a good amount of water stored. Now, we will have to wait till the next rains to fill the lake. Personally, I use a bucket of water, rather than running water to clean my car.”

Everyone needs to step up. Kaumudhi Chandrashekhar, a student tries to ensure that people around her play a part in the conservation of water. “Due to the (high) infrastructure development, rain water isn’t reaching the water table. As a remedy, we need to incorporate more water harvesting pits in our localities. I try to warn my neighbours if there is an overflow of water. I have seen a lot of water used in cooking going to waste. I utilise it to water plants,” says Kaumudhi.
To see change, one needs to be the change, and Pragathi S, a student feels that we might have to evacuate the city if water woes persist. She explains, “If water woes persist, then the city will definitely have to be vacated. I feel that people must be educated about this, and the various ways for conserving water. Rainwater harvesting is the most economical way. My mother washes vegetables in a vessel, instead of under a tap. This water is reused to water plants. Instead of washing the car once a week, I wash it twice a month.”

Water expert Kshitij Urs believes that proactive steps are the only answer, “It hardly comes as a surprise as there have been many warnings. This issue has been taken not just with the government but also with the courts. The high court has given an order to the government to submit a report on the use of lake water as drinking water. We have seen lakes and wet lands systematically destroyed. We are dependent fully on the Cauvery supply, and now even that is going dry due to climate change and deforestation. The water range of the Cauvery has been decreasing. Last year was the first time we had to draw water from the dead storage which is otherwise, untouched. I feel that the culture of saving water is not there, as there is no model a common man can follow. Collective effort should be taken both by the government as well as the common man.”