Water-less Vows and future

Last night Sachin tendulkar announced in front of National TV channel that he will bath in only one bucket of water so safe wastage. Will this stop wastage of water? Something much hilarious to this was the BMC Commissioner who kept on announcing Sachin’s promise on nation TV. The point is that who is going to keep vigil in Sachin’s bathroom. Without any doubt I can definitely say there is no announcement but curtsey government and BMC common man of Mumbai is taking bath twice a week in half bucket water. They cannot even think of taking full glass of water at a time to drink. I request BMC commissioner and Tendulkar to give this message to Maharashtra Governor because every day his garden consumes 4000 liter water. Our dear CM has faulty water meter, politicians need liters of water to clean their cars and dogs. It’s the upper crust always privileged but common man cannot even afford to do so.
Can you manage a family of five or more on four buckets of water day? That is a maximum of 80 litres a day. Not per person but for five people. Therefore, 20 litres per person per day. And then there are days when there is not a drop of water. This is the challenge facing millions of people, not in a water-deprived desert area but in Mumbai, the city with the best supply of water of any city in India.So if people predict that the next water wars in this decade will take place not between nations but between communities in our cities, they are not far off the mark. The wars will be between the poor, the most deprived, and between the rich and the poor. The rich will also suffer water cuts, as they already do. But they will manage without having to face too much hardship because they will always have the ability to hoard, store and buy water. The poor, on the other hand, will get less than they already do, which is little enough. And without permanent housing, they will never have the same ability to store water, as do those who live in puccabuildings. So the gap between the rich and the poor will be defined through access to water.
Increased burden
With this scarcity, the burden on women will increase, as it already has. Receding water tables and decreasing snow melt have forced millions of women, in deserts and mountain regions, in villages and towns, to work harder to find water. Somehow they must fulfil their principal duties of washing, cleaning, cooking — and so they scrounge and beg, and walk longer distances to fetch that one, two or three buckets of precious water.The other reality that is emerging is how, in times of scarcity, no one wants to share, be generous, least of all those who have enough. Housing societies in Mumbai, for instance, are making rules not allowing “outsiders” from taking out water from the buildings. These “outsiders” are actually the “insiders”, the domestic help in all our homes without whom our lives would be really difficult. They are the people who cook and clean and wash. They do this in homes where water flows through taps. And then when they finish work, they go out of the buildings to their homes in a slum where there are days without a drop of water. Yet, we feel justified in denying such people water at times of acute need. There is no culture in the world that defends the denial of water to a thirsty or needy person. Yet, the urban middle class ethos is defending just this.Mumbai is facing one of its worst water crises and the primary reason for it is the massive leakages in the city’s water supply lines.If that you think is grim, then here’s an even grimmer prognosis. The city will have to live with the water loss due to leakages. There seems to be no solution in sight.According to senior engineers with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s hydraulic department, bring down the percentage of water loss due to leakages beyond a certain point will be financially unviable and technically challenging. The wastage, they said, can be brought down to 15% of the total water supply that currently stands at 22%.Assuming that there is better monsoon in the city this year, which will restore the normal water supply of about 3,400 million litres daily (mld), then the city will lose close to 510 mld daily to leakages. Thus, going by the current demand for water, the amount of water that will be wasted would be sufficient to provide proper water supply to all the eastern suburbs.Even globally, the accepted norm for wastage of water through leakages in the water supply distribution system is just about 7%. Engineers, however, insist that the cost involved in detecting, repairing the leakage and then maintaining the restored condition is huge. Many of the leakages ran underground and beneath concretised surfaces, which makes repairing them even a technical challenge. According to the presentation made by Singapore’s national water agency — Public Utilities Board (PUB) — on Sunday, Singapore has been successful in bringing leakages down to 4.4% of their total water supply.The belief that all leakages in the city cannot be tapped and repaired will also pose a question mark on the efficacy of a plan to conduct a comprehensive water audit for the city. Former hydraulic chief TV Shah — widely considered as an expert in the field of water engineering — has already asserted that given the city’s topography and land-use, it will be difficult to carry out an accurate city-wide water audit. RTI exposes delays in arresting leakages: A Right to Information (RTI) query has exposed the BMC’s failure in arresting leakages. The RTI query filed by Yuva, a citizen’s activist group, had sought information of leakages detected in various wards between April 2008 and March 2009. Apart from revealing that an average 80 leakages occurred in a ward every month, the reply also brought to light a serious loophole. Despite the authorities knowing about it, many leakages are not being plugged in time. For instance, between May and August last year, several detected leakages in the Colaba municipal ward went unattended. The case was pretty much the same in other parts of the city as well. Civic officials passed the blame on procedural delays and resource crunch. Water projects, dams worth Rs 40,050 cr pending in state.Even as the state deals with a water crisis, a Right To Information query has revealed that over the last 10 years water projects worth Rs 40,050 crore are incomplete. The details provided by the state water department to RTI activist Chetan Kothari said there are about 75 minor projects, 181 medium and 1,125 major projects pending at various stages of work in the 11th five year plan (2007-2012). Blaming it all on the scanty rainfall, the government was on the verge of declaring drought in some parts of the state in 2009. Also, the city is dealing with severe water crisis for the first time ever. The RTI revelation is shocking in the time when we are dealing with water crisis. The project cost escalates with time leaving taxpayers to pay for the same.the irrigation water was not only necessary for farmers to grow crops but also for the commoner so that he does not end up paying high prices for the ration.The list of incomplete projects includes over 1,200 major and minor projects relating to irrigation and dams. The project work started without prioritising them. There is a need to prioritise the projects to take them ahead,there need to be plan to revive six lakes as a measure to resolve water crisis in the city. Revival of each lake is likely to cost about Rs2 to 4 crore. There is so much to be done but who cares..sachin Tendulkar’s one bucket Bath may safe sufficient water for mumbaikar.