water conversation
It is easy to say - “conserve water” and lately, everyone seems to be saying it!
We had several NGOs disturbing us by distributing pamphlets about conserving water. Aiming that crumpled pamphlet to the waste basket, I used to wonder “Why are they wasting paper in the name of saving water?” After hearing NGOs blaming the government, I had resigned to the notion that “water conservation” is an issue that the government should take care of.
It looked like the world is conspiring to make me feel guilty of wasting water, when I saw posters everywhere in my office imploring me to save water. But, am I wasting water? I was not too sure if I was.
One cannot imagine having a life without a lazy shower everyday, a weekly visit to the swimming pool and a rain dance during Holi festival. Having been paying for the water used in all these times, I never worried about how it was sourced, till my shower stopped half way through the bath. My shouting and howling prompted my room mate to do some RCA who came up with the result saying “They say the water tank is empty”. On further drill-down, we learnt that some “happy-go-lucky” soul in the building had left for work leaving his bathroom tap open. The caretaker said that the next tanker with water would come only the next day. This led us to discovering the nearest well where we learnt the painful process of collecting water. I felt the pain of not having water for the first time. However, I never really decided to do anything about it except planning to give “the guy responsible” a piece of my mind.
Being from Kerala, I used to brag about the abundance of beauty and natural resources in the state. I believed that, in Kerala, the problem is that we have it aplenty. But the real problem was that I never read the newspapers! Visiting a friend from the hilly areas, I realized that they source water from about 10 kilometers away. The stories they said were worse. There are areas where tanker-lorries cannot reach and therefore,
We had several NGOs disturbing us by distributing pamphlets about conserving water. Aiming that crumpled pamphlet to the waste basket, I used to wonder “Why are they wasting paper in the name of saving water?” After hearing NGOs blaming the government, I had resigned to the notion that “water conservation” is an issue that the government should take care of.
It looked like the world is conspiring to make me feel guilty of wasting water, when I saw posters everywhere in my office imploring me to save water. But, am I wasting water? I was not too sure if I was.
One cannot imagine having a life without a lazy shower everyday, a weekly visit to the swimming pool and a rain dance during Holi festival. Having been paying for the water used in all these times, I never worried about how it was sourced, till my shower stopped half way through the bath. My shouting and howling prompted my room mate to do some RCA who came up with the result saying “They say the water tank is empty”. On further drill-down, we learnt that some “happy-go-lucky” soul in the building had left for work leaving his bathroom tap open. The caretaker said that the next tanker with water would come only the next day. This led us to discovering the nearest well where we learnt the painful process of collecting water. I felt the pain of not having water for the first time. However, I never really decided to do anything about it except planning to give “the guy responsible” a piece of my mind.
Being from Kerala, I used to brag about the abundance of beauty and natural resources in the state. I believed that, in Kerala, the problem is that we have it aplenty. But the real problem was that I never read the newspapers! Visiting a friend from the hilly areas, I realized that they source water from about 10 kilometers away. The stories they said were worse. There are areas where tanker-lorries cannot reach and therefore,