Headline: Time to shake hands with the rain gods
Strap: Forget BMC. All housing societies of Mumbai must come together to harness rainwater to end water crisis
Almost every second day, one reads about residents taking to the streets against non-availability of drinking water in the city. Frankly, such news sound both shocking and ludicrous. Shocking, because water crisis, a persistent problem in the megapolis for more than a decade, continues to worsen. Ludicrous, because Mumbaikars still believe that the civic body will set things right. So conveniently have the BMC mandarins lavished denizens with vacuous promises to end the water crisis, but have perennially ended up blaming the rain gods for their non-performance.
Mumbai needs more than 4,000 million litres of drinking water every day (MLD) to assuage its thirsty 1.25 crore residents. But BMC says it can only supply 3,300 MLD, leading to a shortfall of some 700 MLD. The point I am trying to accentuate is that Mumbaikars must understand that water scarcity is a reality and it would be puerile to keep our faith pinned on our blessed rulers. A lot of water has flown down the Thames since the BMC promised it would complete the Mumbai 3A project for bringing in additional 455 MLD water to the city by December, 2006. However, it is yet to finish the work on the new treatment plant at Pise-Panjrapur for treating this additional water. Let alone additional water, it has not been able to harness the large reserve of sea water to end the crisis. Now, we have to make do with 15 % water cut till July, 2010. The villain? The rain gods, BMC growls to contend.
Amid all this, I was thrilled to learn some time ago that residents of the Sealine Housing Society in Khar enjoys uninterrupted water supply, because it's one of the few housing societies to have installed a rainwater harvesting system on its own. Rainwater falling on the terrace and compound is collected in an underground tank which then seeps into the ground and recharges the three bore wells inside the building, which is carried to an overhead tank.
So simple, yet so effective. Here's one society that didn't wait for the inefficacious authorities to act. They acted themselves and faced with severe water scarcity four years ago, decided to go in for rainwater harvesting. At Rs6 lakh, it didn't come cheap, but residents saw the logic behind investing for a secure future and it paid off. That's what I want to accentuate -- the futility of protests, when a bit of effort from our side can alleviate the hardship. Okay, one might argue that rain is not often scarce in the city, but of whenever it happens like 2009 rainfall, one must be prepared for it.
In 2002, the BMC had made it mandatory for the new buildings having a plot area of 1,000 sq m to have rainwater harvesting facility. By 2007, the same provision became mandatory for buildings having a plot area of 300 sq m and above. Till 2008, only 444 co-operative housing societies in Mumbai had constructed the rainwater harvesting facility. Why? Why can't we move faster, team up ourselves and take care of the crisis? Now with the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections over, there is no point depending on our feckless rulers. The faster you realise this, the better. So, for water's sake, Wake up Sids!