Water, water, water...

Over the last few days, there have been a lot of talks about the ipl being shifted out of Maharashtra because of the unavailability of water for our fathers. The volume of water mentioned is mind boggling. But will shifting the IPL matches out if the state really help? There are issues related to both availability of water and the water reaching the ones who need it. Solving just one won't solve the other. We need to ensure that we work to solve both.


There definitely is a lot of water being used for maintenance of cricket grounds. Does shifting the IPL matches out mean that the grounds will be left to dry up? Does it mean that all the water which can hypothetically be saved, can be used by the farmers who need it? There are a couple of observations regarding the misuse of water we see in our cities

Every morning, one might find a trail of wet truck tyres on the roads next to most grassy dividers. The area around washed cars might have enough water for feral dogs etc to drink. The two activities mentioned above  probably consume a good deal of water on a daily basis. It might add up to 70 lakh litres on a monthly basis which is the volume of water which exists say shall be used for maintaining the grounds for the IPL. They are the kind of actions which genuinely WASTE water. 

I'm certain a huge part of the 70 lakh litres of water which will supposedly be consumed during the IPL, can be saved by using the water judiciously. By judicious use of water for daily activities, we can save much more. I'm not saying that a person should not wash his/her car or not bathe daily, but it needs to be done with optimal usage of water. This can probably happen only if everyone gets sensitive about optional usage of our resources

Even the gardener of a posh Mumbai residential colony needs to be sensitive about the use of ground water, since the conservation of ground water in one place can save potable water somewhere else which would finally result in more water available for those who really need it and don't get it. 

I hope we don't take the resources we have at our disposal for granted. I'm certain the number of litres of water being supplied to the citizens of our national capital for free, are not NEEDED by them. Unfortunately the access to such resources is considered by many as a right and gets abused to a point where the ones who really need it get driven to the point of suicide. 

Let us all not get taken away by the crocodile tears shed by people who portray they are trying to shoo away major consumers of water like the IPL venues. Let us be the change and use water judiciously so that we may contribute our bit towards conserving this precious resource. I'm certain that our little contributions can go a long way towards