Urban Water Management Rule 101: Before Trying to Procure More, Let’s Take Care of Water We Have

It’s a problem we did not see coming, and it has crept up on us. In the last four to five years, the water crisis has hit the urban India like a whirlwind and it appears to be only getting worse. We, as citizens of India, must hurry up the process of finding alternative sources of water. We also need to start saving the water we have from two major culprits: leaks/wastage and pollution. In this article, we talk about pollution.

Access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities is a huge area of contention when it comes to urban India. It doesn’t help that by 2050, half of the current population of India is expected to be living in urban areas. This leads us to an urgent demand for prevention of pollution of our existing water sources, and the need to treat/retreat/reuse water in order to avert the water crisis. And that applies to not only our surface-level water resources but to groundwater as well. A lack of quality in water is a major reason for hundreds of thousands of deaths in India. There is a severe lack of management and infrastructure that can enable retreating water and make it hygienic. If that is fixed, next in line is improvement in the drainage and sewer facilities.

Let’s adopt a mindset of beating this crisis at all costs and appeal to the authorities for better services that we deserve. Try and bring green infrastructure into the mix, as nature/soil/vegetation are natural filters of waste and could be put to good use to treat water from being wasted due to pollution.

Make way for an Integrated Urban Water Management approach in your own home and your community as it leads to saving, managing, and distribution of water in urban areas more efficiently. Also reach out to more people and spread awareness about the water crisis, just like Harpic News18 Mission Paani is doing. Log on to their website, register and learn about the dos and don’ts of water management and relevant information to avert the problem.