Rahul, maine kahaa thaa naa?.... Paani chalaa jaaegaa!!
I grew up in the 90’s and vividly remember this ad – although I have forgotten the brand: a kid playing music and dancing around in the shower with the slightest bother about water wastage and when water runs out, looks at the shower that is now just trickling a few drops - with sadness and disappointment on his face (make this line better). In 2020 this is all too real - if you are in Bangalore, you probably faced this a couple of times already. We are all staring at empty showers and taps and what will remain will be only sadness and disappointment for our future generations – if we don’t fix this fast.
The Composite Water Management Index report, published by NITI Aayog in June 2018, mentions that India is undergoing the worst water crisis in its history and nearly 600 million people are facing high to extreme water stress. The report further mentions that India is placed at 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index, with nearly 70% of water being contaminated. By 2020, 21 major cities of India will run out of water and face ‘day zero’, it said —entire cities running out of water! Let that sink in for a moment.
We have about 17% of the world’s population, only 4% of the world’s fresh water, and 70% of it is contaminated. Availability was always a problem, quality for us became secondary. We are OK with any quality, because that is how important water is. Is there a way out?
