Water Conservation in Mumbai

By Rizwan Quadri, Mumbai

Energy audits, energy efficient equipment, star rated refrigerators and ACs, energy conservation, green
buildings, green engineering and alike are the terms that our modern dictionaries are still unaware of.
However our middle class students are aware of these phrases. This is due to the only reason that each
one of us is now facing the heat of global warming and there are serious discussions taking place in every
corner of world, particularly those in the metro cities. However, very little is the progress that we are making
in prevention of disaster of our planet.

Mumbai, the financial capital of our country, is facing yet another challenge, other than the merciless heat
and humidity of the summer. The water crisis!

Many people, as I hear, simply blame this crisis to our civic authority, merely looking at the leakage
problems and the bursting pipes. Alas, if they would have understood the problem of BMC, as to why they
do not arrest several leaks in the kilometers-running pipeline, they would have done more than the lip
service in tackling the water crisis of this biggest metro city of the country.

As a practicing engineer, knowing the dynamics of water in the pipeline flowing under gravitational action, I
really wonder what would I have done, putting myself in BMC’s shoes.

But, above all, I have observed one thing very clearly. And as a suggestion, I put forward certain things to
BMC through this write up.

The 50% water supply cut imposed on the major portion of the city does not seem to affect the city
adversely. Instead, many of us have learnt to conserve water and are managing the water shortage, though
with some difficulty. Hoping that we, God willing of course, receive a fair monsoon this year, BMC should
not abruptly increase the water supply to usual one, but should take the advantage of water-conserving-
trained population and should give a little more water just to relax. It should keep the water saved in our
reservoirs and use for hydro energy generation or alike, as and when required.

Simultaneously, it should start the replacement project of the 8 decade old pipeline which has not only
served its purpose, but is old enough to serve us more. Before, any other major rupture in the pipeline, the
pipes shall simply be replaced with the new ones. Whatever needs to be done in Manthralaya to ensure the
flow of funds to this major project of the city, it should not only carry out, but also bring to public, should the
barriers, if any, are beyond their capacity to overcome.

Another important observation is, many people are still habitant of misusing water. Time and again, these
people are not willing to understand what their habitual wastage of water could lead the city to. These
people need a lesson to be taught by BMC by either heavy penalties or by simply cutting their water supply,
making them to purchase water tankers. This is the only way they understand the value of water.

Each of us has a role to play in making our city green. But this does not really mean that we pour unlimited
water in the pots of bushes in our balcony. This is not justified particularly when many of us are virtually
struggling to get water for domestic applications. Authorities of housing complexes should put a full stop to
this, but in turn making plantations in the common areas of the buildings, which could meet the original
intention.