Efforts apace to sensitise people on water wastage

Hyderabad: Hyderabad has been facing water crisis in the last few years for various reasons, one being the rise in the construction activities. The bore wells drilled as deep as 1,000 to 2,000 ft are decreasing of open spaces for the construction purpose.

For making the city self-sustainable by conserving water, to construct rainwater harvesting pits in open spaces, houses and institutions, Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB), along with Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) took an initiative and launched Water Leadership & Conservation Alliance (WaLC) on April 22.

On the occasion of World Environment Day (WED), HMWSSB, along with the GHMC organised an event on water conservation at Phoenix Arena, TSIIC Park and Hi Tech City on Wednesday.

Water Leadership & Conservation Alliance (WaLC) is an online platform where interested people can register, join the drive and can become a water leader. The application is available on the Google Play store, says Zonal Commissioner for West zone Hari Chandana.

She also said that WaLC was recently launched for Hyderabadis to contribute as volunteers and to campaign on the cut down of water wastage and on the conservation of water for the future generations. "We want more support from the citizens, and till now, some 5,000 people have registered," she said.

The zonal commissioner also said the aim is to form a team of 25,000 from all across the city and to train the volunteers on how to conserve water, so that they can educate others.

Uday Shankar Peyyeti, a volunteer of Water Leadership & Conservation Alliance, said, "We want to walk together with the government agency and private bodies to spread the message on conserving water and on the construction of rainwater harvesting pits."

GHMC has given the responsibility to spread the drive to various organizations and NGOs. Capgemini has taken the initiative to spread the drive in West zone, and Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology (MGIT) has taken the initiative to spread the drive in Yousufguda area.

"Till now, we have covered all the areas in Madhapur, Serilingampally, Kondapur, Kukatpally, Miyapur and Yousufguda. We have visited various institutions, organizations and colonies. We made them aware of how much water conservation is necessary and advised them to construct harvesting pits," Peyyeti said.

Ravi Pasupunuri, Director for operations at HMWSSB, said that the board, along with GHMC, organized the event to aware the citizens about the importance of water conservation. HMWSSB is supplying 465 million gallons of water per day (MGD) water every day, but around 40 million gallons of water per day is being wasted. "The government is doing its best to conserve water, and we also expect the citizens to save water," he said.

Further, the impact of such water wastage at the customer end is leading to road damages, water contamination and unhygienic conditions in the areas. Apart from this, there is also an indirect economic loss of substantial amount to lift such water from the source to the customer point.

In view of this, the HMWSSB has decided to focus on conserving the water and to utilise it in other water-stressed areas. By instituting WaLC, the board wants to educate the customers about preventing water wastage through public participation and by involving the public representatives, particularly the local corporators and MLAs of their respective wards and constituencies.