These are responses to the different stories that appeared on the Water web site.
Thank you for your water news. I find this section very informative. A few random thoughts.
I feel one of the reasons by which water scarcity can be avoided is by planting trees. I often wonder why is the government is not introducing a rule for every house to have at least one tree. This is useful not just for rain but also in controlling pollution. Recently when my family applied for drinking water connection to the municipality, the officials came to my house checked for rainwater saving facility. Only after that they gave the connection. Why is the government not introducing the above mentioned (having a tree) rule as well?
Connecting rivers will take a long time. Meantime why don't we introduce an environment law? This will help solve lot of problems.
If you come to Chennai and visit the 'Mount Round', you will notice there is not a single tree on the road. Instead of spending money on artificial rain and other useless things the above mentioned will help for the future generation.
Every Indian has to think of having a tree in their house.
Be an Indian and be proud of being one.
Suresh Subramanian,Singapore
The overhead water tank in our building keeps overflowing every day for about one hour due to negligence of the guards, residents and the builder. Several complaints have not yielded any results. I want to know a higher authority that can enforce some actions on this. Also, why can't the government enforce the law on builders to install an automatic water control gadget which costs a small amount of Rs 4,500 for every water tank?
A water harvesting unit is also not very expensive. I think even this should be made compulsory by the government to be installed for every plot of land in India.
Shuchi, Mumbai
Your article titled 'Hyderabad, Another Daulatabad in the Making' should be an eye opener to the Andhra Pradesh government. Another reason for water shortage in the city is that many small lakes in Hyderabad have disappeared as they have been grabbed by politicians for real estate purposes.
Nethrapalli, New York
Your Water Voices section is an excellent effort that has the capability to create mass awareness on the current situation, the challenges and solutions, the ongoing work in water conservation, the kind of expertise available and whom to contact.
My best wishes for this assignment.
Harpreet S Kandra, TERI, New Delhi
Your Water Voices section is very thought-provoking. It's really nice to see that Hindustan Times has taken this initiative to bring out such burning issues related to the most basic of our needs, water.
A water harvesting unit is also not very expensive. I think even this should be made compulsory by the government to be installed for every plot of land in India.
Shuchi, Mumbai
Your article titled 'Hyderabad, Another Daulatabad in the Making' should be an eye opener to the Andhra Pradesh government. Another reason for water shortage in the city is that many small lakes in Hyderabad have disappeared as they have been grabbed by politicians for real estate purposes.
Nethrapalli, New York
Your Water Voices section is an excellent effort that has the capability to create mass awareness on the current situation, the challenges and solutions, the ongoing work in water conservation, the kind of expertise available and whom to contact.
My best wishes for this assignment.
Harpreet S Kandra, TERI, New Delhi
Your Water Voices section is very thought-provoking. It's really nice to see that Hindustan Times has taken this initiative to bring out such burning issues related to the most basic of our needs, water.
It's time that all of us pledge for water conservation in whatever little capacity we can and go for economic use of water.
Dr SK Adhikari, New Delhi
Water is essential for life on Earth and in the universe if at all life exits elsewhere. Use of natural resources led to many of the problems and is threatening the very existence of life on Earth. Particularly in India, the root cause of all the problems is population exploision, lack of proper planning and implementation of development programmes.
The population in the cities is increasing by the day without incremental change in infrastructure, particularly in water and power. Hyderabad and other cities are facing acute water shortages. In Hyderabad water is being supplied through tankers which bring water from far of places. One can see the tankers on the roads. The city has grown immensely over the last few years. Industries and other commercial activities should have been scattered throughout the state instead of having them all concentrated in the urban centres.
With regard to the usage of water, most apartments today have a common water tank. This leads to people using it to the maximum extent. Most have western type of cisterns which consume more water. In my opinion, in the water scarce places, the use of western type of cisterns should be stopped. Some water should be recovered from wastewater treatment which can be used for watering plants and garden areas at least in public places which are under municipal corporations.
Local administration should form an expert committee for studying how to save water. This should include rainwater harvesting techniques as well.
Abhilakh Singh, Hyderabad