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Save water to avoid crisis: Patkar
EMINENT SOCIAL activist and Narmada Bachao Andolan leader, Medha Patkar, stressed the need for ?water management? to avert possible future crisis of water in the country. She was addressing the indefinite strike of Lok Samiti and National Alliance of People?s Movement at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Mehandiganj area here on Saturday.
EMINENT SOCIAL activist and Narmada Bachao Andolan leader, Medha Patkar, stressed the need for ‘water management’ to avert possible future crisis of water in the country.
She was addressing the indefinite strike of Lok Samiti and National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Mehandiganj area here on Saturday.
“The time has come that we realise our responsibility and extend our support in water management through water conservation and rain water harvesting to avert possible future water crisis in the country,” Patkar said.
She added that water is the need of each and every person and therefore everyone should extend support for this cause.
She said that soft drink multi-national companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi etc., were exploiting the country’s water resources, which would pose a severe water crisis in the days to come. These bottling plants were extracting unprecedented underground water but the government was doing nothing to check it.
She said, apart from massive level water extraction, they were also polluting drinking water with lead, chromium and other heavy metals through its waste.
“If we do not wake up even after such a grim scenario, then the days are not far when there will be severe crisis of drinking water,” warned Patkar.
Raman Magsaysay awardee and noted social worker, Sandeep Pandey also addressed the dharna and flayed the government for allowing MNCs to extract underground water. He said that a large number of people engaged in the business of lemon-juice, mango-juice and coconut water etc., were left unemployed due soft drink MNCs.
Director of Institute of Gandhian Studies, Prof Deepak Malik expressed concern over water crisis across the country. National president of Sarva Sewa Sangh, Amarnath Bhai and Jagroopna Devi also addressed the dharna. Medha Patkar broke the relay hunger strike today by serving drinks to Nandlal Master and Mukesh. Lok Samiti and NAPM had launched the indefinite strike outside the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Mehandiganj area on March 23 this year.
