Pune: Water Conservation to Fight Present Water Crisis

Maharashtra is facing acute water crisis due to the deficit monsoon. Rivers are dry, dam reservoirs are having more than 30% less water storage compared to the same period last year. Water conservation is the only solution to sustain the present available water till the start of the coming monsoon, which is more than 3 months away. As per latest news, the water supply for Pune City can only last for next two months. PMC must control water supply to citizens. We citizens too can help save water supply.

Every day every citizen is supplied with 135 liters of safe water. Its distribution is attached.let us analyse how we can save this water supply,
1. Bathing- daily 20 litres per person. We can surely save 10 liters of water daily per person.
2. Flushing – daily 40 liters per person. On an average each person visits bathroom 4 to 5 daily. Consuming around 100 liters in flushing. So every person daily consumes 60 liters of excess water than authorised.
3. Washing – daily 45 liters of water is supplied per person for utensils, clothes cleaning etc. During the present crisis we can save a minimum 10 liters daily
4. Gardening – daily 23 liters per person for gardening, car washing etc. Here also we can save 15 liters daily.

If we consider an average family with 4 persons , each person daily can save a minimum 35 liters of water. However, each person’s excess use of 60 liters of water for flushing needs to be controlled by the family. The Pune population is now more than 70 lakhs. Around 40 crore liters of water is now supplied and can thus be saved and used till the start of the coming monsoon.

In the present water crisis situation, we citizens must control every drop of water supplied. Then only we will be able to face this crisis successfully . Only then can we avoid Bengaluru like water supply position.Also PMC does not practice equal water distribution, natural water resources are encroached for development, rampant tree cutting. The same happened in Bengaluru City.
With rising global warming,deficiting monsoon may become the new normal. Rising population, rising urbanisation etc is going to increase water demand.

These are my personal views based on more than 20 years of field experience in water conservation and groundwater recharge.

Col Shashikant Dalvi