Judicious use of water a must during drought
Having somehow managed to get out of the traumas of the devastating floods, Kerala is now faced with the spectre of an impending drought that could put the people on receiving end, not knowing how to handle such a situation.
If the media reports are to be believed, the state’s rivers are drying up, the temperature is slowly rising and the people and the authorities alike are worried about how to handle this insidious situation where even the geologists stay hunched over the data and breaking their heads for an answer.
What the authorities can do is to draw out strategies in order to combat such a situation, especially a water shortage fast approaching us. This is a time when one needs to think out of the box if the developments are unheard of hitherto. The captains of the local government bodies need to get to the heart of the issue – water shortage in advance, before the situation gets out of their hands.
The issue of water shortage is graver in towns and cities where the ‘flat’ culture has ensnared ‘modern’ man leading to the establishment of concrete forests that can accommodate thousands together with modern amenities galore.  And mind you, the swimming pools are the USPs while selling apartments and at the same time the worst enemy of the ‘economy’ of water.
How can we allow the thousands of swimming pools to be filled to just entertain the inmates of these apartment buildings while another few lakhs are struggling for their drinking water?
What is stopping the authorities from sending out orders asking the society managers of these buildings to stop running swimming pools until drinking water is guaranteed to their immediate neighbours?
The heads of corporations and municipalities cannot take the luxury of waiting for common sense to prevail upon these apartment managers and volunteer to take such actions.. They have the duty to make sure that the locality gets drinking water before the swimming pools in the area are filled with this prized commodity. I firmly believe that the authorities should send notices in advance to the hundreds of these buildings in each locality asking them to stop using swimming pools during times when people are struggling for their day-to-day quota of water.
A resident in Edappilly
Kochi
