... And can you do your bit to use less?

With doomsday predictions on how the monsoon may behave after this long and hard summer ahead of us, uppermost on people’s mind across the country is, how are we going to weather the dreadful prospect of a failed monsoon.
Even as we write this the morning’s papers report a grim statement from the Director of the Drought Monitoring Cell.

Says he, “If we see another year of drought, then drinking water will be a problem. Karnataka has been the worst off in the country in the last two years.” The solutions are clear: we cannot take water for granted any more. Saving water is part of the solutions. Cauvery or any river that feeds our cities is only a finite source. You can’t secure more than a certain quantum from these rivers, no matter how good a monsoon. Storage capacities are not built for any more than eight to fifteen days. Cost of creating greater capacities is beyond affordability for any government. People have to conserve water. We should refrain from watering our lawns, or washing cars with running water — simple measures that will go a long way in helping you tide over such crises.
The average daily consumption [see chart] does not tell the full story. Climatic conditions of the day, whether it’s a working day, the month or the season—all determine extent of use. Sunday will show the highest use, and Monday the lowest. Some months will show the average daily use to be higher—and those are the months when water availability is also at a premium.
The alarming fact today is that over 55 per cent of the country’s water–use is from groundwater sources—borewells. There are shallow and deep wells. And the depth ranges from a low of 80 feet to a high [tubewells] of 1,000 feet and over.
The trouble with such wells is that if the density of borewells in an area is high, the winner is the one with the deepest well. But this has been disproven in many cases —and that one deep well deprives all wells in the vicinity of water.
As water managers have been tirelessly pointing out, wells are somewhat like commercial banks—you can draw as long as you know how to deposit into them. And the deposit in this case is not entirely dependent on the good work you do—everyone in the vicinity has to conform, and vitalize a new community dynamic.