What villages can teach Mumbai about saving water

Mumbaikars will rap me at this point in time if I say that rains do not necessarily mean big trouble But 70yearold Vinayak Patil who lives 500 km from here in dusty Shirdhon a village in the droughtaffected Osmanabad district and many others living in similar conditions will definitely agree because my observation is based on their experienceLakhs of villagers across the state are voluntarily supporting a project lsquoJalayukta Shivarrsquo water sufficient vicinity CM Devendra Fadnavisrsquo flagship programme that seeks to conserve water for meeting their agrarian needs and mitigating the perennial drinking water crisisThe uniqueness of this scheme is that it is not entirely supported by the government The rich and poor have contributed in terms of both financial and physical support to make it fairly successful Last week I met landless labourers and farmers in Latur Osmanabad and Solapur districts who have contributed amounts ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 1 lakh to their village projects The villagers reserve the right to reject the contractorrsquos bill if the work is not satisfactoryIn this scheme old water bodies are recharged by way of storing water in desilted and widened nullahs or ponds water from upstream flow is diverted to these water bodies The villagers could not believe their eyes when the first monsoon showers helped them in catching flowing water which till last year was impossible Now they expect the rains they will receive this year ndash these districts usually get below average rainfall ndash to help them avoid troubles they have been facing for decades Expectations run high in the 5000 villages where 99000 to 1 lakh such projects were undertaken of which 66000 have been completed and the remaining will conclude by next week Another 5000 villages will be added next yearMy interaction with villagers many of whom have never gone to school made me think of Mumbaikars and the fellow citizens of MMR like Thane Navi Mumbai VirarVasai Kalyan and Dombivli Bhiwandi etc which get heavy rainfall every year but are unwilling to harvest water for their own use The main reason for this unwillingness is easy access to piped water For instance Mumbai gets its daily supply of water from exclusive reservoirs some of which are 100 km from the city Mumbai is one of very few cities in the country that gets 24x7 water And yet we abuse water We splurge it on prolonged showers waste huge quantities for flushing toilets and washing cars We even use drinking water for gardeningWe get restless when the BMC starts calculating its depleting stock in reservoirs and the days remaining ahead of the monsoon While Irsquom writing this the reservoirs that provide us water have not received the massive rainfall that the city witnessed in the last four daysSo imagine what will happen if the damsrsquo catchment areas donrsquot get as much rains to fill your dams this year and thereafter There have been years when the city faced water cuts and longed for rains The civic administration even experimented with artificial cloud seeding they were prepared to do this year tooThere are people in Mumbai who have realised the seriousness of the issue well before it gets difficult to tackle Some housing societies and commercial complexes have set examples in rainwater harvesting and recycling of used water with their voluntary efforts Mumbairsquos ground water level is fast turning saline try drinking some water from local wells because rainwater does not percolate to the ground thanks to concretisation and lack of open spaces Currently water harvesting is mandatory for upcoming residential projects in the cities but its monitoring has not been up to the markThe time is ripe for CM Fadnavis to initiate lsquoJalayukta Aavarrsquo water sufficient premises in cities But he will have to tweak the rural format which is successful because the villagers treat water their lifeline with utmost respect and hence have volunteered to support the scheme Our cities will need legal compulsion because of the apathy of both citizens and their civic managersWe need a comprehensive policy on urban water conservation with stringent measures in place to punish violations Mumbai is the ideal place to launch such a pilot projectThe writer is Political Editor of midday