Monday, September 28, 2015

Smart City Is Stress Free City!












“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them”…John C. Maxwell

John Calvin Maxwell is an American author, speaker, and pastor who has written many books, primarily focusing on leadership. And what better quote I could have choose than this to share some more views or say experiences about the already much spoken Smart City topic! It seems that the smart city virus has affected not just our beloved Pune city but every small town in the surrounding too; I can’t comment about the country but whatever exposure I have, from that surely can say about neighboring towns. Recently I do got a pleasant surprise when few members from Karad (its a neighboring town of Pune) Engg & Architects Association came to invite me as a Chief Speaker on the Engineer’s Day.  15th Sept is celebrated as engineer’s day in honor of Shree Vihsvesarayya’s birth date, who was a great engineer by himself. And to add in my surprise they said the topic will be Smart City! I asked them is Karad city also part of the competition which is on Nationwide for getting in to top some ninety eight odd cities which will be tagged as smart cities? They said no, but they want to make the citizen aware about the concept & will like to know about it. I think this is first success of the Smart City campaign as till now this country was speaking only about issues of farmers & agriculture & no hard feelings as till very recent we were & still are the largest agro base country. And now here is a small town with population approximately two lacs wants to know about Smart City! But slowly more & more population is becoming urban is a fact & thanks to social media & internet, information flows faster than time here. So though I frankly told them I am not an authority on the subject yet I will like to come & share my views about the subject as best way to learn is to share whatever knowledge you have. Fortunately before going to Karad I was able to attend a presentation on Smart City by Tel Aviv’s Chief Knowledge Officer courtesy Sakal news paper & could speak with few people working already on the subject, to gear up myself.

By the time I reached Karad I myself was pretty excited & I have done some research by myself & formed my own views, as whenever somebody calls you as a speaker its what your own views are is what they are interested in & not just cut paste type information presentation is what my experience is. Also the crowd was going to be mix society segment & not just engineers so I have decided not to go with any figures or statistics but the logic & challenges in making a city smart. I reached some two hours before in Karad & the welcome team took me for a small round of Karad which has a historical importance since Shivaji Maharajah times & later Hon. Defense Minister Yahvantrao Chavan is from this town as well our Ex CM Mr. Prthviraj Chavan too! The city has old charm & geographically two major river meet here i.e. sangam, is here i.e. Krishna & Koyana, so the city is rich in terms of most important aspect of any urban settlement i.e. water. The sangam of two rivers has been beautifully landscaped & old temples are adding beauty to it but as usual garbage & litters by the visitors is spoiling the entire scene. The city is blend of old & new development & surprisingly numbers of four wheelers I observed was much more. Reason is good affordability amongst the citizens as Karad is rich due to farming with availability of water all around the year & cash crops. But the roads are narrow & building bylaws don’t have provision for parking is also I came to know. Best part was the city has conserved heritages in much better way especially residence of Yashvantrao Chavan, making a photographic memory exhibition there.

While I was preparing for the presentation I recalled few incidences about the city life which has happened in very near past & close to me, will narrate them here as they helped me to make my views more clear about smartness of the city.

Not long back my aunt who was staying alone & in Pune only expired due to age & my dad who stays with me only, being her brother said he will get death certificate (mryutu dakhala) from PMC. I said I will arrange it but he insisted that as anyway he has nothing to do much at home he will get it. So after few days the subject went out from my memory but some three months later at dinner time my dad came to me & said can I arrange the death certificate from PMC for my aunt? Surprisingly I said but you were to get it na? My dad replied he tried all ward offices, then PMC some another office in city & instead getting the certificate he got all sorts of answers but that certificate! Final answer was due to some technical problems in computer he won’t get that death certificate, so frustrated he came to me. I made few calls next day to my friends at proper places & in next three days my office people got that certificate!

Then my one of my clients of our completed project came to me saying the MSEB bill for his flat’s electric meter is showing different meter number though flat number is correct but he don’t know whose meter readings bill he is getting! He agreed it’s not our fault yet he said he has made application to MSEB office twice & he is an IT professional& getting leave is difficult yet he has tried going to different offices of MSEB yet the fault is not getting cleared & he is worried that someday MSEB will cut his meter for nonpayment of the same. He has come to me so that can I help him for getting the correction in the bill done. I said yes I will & even to my team it took three more months follow-ups with MSEB offices but finally it was done.

Then one classic case was with my family friend Mr. Sharad Paranjape, who holds a small piece of land & was on his wife’s name. Apparently govt has acquired that land for some purpose & later as the purpose got canceled they did returned that land but while doing so they made a printing mistake in the name of his wife & because of this there was ownership title problem for him to sale the land. He has tried his every effort to make the correction to the name with concerned revenue offices but for no effect & he was worried that he will have to lose the land in this process, so can I help? I did & with some proper follow-ups we got the correction done in the name on the ownership document of his land.
Here many will think who am I, certainly not some Don Corleone; but as my business includes dealing with many govt offices & I have man power to follow the system I could get all above thing done. 

And we all are familiar with such many cases, right from correction on ration cards to property tax bills each of us have our own experiences with the system & outcome was discomfort leading to stress.Ask people going to their work place or school, who have to wait for indefinite time for buses that too at bus stops which offers no shelter from weather, again causing enziety that whether they will reach to their destination in time such is infrastructure of public transport which leads to stress only! Water cuts are declared & the scheduled supply is never in place making people run around for getting a bottle of water! A common citizen especially in city has to interface many govt agencies & in most of the cases experience of this interface is something which cause discomfort or irritation is a fact. And outcome of all this experience is stress, so I concluded to myself that a Smart City is Stress Free City! 

Many will wonder how it’s related to stress, well in all above three examples as well many other cases what was outcome, rather why the three characters needed to come to me in first place? They have spent their time, money & yet they have not been able to get what they want & for no fault of theirs. At the same time they were not asking for moon but only that which was their right & yet the so called govt agencies or civic bodies which we call the system of the city made them frustrated by asking them come back again & again & yet failing to deliver what as a citizen they expected! So the only outcome is stress, this is why people says city life is stressful as where for smallest of the things your patience is tested there stresses are bound to be occur. Here is where I found the exact purpose of making a city smart as already in today’s life everyone has enough reasons to get stressed so at least we can take care of basic needs of the citizens from the system. Smart City is not just infrastructure of flyovers & public transport AC buses or Metro or ample water but smart city means there exists a system which doesn’t make citizens to chess for simple day to day things like assured water supply to sending correct property tax bills or expecting PMT buses coming on time & a bus stop which will offer proper shelter! And then really it’s a sad thing that on this scale we need to have a smart city competition to assure such services to the citizens which is their right in actual!

At the same time citizens also have their responsibility towards the system as no city can become smart if the citizens are not law or rule abiding. Right from paying your property tax bill on time to not jumping signals, many a times we don’t follow rules from our side yet we expect others side should follow them! As smartness isn’t something which comes to you naturally, one has to acquire it & for that there has to be a system, set of rules in place. Some rules are written & some are unwritten; for e.g. proper civic sense is one unwritten rule which nobody of us follows. Like at Karad sangam of Koyana & Krishna, there was beautiful garden yet why we need to write boards at such places, that “Fine of     Rs 500 for throwing Garbage here”! Joke is that yet garbage was being thrown there by the very citizens of Karad, neglecting the rules! A city becomes smart when the society becomes smart & citizens as well the system which runs the city both are parts of that society, is what both sides should keep in mind.

Finally when I reached to the hall, it was full packed with a cross section of society & I tried my best to explain them about smart city, adhering to the concept that Smartness is a quality & keeps on changing with time. Like today we find a person smart in a role of a peon means giving outputs in best way, but if the same person gets promoted for his smartness to manager level then he may fail in delivering what is expected from him in his duty & won’t retain the smartness tag anymore. Same way a city we can make smart once but it’s a constant journey & as the city grows so grows its challenges as well expectations of the citizens too grows & the smart city is the one which delivers by adopting these changes & continues to stand to the expectations of the citizens! For e.g. today Karad’s population is some two lacs & they have enough water & today that’s a strong point of making the city smart, yet tomorrow like Pune the population increased in multifold, is the same water going to be sufficient for that population? All such aspects should be taken in account & a constant analysis & solutions for the possible problems in future has to be worked out. And for becoming smart why we need any competition is the question I asked to them? Today's seminar in itself was their first step to the smartness as they are keen to know what smartness is. Lets ask our-self why we want become smart in first place as there lays the path to become smart. 

Frankly what I feel is all it takes is deciding by every individual that, "yes I want to become smart & make my surrounding less stress free", & it will get reflected everywhere. As a city don’t get automatically smart, its smart homes & smart work places along with smart individuals is what make a city smart. And the moment smartness enters the stress goes out, that’s what is the profit of being smart!
And for this no outsider is necessary as this journey is inside out which starts from our own-self, so go ahead take the first step by accepting this fact is all I will say! Thanks.

-- 
Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !
 (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/06/agreement-ho-gaya-rabba-rabba-permanent.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below) 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

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Friday, September 25, 2015

Rain, Theirs & Ours!








Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet…
Roger Miller


Roger Dean Miller, Sr. was an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs. No wonder he could describe rains in such simple & beautiful way! My friend Abhijit Ghorpade who is a journalist had come to me for his personal work & our talks drifted on a subject of rains & its effect on people; two reasons, because the meeting has got postponed due to heavy rains & I & Abhijit both are keenly interested in anything related to nature. Interestingly Abhijit was making an issue in form of a magazine & subject was water, featuring mainly rain aspect of it. I have never written in general about any topic till now yet I said I will also like to share my views about rains & he said why not, try it!  Actually as Rojer says, I am one of those who just get wet when it comes to rain; it was a Monday morning, week’s start which isn’t a pleasant thing for many especially the office goers! And keeping in tune with the reputation of Pune rains, working hours down pour started from the sky. I stay right adjoing to my office building so when I reached to my office, most of my staff was entering in office with all wet clothes & cursing to the rains. Earlier in the morning after my game of badminton when I reached to Vaishali for a cup of tea, the scene wasn’t different as there also it was all wet & waiters were hurrying through the puddles of water & using not so good words for the rain god! I remembered my younger days when I was having a two wheeler & yes I can imagine my staff’s feelings for the rains as it’s not a very good feel to get drenched & work all day long with wet clothes. And on two wheeler however covered you are with any type of rain coat, your face & your shoes are the parts which you can’t protect from getting soaked up & that is eeekks feel! I was driving back from Vaishali to my office & rain was pouring all the way & I was looking through windows of my AC Car towards the faces of rikshawalas, two wheeler riders, street hawkers & pedestrians; it was interesting to see how the same rain has different effect on different people. All these people definitely not carrying happy looks on their rains but frustrated due to traffic jams in rains & strain clearly flowing on the faces along with the rain drops & eagerness to reach to the destination as early they can! I am sure none of these faces welcomed the rains however needed it is! Then there were school kids walking smiling & giggling in the rains & then the college boys on bikes feeling at ease enjoying rain ride; for them its excitement! Yes I too remember my college days when rains we used to love though I myself am not much fond of getting wet yet with friends you flow! Though even today I don’t like rains as I miss my walks, agreed the option of going to gym & use trade-mill is there & I do use it yet I love walking on roads under clear sunny sky & not in the rains, some truth I must admit. To walk in rains on slippery foot paths (if at all there are some), avoiding splashing from passing vehicles & wondering which puddle of water can be open manhole to make you fall in, is really a punishment in city of ours.

And then I remembered all the “whats app” messages as well media headlines about the draught & shortage of water in dams supplying water to Pune city. The situation is graver in many other parts of State with little or no rains this year! And on one side people are praying for rains it’s funny to see how city people react to rains! I know sitting in AC car & with no distance to cross to reach at office from home, it’s far easier for me to comment like this but then for my work i.e. site construction too, rains are always trouble times! This rain was also no exception as one of the sites where excavation is going on the soil adjoining to excavated pits slide down exposing foundation of our compound wall & making huge damage to the same. Fortunately no one was residing or working there so no harm done except financial but then the site people as well workers are another class who hates rains! Living in tin shades & floor of concrete or made up earth isn’t a fancy thing as with more pouring from the sky the wetness travels up from the ground making entire tin shade which is home for many families on site, everything from bed to clothes gets dampness. Then there is problem for drying of clothes as these people don’t have washing machines with driers at their service!
Same is the scene in rains for millions of people living in slums which we call as cancer of the city but then no one live in slum by choice. Here the situation is worst as its not only the dampness from floor & roof but the drainage gets chocked up & everything which we call as garbage flows on surface & enters in the tin shades which are home for the slum dwellers making entry for all sorts of diseases. And then there is always threat of accidents by short circuit as electric connections here are often  without any safety manual as open so most susceptible for  any accidents causing causalities! Same is condition for those living in wadas or chawls as they are a shade better in term of accommodation in comparison with the slums but the age old construction of thousands odd wadas which mainly are made of clay & timber gets more rotten or depalipilated with every monsoon. This is not only unhygienic but threat to life also as every rain brings down two/three old wadas causing causalities of human life as well getting many families on roads, taking out their shelter!
But the same rain is boon for many people directly & for millions rather crores of peoples indirectly. In the direct list along with the farmers there are officers from irrigation department as well civic bodies like PMC, whose job of facing the people is bound to get easier with enough water at hand. Also there are politicians who get happy due to rains obviously they have to face less agitated voters though there are many other issues of day to day living. The farmers yes are the direct beneficiaries but then not all rains are welcome; I am not a farmer but with little general knowledge can say that rain is good only if it’s in tune with the cycle of crops. When its harvesting time as well growing time then only rain is essential, many a times when the crop is ripe at such times the rains can have devastating effect damaging the crops! 

And the very same rains in rural are a different story at all; with poor infrastructure for drainage & roads the living conditions becomes very difficult in villages. Yet here water is life line as in most villages of our State the only source of drinking water is whatever they get from rainfall. I am from a small town in one of the driest patches of Vidarbha region & there in summer some thirty years back also water used to get sold on bucket basis! And one won’t question the quality as whatever you are getting is in itself considered as blessing, in those days Bislery i.e. bottled water was unheard of & even today I doubt how many people can afford that option! And in villages rains are different than we have in Pune, it downpours heavily as its open fields & flooding everything as most of the land is open so there are no water ways but water flows where ever gravity takes it. The roads get washed out & for days villages gets cut off from the neighboring towns causing scarcity of essential things even food & vegetables. Yet here you won’t find strained faces due to rains as these people are more dependent on rains than we city guys & knows their survival in long terms depends on the rains only.

If you really want to feel the rains then go to jungles & here the same rain gets different form. In jungle everybody including the trees to grass to animals & insects greets the rains with joy as for them its life. One shower & the entire face of the jungle changes & get painted in all sorts of greens.

This reminds me a very beautiful advertise on TV of some washing powder, I think Tide. An office going man is shown with white shirts & he is walking along a road where it’s just rained & drizzling with holding an umbrella in his hand for protecting his white shirt from stains. Suddenly a kid came running towards him & jumps in the water pond near him & in a second his all white shirt get stained with the muddy water!  The expression on the face of the man & the kid were so typical that you can stop remembering your school days when you have jumped in a water pond on the road! Such a wonderful thing the rain is; if you don’t have then you are in trouble but you want it without getting any of your routines hampered! I think that’s curse of our city life where we measure everything in only the terms like gain & loss. Here the rains are always a disturbance to achieve our targets may it be reaching to some meeting or ever going site work or selling our products. We do want water whenever we need it & that too in the form we feel comfortable, sometimes its Bislery bottle, sometimes by tanker or even in form of ice cubes; we don’t mind showers but that too at our bathing time & temperature soothing to us only. We have forgotten that the water is form of nature & nature is best enjoyed the way it comes to you. And if it brings along destruction then it’s no fault of nature but it’s our failure to use it properly.

I think, off late like the office going man in the TV ad, we have lost the charm of enjoying rains in our daily chaos or else remember when last you have welcomed rains with open arms & felt first drops on your face, secretly drinking few of it! Try to recall when you have last looked at rainbow in the sky & stopped doing whatever you were at & admired its beauty! In my childhood the first rains got along red colored velvet skin bearing insects & we used to touch their velvet skin & that excitement I still miss. The fragrance of earth after the first rains, how many of us still have it in our mind? As in our city life we are concertizing every single inch leaving no space for earth & in the process lost that fragrance itself! And it’s high time we should learn to live the rains & try to make use of every drop nature god gives to us, that will not be only using utility of the water then but it will be knowing the meaning of life & then no one will just get wet in the rains!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !
(Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/06/agreement-ho-gaya-rabba-rabba-permanent.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

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Monday, September 14, 2015

Water Story & State of Sorry!








“It is life, I think, to watch the water. A man can learn so many things.” … Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Charles Sparks is an American writer and novelist. He has published eighteen novels and two non-fiction books. Several of his novels have become international bestsellers, and ten of his romantic-drama novels have been adapted to film with multi-million-dollar box office grosses. Well he might be a non fiction writer but his above words sure are romantic but like a fiction for our beloved Pune city & when I say Pune city it includes each of us right from our rulers to common men of the city! Because we do see water but we haven’t seem to be learnt a single thing from the water! Take recent water supply cuts, & it’s not the cuts which are inevitable but it’s what happens to the cuts is what interests me.  In my childhood in Marathi we used to feed with some  “mhani” i.e. phrase or say phrases & we use to explain the meaning of it with example. Like “Khaket kalsa aani gawala walsa”, means something is so near to you & yet you turned the whole town upside down in its search & example was some boy having a pen in his school bag & yet searching it all around the school! When I read the usual water cut news & the hohaalalah about it I remember few of my childhood phrases in Marathi & they are “bail gela aani zopa kela” & “tahan lagalywar vihir khodane” i.e. the earlier phrase means someone’s bull has run away & the guy is sleeping & other is digging a well when you get thirsty!  I think we deserve these phrases as each year we are getting used to read such news as well the routine comments by every person in every field as well the headlines of news papers about water supply! I wonder on one side we are patting our backs for getting selected for Smart City nominations & on other side we can’t even manage our water supply which is a basic need of any civilization!

Joke is all the “save water” campaigns every NGO & Industry’s associations’ as well PMC i.e. municipal corporation, thinks of only when there is no water! Rather this year’s rain is an eye opener for every citizen of the so called water rich city of Pune & I am happy finally it happened that here comes a year with less rains rather far below the average! Many people won’t like this comment; rather most will think it as bad joke but somehow looking at the repeated cycles of our acts especially related to the water that’s what my sincere feeling is! As look at last few years scene when the rainfall was good & I clearly remember that two years back it was similar situation there was no rain throughout the month of June & till mid July & we have read similar headlines as well shouts of save water! As usual the PMC & Collectorate made standard rather age old announcements about no water supply to building constructions, ban on car washing centers & closer of all swimming pools etc! And then when situation become graver, water supply cut was announced i.e. alternate day water supply! Again as usual political personalities made allegations that building construction sites are still getting water supply so the administration was ordered to look in it but not to surprise nobody spoke anything about washing centers which we all know works under whose godfathership! I really pity this city & citizen as how many years we will be cheating our own self & keep ignoring what’s the mirror is showing is our own face & yet we refuse to accept that its ugly! And as the rain deficit was covered in later months, all announcements were forgotten, save water campaign was dumped & the city was again on its mission “waste water”! So when this year, second half of June went without rains & even July too, nobody was bothered thinking that this is routine & rain god will smile sure! And now when August & even half of September is gone now we are relaying only on showers from returning Monsoon, I wonder that at least now whether we have really awakened about water!

Problem is not water or rains but our attitude towards it & that’s why I said good; this year it didn’t rain even half of average as now at least we will understand what it is to live with no water! Being myself from rural part of Vidrabha i.e. water scarce part of Maharashtra; I know how is life with less or no water. Sad is we not just in Pune but entire State haven’t learnt anything from our past especially about water which is other name of life. This year the situation is more tough & looking at the changed rain pattern call it effect of global warming or whatever but here after this is going to be the way is what experts are commenting. Last year every month it rained & in monsoon we are facing shortfall, so what about that rain water which we had all along the year? Till now the policies we are using to conserve rain water needs to be changed (if at all we were having any such policies) keeping in mind this changed pattern of rainfall. Most importantly save water should not remain like a popular caption which we take out only when it’s no rains, is what we should understand! Water conservation is all year long process & every segment of society needs to understand their responsibility in this mission.

Like last year, fire crackers pollution levels were down by a great margin during Diwali & it was outcome of making school kids aware about pollution the fire crackers cause; we can make every single school kid aware about importance of each drop of water in his role in conserving or saving it! Work out Water Saving Index type tool by which we can explain how much water one person consumes each day & how much out of it he or she can save by being aware about the same. Ask the school kids to keep Water Saving Index of every person in their home & submit it in school & keep special marks for the best Index figures! Also arrange a period at least once a week on all school about water & its importance with audio visuals of draught hit villages, mainly to city school boys, so they can understand the grievance of the issue. We can think of conducting various quiz contests, poet as well essay writing competitions keeping water as focus point amongst the school kids. In short do everything to make them realize importance of water & it should be yearlong activity & not just during water shortage!

Then comes the various departments of not just PMC but the State Govt’s too, who are supposed to conserve the water. Frankly it’s the main reason of our today’s failure on water front that we don’t have one single authority about making water policies & which can be held responsible for the water supply as well its consumption & conservation! As right now we have many different departments right from irrigation to ground water to local bodies governing this topic as well jeevan pradhikaran but in the entire "who has to do what" game, nobody does anything is a fact or else today we won’t be facing the water scarcity all across the State. The uniqueness of this year’s water shortage is, it’s not just in some local patch or a region but has engulfed major part of the State & even good rain bearing belts also has been hit! As all the years somehow every time the rain fall has been covered in one of the four months so every departments failure was covered by nature but it’s said that even the gods don’t support the losers; which we are when it’s doing our duty at water front & not the gods also seems to have ditched us!

It’s high time that there should be water policy for every single village, town & metro cities of this State & it should include source, demand as well its type of use i.e. drinking, industrial, agriculture etc & then there has to be check that each user should be using the water allocated judiciously & conserving too! Frankly take example of our Pune city on this front & analyze what’s the scene & we will know how much lacking we are when its water management! We don’t know exact how much water we need & how we are going to provide it as it’s said that PMC need sixteen tmc water or draws this much quantity each year from irrigation department but out of this how much is actually used by end users & how much is conserved or recycled, where are these figures?  What about even distribution as the so called newly merged suburbs like baner balewadi don’t even has the water line networks is a fact so whatever this water PMC is getting is being used for approximately only 2/3rd of the city population. Now what if the network lines gets completed in these areas then whether this quantity will be sufficient & what about the proposed merging of twenty eight more villages? From where we will be getting water for these new additions in the city! Why not the water network is in place even water can be obtained later? In the Environment Clearance process the technical committee asks this question to the developer that what’s arrangement of the water supply & tanker water or bore well water isn’t considered as perennial supply! How come the developer can answer these question where as its responsibility of planning or governing body to provide basic infrastructure like water, drainage & power or else declare these lands as no development zone till the Govt is unable to provide them water, so no one will buy these lands& then don’t accept crores of rupees under the name of development charges which the builder & in the end common man is paying & yet is running around for every bottle of water!

Then look at the short term arrangements administration does to gain popularity; like not giving water supply to ongoing construction sites! Why this is not applicable to every hotel, restaurant, illegal slums or industries & IT Parks of the city, who are using much more water than the construction industry! I think the rulers should come out of such cheap tactics used to feed media or so called common man especially in crisis! As taking advantage of the situation why we can’t implement scheme like “No water supply without a meter”! May it be an individual or public body, how can we keep control on use of water if we don’t know how much water is being supplied or consumed? Years after years water charges or “Pani Patti” is same, think of increasing it as well add water network development charges separately in property tax bills & utilize it for the cause! 

Last & most important is framing long term water conservation policy & making it public along with implementation plan. This indeed is a tough job as it will vary as  per regionwise & let’s start with identifying sources, rather at some places even creating new sources can be the starting point & then adopt conservation measures & see that they are strictly followed. A periodical checkup of water sources as well that of conservation systems right from recycling plants to rain water harvesting to metering of supply to  “shet tali” type efforts,  confirming that functioning of every such effort is at place & with data recording figures of the same! It’s for this reason everything related to water has to come under one roof for keeping control on all such activities, so let’s form the system doing. As Nichols Spark says, real conservation of the water will be if we learn from water instead just wasting it the way we are doing for ages or else one day nothing will be left even to waste is the writing on wall! And for that every individual’s contribution is important, may he or she be from any city, village or Metro as water has no religion!


--
Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !
(Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/06/agreement-ho-gaya-rabba-rabba-permanent.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life


www.sanjeevanideve.com