Waste Water, Want Water

The ancient saying goes: Waste Not, Want Not, which means, if you do not waste things, you will not be in a position of want some day. I have seen the water is wasted in West Bengal. Look at any municipality or town that has supply of drinking water. Over two-third of the water goes waste as the pipes do not have have any auto close tap attached with them, and so the water continues to flow on the streets, on the roads, and ultimately into the drains. Now, consider the case of West Bengal slowly becoming lesser and lesser sufficient on safe drinking water. In the post-cyclone Aila scenario, in the context of arsenic contamination across the state, in the case of lesser rainfall in some western and central districts of West Bengal-- a grim situation is knocking at the door. (Inset: an internet picture). People have not learned it the hard way. The amount of water that is being wasted even in Seva Kendra, here in Kolkata, is terrible. I have given them the idea of placing auto-close taps instead of the open taps that need human intervention for closing and opening. The idea has been taken for consideration, and soon all the common taps might get changed. The auto-close ones have just a spring inside, that would close the moment a person releases the lever. May be this is only a first step in the long journey of saving water. Everyone must contribute to reach the seventh millennium goal: environmental sustainability.