Preserve Water! Preserve Life!
Mumbai is facing a major water shortage, with its reservoirs remaining with only 10% of usable water stock. To sustain the remaining supply, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been regularly announcing water cuts in most areas of this island city.
Mumbai’s reservoirs hold a meagre 140,202 million litres, as opposed to the annual demand of 14,47,363 million litres. This shortfall has been attributed to lower rainfall.
Mumbai one of the most populous city of the world quenches its thirst from 7 lakes and 4 dams which supply fresh water. These 4 dams are Vaitarna, Tansa, Bhatsa and Modak Sagar and situated in the outskirts of Mumbai. Three lakes are located in Mumbai itself.
What are the main causes of water shortage?
- Seasonal Rainfall
- Increase in population
- Increase in urbanization and industrial growth
- Climatic changes
- Natural calamities such as droughts and floods
- Overuse and wastage of water
This water shortage is also because of the poor water management and growing demand.
Urbanization and an exponential increase in freshwater demand for households are both driving factors behind water shortages, especially in regions with a precarious water supply.
Disadvantages of water shortage:
When water is scarce, sewage systems can fail and the threat of contacting diseases like cholera surges. Scarce water also becomes more expensive. Water scarcity takes a greater toll on women and children because they are often the ones responsible for collecting it.
How can we increase the supply of water?
- Creating reservoirs to store water.
- Digging more wells to tap groundwater.
- Building more water towers to store water.
- Building a new wastewater-treatment plant to recycle wastewater.
- Building dams to store water.
- Rainwater harvesting to allow reduce scarcity and ease pressures on groundwater and other natural water bodies and storing the rainwater for drinking or recharging underground aquifiers.
- Groundwater recharge, that allows water moving from the surface water to groundwater.
- Provide home water-treatment capability through the use of filters, solar disinfection, or flocculants, to make drinking water safe.
Our future initiative towards saving and recycling water
We at GFC understand the ability towards water management where we need to conserve water for our future generations to come. In order to deal with this situation, we have created our own bore well to make our water supply cost effective. Bore wells are less susceptible to climatic conditions, hence we have a regular supply of water. We even have water during the dry seasons, making the bore well ideal for irrigation and domestic use. Bore water is typically free or available at a fraction of the cost of treated water.
As a catering company, we use BMC water for all our cooking and drinking. The bore well water is used for all other purposes like washing, cleaning, etc…
This is a sustainable source of water and a guaranteed way to reduce municipal water usage in the long run thereby constantly fighting the water crisis.However, it is important to consider that the immediate environment in which the bore well is dug can directly influence the type and levels of contaminants.
Sunlight is considered to be one of the most natural ways to purify water. Fill water in a container and keep it under the sun for a minimum of six hours. Make sure the water does not have any sedimentation. The solar radiation and heat will kill the pathogens present in the water.
Conclusion
We at GFC feel it is our duty to explain our staff and to educate them with the concept of the 3 R’s – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We hereby create awareness that water needs to be used mindfully. We shouldn’t waste water. We are also planning to recycle this water by treating it and using the same in our Hydroponic Farming.
