There is a lot that we, as water consumers, can do, once we realise the
value of water and put in our whole-hearted effort to conserve and utilise
available water very carefully. The following are some measures which can
contribute significantly to water conservation. None of these will necessitate
any great expense nor will they require any regular maintenance effort.
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Install wherever possible, newer models of flush cisterns which effectively
use either smaller volumes of water for each flushing or which have arrangements
for regulating the volume of water being used. |
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Where older types of cisterns are in use, place a brick inside the cistern,
thereby effectively reducing the volume of water used for each flushing. |
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If you have a shallow well in the garden, connect the rainwater downtake
pipes from the terrace to the well. The yield and quality of the well water
will improve. If you are not using the water from this well, you can divert
the water falling on the open spaces also into it. You will be thus not only
recharging the ground water table by this practice but also reducing the
flooding of the abutting streets. Your bore wells are also likely to yield
better quality and more quantity progressively. |
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If you do not have a regular well, you can provide a pit of atleast 6
ft depth, line the walls with bricks and divert the rain water from the terrace
as well as the garden into this pit. You will be helping the recharge of
the ground water table and your bore wells are likely to yield better quality
and more quantity progressively. |
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If you have a garden, divert the waste water from the kitchen, and wash
water from bathing and washing of clothes into the garden to plantain
trees/coconut trees. If you do not have a service well in the garden, you
can simply dig a pit, fill it up with brick pieces and sand and divert the
waste water into it through a pipe which enters the pit below ground level.
You can cover this pit fully with a suitable cover so that the pit does not
become a source for the breeding of mosquitoes. |
In addition to all these, there is one more measure that we must take:
pay our water, sewerage and municipal taxes regularly.
Amongst all the municipalities in India, the Chennai Municipal Corporation
(CMC) has the lowest annual revenue. The major source of revenue for the
CMC is the property tax. The major source of revenue for the CMWSSB is the
Water and Sewerage Tax which is levied as a percentage of the Property Tax
(about 30%). We must realise the value of augmenting
the revenues of the Municipality and the CMWSSB by having our apartments
and houses assessed legitimately for property taxes and metro water taxes
and also by paying these taxes regularly. Having them under assessed
may appear as a short-term gain, but it is in truth counter productive. For,
in the final analysis, it is such augmentation of revenues of these two
authorities that contributes the vital wherewithal for the implementation
of efficient water-supply and drainage schemes that can make life more
comfortable. |
