Bengaluru’s water crisis may reflect an even larger one
₹5,000 if people used fresh water for washing cars or watering plants. No one is talking about water meters and charging for water, hardly surprising in a city where the government has subsidized electricity indiscriminately. But it is all too easy to blame the government in such situations.
The real culprit is us. What India is spectacularly bad at, is what The Earthbound Report defines as “those things that we all own together, that are neither privately owned, nor exclusively managed by the government on our behalf." Water, air and hillsides are classic examples. In places like California, the response to a water crisis is a sensible prohibition of garden watering.
In Bengaluru, the response to the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board’s knee-jerk notice not to use potable water from borewells and the Cauvery has been a shrug. The Hindu on Tuesday featured a chorus of residents arguing that they would not comply. “We have a small garden, which would wither in this heat without water," said one.
Another quoted the oddly named Easement Act of 1884 to argue that ground water belongs to the owner of the property. This reminds me of the logic of the driver of the owner of a villa right next to my housing complex. When chastised years ago by several neighbours for hosing the driveway and cars of his employer in a wasteful manner, he retorted that the water was from his employer’s well.
Why was it anyone else’s business? In microcosm, this is how many of us approach urban life. Neither the club I am a member of, nor the building complex I live in has issued anything approaching an emergency notification on saving water. Water-meters have not been discussed.
Read more on livemint.com
