Water conservation: Need of the hour
At the interactive session 'Why Water Challenges Should Worry the Citizens of Calcutta' organised by Concern for Calcutta, speakers Preeyam Budhia, President, Business Development, Patton Group; Arunabha Majumdar, Chairman, Indian Water Works Association; and Bibhas Maity, Ex–officio – CEO, Water Supply, KMC; highlighted the present concerns and stressed on the measures we should take to lower water related problems.
The event was held at Saturday Club on January 18, 2020. K S Adhikari welcomed and introduced the speakers and Narayan Jain moderated the session.
The first speaker Preeyam Budhia spoke on 'Water Conservation – Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond', emphasising the immediate need for every citizen to take water conservation seriously. Urging people to work towards building a water positive society, she said, "It will not be an exaggeration to say that the next war will be over water. Any measures that you take, big or small, counts. There are many ways to conserve water and the awareness for this is of paramount importance pan India. All we need to do is implement basic, simple measures."
She also talked about how Patton, as a forward–thinking, forward–looking environment–friendly organisation, has been implementing sustainable solutions for water conservation via Rainwater Harvesting, Ground Water Recharging, and their unique Water–On–Wheels project. She said, "We have successfully completed 52 rainwater harvesting projects. An excellent example of the benefits is the Bonnie Camp project in the Sunderbans which, till 4 years ago, used to get their drinking water supply from Kolkata via steamer. Today they have fresh drinking water on site all year round. Also, one of my personal green initiatives is the Rainwater Harvesting project at the Uluberia Patton Plant. We have started a 50,000–litre capacity project here and will be scaling up to collect 200000 litres of rainwater at our other plants across."
Professor Arunava Mazumdar spoke about the issues and challenges faced by public water supply and various levels of essential minerals and unwanted contaminants present in the water supply. He also spoke on various water filtration and water purification systems used in individual households, their pros and cons, and water usage in many of the city's multi–storied complexes.
Bibek Maity spoke about the important role water meters can play in helping conserve water while mentioning some of the common obstacles faced while placing water meters in certain areas of the city. He also stressed the importance of people understanding and curbing the wastage of water.
Audience applauded the immensely informative session.
