Every drop counts

A tap that drips once every second wastes a thousand litres of water in a month. How many of us will react to that? How many will sit up? How many will start making the calculations for a year or more? And then get swept by the daily routine, of which wasting water is a part!

It was different for distinguished Indian painter and author, Aabid Surti who was moved deeply about water scarcity on the planet. He read an interview of the former UN chief Boutros Boutros Ghali who said that by 2025 more than 40 countries are expected to experience water crisis. It made him hark back to childhood days in a ghetto, fighting for each bucket of water. He realized that shortage of water is the end of civilized life.

Sadly, he found that most people dismissed leaky taps casually as it was too expensive and inconvenient to call a plumber! A chance award for his contribution to Hindi literature saw him get some funds and the project was on -- to address leaking taps in Mumbai! The one-man NGO was called Drop Dead! He picked the apartment blocks, got permission from the housing societies, and got to work. That was in 2007. By the end of the first year, he and his two assistants had visited 1533 homes and fixed around 400 taps. In 2010, Aabid Surti was nominated for the CNN-IBN CJ ‘Be The Change’ Award. His work continues.

As Surti observed, anyone can launch a water conservation project in his or her area. But how aware are we of the crisis awaiting us? On World Water Day, can we promise ourselves to be a water campaigner at home?