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| No water for gair in Indore |
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“This year the gair festival of Indore lost all its charm due to water scarcity looming over the city” said Dr. Rahul Banerjee of Indore based NGO Dhas Gramin Vikas Kendra. This event which has been vying to outdo Vrindavan and Mathura in Holi celebrations marks the festival of Rangpanchami. This time people used only dry gulal instead of spraying colours. Meanwhile the shop owners are putting up notices asking the customers not to request them for a glass of water.
The city received only 55 % of the normal rainfall last monsoon. The present supply from Narmada is insufficient for the whole city. Indore is only receiving water on alternate days. The Municipal Corporation (MC) is blaming insufficient rainfall for the water crisis. The Municipality even announced stiff penalties for misuse and wastage of water. The worn away pipes and lack of maintenance of the piped water system has exaggerated the problem- thinks the citizens. People are seen fighting over a bucket of water. Violence has been reported in many areas.
According to Dr. Bannerjee, the private water tankers depend on groundwater extracted from Niranjanpur. Groundwater used to be easily available here due to natural recharge of the fractured basalt below. This time the tubewells in this area have also dried up.
It is really surprising why the city which had once pioneered several measures in rainwater harvesting and water recharging is not taking up the movement seriously in the recent time. Dr. Banerjee said, “People now are not even attracted towards the tax rebate that the MC had introduced for the implementers of RWH system. Although the RWH system is compulsory in the city since 2001-02, yet people can easily escape.” Dr. Bannerjee has himself implemented the system in his house at Krishnadayanagar but never approached the MC for the tax rebate in fear of harassment.
Rainwater harvesting is the need of the hour in Indore and the city can meet its water needs by harvesting its rainwater endowment. The citizens of Indore, who took up water harvesting in a big way in the late 1990s, need to reenergize themselves to revive these systems.
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