Can water woes be reduced through water meter?

Cities are never planned in advance they grew and developed with growth of the city and people migrating to those cities for better career opportunity. Career is one of the deciding factors which lead to the growth and expansion of cities. Rapid growth of city lead to rapid urbanization, it can be harmful at times.

Bangalore has also grown by leaps and bounds but the city today is reeling under water shortage. Bangalore relies completely on water tankers for its water needs. Independent house, housing societies, business establishment all are depended on water tankers and the need is acute during summers when tanker guys charge exorbitant amount for supplying water.

People are forced to pay the price tanker guys ask them as they are in dire need for it. Despite such struggle no concrete measure has been taken by the people to tackle the issue of water shortage in the Bangalore. I wonder WHY? If we do something towards water conservation today, we can tackle water scarcity issue over a period of time but we are reluctant to do anything.

Looking at the way, how the city is growing, the time is not far when we might run out of water in future. Instead of taking a step then, better start with a small step today for a better tomorrow. Rain water harvesting is one the ways but again the participation of people to this program isn’t encouraging.

I think government should mandate all housing societies, apartments (big or small), commercial establishment to adopt rain water harvesting technique. These are the places where consumption of water is highest. All of them depend on tanker for their water needs, as their bore wells can’t meet their water needs. But with rain water harvesting these places can reduce their dependence on water tankers.

Another effective measure is water meter, wondering HOW? According to an article published in a leading daily it has been found that water meter has been able to reduce the intake of water tankers. Few housing societies and apartments installed water meter for their residents and water bill amount was charged according to the water intake of the residents.

From the moment water meters were installed and residents were accountable for their water intake and pay accordingly to the meter readings. So residents became cautious about their water intake which wasn’t the case earlier. Earlier irrespective of water usage resident paid fixed amount and this lead to water wastage couple of times. Now with water meter in place, water wastage has been arrested to a great extent.

Every drop of water wasted will now be added to your monthly water bill. Hence residents have been cautious and have a taken all necessary measures to save every drop of water. Now no leaking taps are left unattended rather it is fixed at the earliest. Water meters have been a boon for people who were consuming less water were still made to pay at par with others who were consuming more water.

Since the installation of water meters, housing societies and apartment’s water bills on tankers have reduced. Reason now they need fewer tankers a month. Though water meter can’t address the water problem of the city completely but it’s a small step towards cautious usage of water.

I feel water meter and rain water harvesting if initiated properly can bring some respite to water woes. But constant effort should be made towards more water conservation techniques before we head towards a grim situation.