Sir,

While we are all in the midst of an existential fight against COVID-19, we have to make sure that we don’t have to fight a second front in the form of water scarcity. The summer is already upon us and the hotter days to come will be a test of our civic responsibility to conserve water, the most precious natural resource, by avoiding wasteful practices.

In recent years, residents of Mysuru have been covering the entire frontage of their houses, both old and new, with cement aprons extending up to the tarred road. This is ostensibly to make the area more suitable to park their car/s outside when they have no garage built for the purpose.

Using public space for parking cars is by itself a questionable practice, but I would like to focus on how this has led to terrible wastage of drinking water. It is, in fact, a double whammy. First, it completely prevents rain water in monsoon months from percolating into the ground and augmenting the ground water table.

A further offshoot of this pernicious practice is the washing of this area with precious drinking water by the ladies of the houses with a hose pipe in their hands. Behind this act is the feeling that the paved portion is an extended portion of their house. So it is a double whammy!

The MCC should step in and stop owners of houses from constructing cement aprons in front of their houses and ask them to remove them except for the part in front of gates. This will be a big step towards water conservation.

The washing of cars using hose pipes also needs to be stopped completely. One bucketful of water is all that is needed to clean a car. It is a sin to waste water like this when womenfolk in our country have to trudge miles to get meagre supply for use.

– Agrahar Ramachandra Rao, Kuvempunagar, 5.4.2020

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