Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Roy has stressed upon individual efforts to combat global problem of water scarcity. Speaking in a seminar as a Chief Guest of the event on Water and Waste Water in Geology Department of Ranchi University today, he expressed worries over misuse of drinking water and contamination of drinking water sources.
The event, organised by Department of Geology, Nature Foundation and Yugantar Bharti, also saw Ranchi University Vice Chancellor RK Pandey, Central Water Board Chief (Jharkhand) Gautam Roy, Geology Department Head (RU) PK Verma, Yugantar Bharti Chairperson MRS Madhu and other guests expressing grave concern over misuse of water in a State so fortunate otherwise to receive good amount of rain water almost every year.
Saryu Roy, also Founder of Damodar Bachaao Andolan, said that misuse and wastage of water had remained one of the key issues for all the developed nations during their years of development, and now for those countries competing with one another to grab pole position in process of so called modernized development.
“But the moment those developed countries of the Europe and the United States sensed it (wastage of water) was going to pose serious threats to them, they started process of conservation, too. The fact is that creation of the products we use to show off our modernity and advancement in the run of development take more water in comparison to what we call a simple and civilized life. It is true that process of modernization can’t be averted. But wise use of water is what we all can do, and we will have to do it from our houses, from right now onwards,” said the Minister.
He also questioned government’s seriousness over water saving moves, saying that absence of rain water harvesting system in government’s own buildings was actually weakening its urge to the mass to save water. “However, good thing is that we have started talking before it is too late, and government has started taking initiatives and companies like Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and others which have already caused much damage have been becoming serious,” said Roy.
Pandey said that scarcity of water was going to pose serious law and order threats to State in near future. “Water is a life saving element and among one of the basic needs in almost all the processes of development. But we have remained extremely poor at treating with it. Now time has come that we will have to use water wisely if we really claim ourselves custodians of future generations,” said Pandey on Wednesday.
Gautam Roy said on the occasion that cities like Ranchi were going to feel the heat much more than others, as the same three dams catering to 1.5 lakh population 30 years ago had to feed 10-times more the population now with decreased capacity. He said that ground water was also going down day after day, leaving no other option than to use water wisely.