I wonder what the environmental cost of this is?
In the US you get drinking water, 24x7 from the tap. You can drink water straight from the tap. You can also water your lawns and wash your cars all you want, because there is plenty of water. However, the recent drought in California changed some of that. Austerity was introduced in the consumption of water. Moreover, cleaning water isn't an environmentally clean process - reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_water_purification will leave a bad aftertaste in your mouth.
Can Delhi afford to provide its citizens with unlimited piped water? Is the price you pay per litre of piped water, factoring in externalities such as the environmental and political costs (Delhi imports almost all its water from other states). Can we strike the right balance between domestic and agri/industrial consumption of water, once households have unlimited water on tap?
I am all for the supply of potable water in slums and poor neighbourhoods, where a majority of the water is (wishfully speaking) still consumed in drinking and cooking. However, in middle class households, a majority of the water is used in cleaning, bathing, and feeding desert coolers. Why is potable water needed for all this? Won't the chlorine or other chemicals added to the water at source, accumulate in our households?
But then, I don't suppose DJB has the infrastructure to supply different grades of water to different neighbourhoods.
I suppose what we need to bring in, is a zero discharge policy for water. I saw that implemented in Bangalore, in the Sarjapur Road area, in 2013. Once you can't let your used water into the sewage system, folks figure out how to reduce, reuse, recycle. The Kaveri crisis notwithstanding, Bangalore has always had good quality and quantity of water supply. I remember moving from Chennai to Bangalore and after a few months, having to discard all the tubs and containers we used for water storage in Chennai. I suppose how Bangalore has contained the misuse of this bounty of piped water is through the zero discharge policy.
One of the challenges we might face here, though, is that water reuse only works at scale (in my limited experience). You have to take your kitchen and bath discharge and pump it back up for use in flushing. Then you have to take your flush water, clean it up a bit in an STP, and use that for watering plants. So I suppose we could start with the apartments first - which is again something that Bangalore did.
The eco sensitive Delhite. Reusing their water. Composting their solid waste. Zero discharge of liquid and solid waste. Consuming less, conserving more. Maybe even using bicycles and electric cars, and not blaring their horns at every intersection. What a culture shock, I say!
In the US you get drinking water, 24x7 from the tap. You can drink water straight from the tap. You can also water your lawns and wash your cars all you want, because there is plenty of water. However, the recent drought in California changed some of that. Austerity was introduced in the consumption of water. Moreover, cleaning water isn't an environmentally clean process - reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_water_purification will leave a bad aftertaste in your mouth.
Can Delhi afford to provide its citizens with unlimited piped water? Is the price you pay per litre of piped water, factoring in externalities such as the environmental and political costs (Delhi imports almost all its water from other states). Can we strike the right balance between domestic and agri/industrial consumption of water, once households have unlimited water on tap?
I am all for the supply of potable water in slums and poor neighbourhoods, where a majority of the water is (wishfully speaking) still consumed in drinking and cooking. However, in middle class households, a majority of the water is used in cleaning, bathing, and feeding desert coolers. Why is potable water needed for all this? Won't the chlorine or other chemicals added to the water at source, accumulate in our households?
But then, I don't suppose DJB has the infrastructure to supply different grades of water to different neighbourhoods.
I suppose what we need to bring in, is a zero discharge policy for water. I saw that implemented in Bangalore, in the Sarjapur Road area, in 2013. Once you can't let your used water into the sewage system, folks figure out how to reduce, reuse, recycle. The Kaveri crisis notwithstanding, Bangalore has always had good quality and quantity of water supply. I remember moving from Chennai to Bangalore and after a few months, having to discard all the tubs and containers we used for water storage in Chennai. I suppose how Bangalore has contained the misuse of this bounty of piped water is through the zero discharge policy.
One of the challenges we might face here, though, is that water reuse only works at scale (in my limited experience). You have to take your kitchen and bath discharge and pump it back up for use in flushing. Then you have to take your flush water, clean it up a bit in an STP, and use that for watering plants. So I suppose we could start with the apartments first - which is again something that Bangalore did.
The eco sensitive Delhite. Reusing their water. Composting their solid waste. Zero discharge of liquid and solid waste. Consuming less, conserving more. Maybe even using bicycles and electric cars, and not blaring their horns at every intersection. What a culture shock, I say!