How saving water will save our future

Namita Salgiya • September 12, 2022, 15:26:32 IST

Water covers 70% of our planet, and hence it is easy to assume that it will always be plentiful.

Water covers 70% of our planet, and hence it is easy to assume that it will always be plentiful. However, the truth is, less than 1% of the planet’s water is unpolluted, potable and fit for consumption. So, while we may be surrounded by water, its conservation and sustainable practices should become our topmost priority to deal with the crisis emerging from its scarcity.

Water crisis around the world

Water is a precious but scarce resource. As a matter of fact, water scarcity affects more than 40% of the global population and at the current consumption rate, this situation is only expected to get worse. The projection says, by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages.

Over the years, water levels are diminishing at an alarming rate due to various reasons such as increased demand of the growing population, excessive urbanisation, industrialisation, lack of adequate rainfall owing to pollution, lack of general awareness towards water conservation and deprivation of limited natural water sources.

Millions of people across the globe don’t have access to clean water. Water scarcity has become a serious issue for the entire world. Further, with more and more rivers and lakes drying up, depletion of 50% of the world’s wetlands and changes in weather due to global warming are causing acute water shortages and droughts in some areas.

On the occasion of World Water Conservation Day, the First Post team spoke to Tejashree Joshi, Head- Environment Sustainability at Godrej & Boyce, to understand how this 125-year-old Indian engineering conglomerate is improving access to clean drinking water through recycling and harvesting of water, saving over 1 billion litres of water every year.

Godrej & Boyce in collaboration with Sampada Trust installed a water tank with a capacity of 5000 litres along with a water filter. Clean and safe water is available in adequately available to meet the needs of the village residents.

Water landscape in India

India is now facing the worst water crisis in its history with around 45% of the population facing severe scarcity of water. In fact, it is estimated that around 21 cities can run out of their main water source i.e., groundwater. Over-exploitation and contamination of groundwater are the major reasons for the drop in groundwater supplies. Being an important resource, it needs to be saved given that it provides for almost 50% of all drinking water needs worldwide, about 40% of water for irrigated agriculture and about 33% of water required for industrial use.

Lack of sustainable development further undermines progress on these issues. Therefore, it is time that we understand we can act at a personal level and bring about small changes in our daily habits to have a larger visible impact. Godrej & Boyce is bringing a visible change by educating individuals on how they can contribute and at the same time bring measurable changes in society.

‘Invisible Acts For Visible Change’ -an initiative by First Post & Godrej & Boyce

Firstpost in association with Godrej & Boyce has taken an initiative to delve deep into the water landscape and understand the need for collective action by the public and private sector to conserve the planet’s scarce water resources to create a culture of water conservation.

Tejashree Joshi shared, “There are two types of water scarcity i.e., physical water scarcity and economic water scarcity. While 1.2 billion people live in areas with physical water scarcity where there are inadequate water resources to serve their needs, 1.6 billion people worldwide are facing economic water scarcity due to lack of water infrastructure or poor management of available water resources.” She further adds_, “we need to make concentrated efforts to solve the water crisis to save this precious resource for the generations to come.”_

Lessons to learn for companies

Tejashree further stated that there is a need for society to become environmentally conscious. Start-ups and big organisations need to become conscious of their water footprint. Companies need to align their profitability with purpose. Few measures that can be taken are:

Adopt new-age technologies to facilitate water positive processes – various IOT and AI technologies can be used for regulating water supply for various products and processes
Be cognisant of the water footprint in every consumable – virtual water footprint of products must be reduced
Reduce consumption of water from fresh and groundwater sources by plugging leakages and wasteful use
Deploy water efficiency measures like low flow faucets and fixtures in domestic use
Adopt water-efficient manufacturing processes like integrated recovery, reuse and recycle systems and cleaner or less contaminating chemicals
Strategize for groundwater recharging – both quantity and quality of the groundwater must be maintained
Recycle water whenever possible, treatment of wastewater for reuse can go a long way towards eliminating the burden on freshwater sources
Capture and harvest rainwater either by store and use or ground recharge

Lessons to learn for Individuals

Aligned with its commitment towards sustainability and social transformation, Godrej & Boyce has been working in a concerted manner to ensure water sufficiency in communities. Tejashree further shares that the company addresses the water challenge with projects on three fronts: increase water availability; increase community access to water; Improve quality of water. In addition to this, there is also a need for behavioural changes that can help us go a long way. At an individual level, we can take the following measures:

Ensure that your taps are properly shut
Install water-efficient fixtures in your home
Install water-saving toilet flush system
Immediately fix a leaking pipe or tap
Prefer to use buckets for bathing instead of shower baths
Do full load of washing machine ensuring optimum use of water per wash cycle
Use buckets for washing your car instead of hosepipes
Use recycled water wherever possible like washing car, balcony, floors, garden, etc.
Water the plants during cooler times of the day like early mornings or evenings

Over the last five years, Godrej & Boyce, as part of its commitment towards water conservation, has constructed six storage tanks, four check dams, enabling access to 210 lacs liters of safe drinking water for the community and ensuring collection and percolation of 240 lacs liters rainwater in the Khalapur region.

Water conservation initiatives by Godrej & Boyce

Godrej & Boyce has been valuing wastewater as a resource for over three and a half decades and has successfully offset their water footprint for the past decade. Their CSR initiatives largely focus on waste-water reuse, recycling and rainwater harvesting programs.

Some of their key milestones and initiatives include :

Effluent Treatment Plants with advanced filtration Reverse Osmosis systems enabling recovery of over 90 per cent of wastewater for reuse
45% of the organization’s total water needs are sufficed through recycled water.
Various rainwater harvesting interventions are in place to replenish the groundwater.
Enhanced water efficiency has been achieved by reducing 50% specific water use

These are just a few initiatives amongst the many. If each one of us determines to do our bit, we can together build a sustainable future for the generations to come.

It’s important to act NOW, to make water conservation a part of our lifestyle and not something that we only think about.

This is a partnered post.