‘Use of water will determine country’s growth’

NAGPUR: How a country uses its water can help determine its economic growth, said Madhavrao Chitale, former secretary general of International Commission of Irrigation and Drainage, during the daylong National Aqua Conference 2018 on ‘Water Conservation: Role of Educators’, organized by LAD and RP College at a hotel in Ramdaspeth on Tuesday.

“Despite lacking in the resources, our state is agog with sugar cane crops which are water guzzlers. We need to change our thinking and shift to sustainable planning,” said Chitale.

Delivering the presidential address, Chitale said that places like Nasik, Shiroor and Lankani, by creating water consciousness in people, have managed to lessen their problems to a great extent. He also spoke about how despite receiving regular rainfall, Nagpur is unable to retain it due to the high evaporation rate.

In the olden days to store water people used kalash which had a wide base. The advantage of kalash was that due to its narrow opening the rate of evaporation was fairly low.

Delivering the keynote address, Satyajit Bhatkal, CEO of Paani Foundation, said, “Dams have cost the country an exorbitant amount, displaced millions of people as well as reduced rivers to barely flowing water bodies. In fact, even after housing 40% of the country’s dams, only 25% cultivable land in Maharashtra get regular supply of water.”

He brought to the forefront the fact how Earth, also known as the ‘Blue Planet’, is the only life source in the wide galaxy due to two major factors — its atmosphere and flowing water. He also pointed out how dams, states, districts are also fighting each other for the same water, and many of them have even taken matters to the Supreme Court for the same.

Bhatkal called social fracture as well as

climate change

as the two reasons why there are so many water problems and why the solutions do not spread faster.

The chief guest of the programme was Pramod Yeole, pro-VC of Nagpur University. The programme aims to educate people about wide topics like the actions of Supreme Court on water pollution in India, water issues from a socio-economic aspect along with subjects closer to home like a comparative study on Ambazari Lake and Futala Lake.