Speaking at a seminar on ‘Water Management and Rainwater Harvesting’ organised by Rotary Bangalore Downtown and Rotary Bangalore West, Reddy said presence of heavy metals including mercury, lead and other hazardous compounds in drinking water has reached alarming proportions and was more than the permissible levels in water supplied by civic agencies as well as those bottled and sold by private companies.
“Sadly, strict enforcement is missing. Children will be a soft target for diseases and other complications arising out of its consumption. A child would be the first to get affected as children consume five times the amount of water than adults. Even water packaged and sold in bottles is not subject to stringent checks,” he said.
Reddy added that in Israel, the highest decision-making body in government scrutinises every product before it is allowed into the market. “There, the government is extremely concerned about the well-being of future generations but here, we are just not bothered about what is offered to our people,” Reddy, who has also been the Environment Secretary to the government, said.
Earlier, speaking on effective water management and its conservation, he said the concept of kalyanis popular in ancient India was extremely beneficial during times of drought. “From the 17th century onwards, individuals in villages played a huge role in conservation of water. Around 1,000 kalyanis were constructed in Kolar District alone to facilitate rainwater harvesting. Nobody used to pollute these kalyanis. Water collected in these kalyanis used to last for two years for the entire village,” Reddy said.
Blaming increasing incidents of land-grabbing and construction activities for the decrease in the number of lakes in Bangalore, the noted environmentalist mentioned that it has led to a decline in water quantity. He also said a recent report of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board mentioning that underground drinking water, including that of borewells in the city has traces of faecal matter was a wake up call to civic agencies.