Sane voices from city: Conserve every drop

To be conservation-conscious is to practically contribute towards saving precious resources such as electricity and water. With energy prices soaring at regular intervals, it is time we bring in changes for good, sooner rather than later.

Manjunath Bhat, a nature lover in true sense, says he happened to see water gushing out of the thick municipal corporation pipe near the Metro station at Majestic. “The water was flowing for at least three consecutive days... it was in the open, yet, no action was taken,” he says.

Regarding electricity wastage, he has a consciously thought point. “The temperature in the city is roughly around 25 degrees Celsius. But, every single office uses air conditioners. In some offices, ACs are used even in toilets. This is such a dead wastage as ACs consume high wattage. However, none will get rid of this practice.”

Dinesh Kumar, manager at a popular restaurant, says that everybody is vouching for Reverse Osmosis water for good health. However, an important aspect that goes unnoticed is that to get a litre of purified water, three litres of water have to be filled in the purifier.

Only a negligible amount of the users ensure that the remaining two litres is used in washrooms or for any other purposes. The rest goes in the sink.

A paying guest in Indiranagar, Dinesh observes that usually people who hire accommodations, deliberately keep televisions, lights and fans turned on in their rooms even when they are out as they want to feel content of making full use of the rent they pay. “Unless mindset changes, nothing can be done in this regard,” he opines.

“In most areas of Bengaluru, we see several lights installed, but there is no power in places where it is actually required the most. In an area like HSR Layout, most lanes are left in darkness at night which is pretty unsafe for residents returning home late at night,” says Linsiya Patrao, a content writer.

Unnecessary flushing of toilets, water leakage due to worn-out pipelines, taking liberty to waste water for excessive washing of vehicles, improper mechanism to transport water from one place to another, overexploitation of groundwater due to excessive borewell digging are some of the issues that are never catered to.

Plugging these will contribute a great deal in saving water, says Bhavya Bhat, an English editor at a software firm.

A washing machine needs to be operated only in its full capacity. Using power-saving CFLs instead of tungsten bulbs is a tried and tested method to save power at homes.

Leaving the streetlights on even in broad daylight is something that the BBMP needs to immediately stop, she opines.

“We are facing a major water shortage crisis. Why do we use 200 litres of water to wash a car when the same job can be done with 20 litres in a bucket. Brushing your teeth with a mug of water rather than under a running tap is another option,” she adds.

The same goes for electricity as well. “It is a common tendency to leave the lights and fans on in the house even if we aren’t in the room. These things that we believe are ours to use or misuse, is in fact everyone's right. Let's start with a change for our future - one person at a time,” echoes Deepa Prabhu, a senior analyst at a banking group.

Extracting more from minimal energy consumption is no rocket science. It only takes a few readings and discussions to learn the tricks. Thereon, it is just about implementation. If a step in this regard reflects on our bills, it certainly will – on the city and the country as well.