It was like any other Saturday morning. I was working on my laptop when the Nutgraf newsletter landed in the email. For people unaware of it, it is a paid weekly emailer that explains fundamental shifts in business, technology and finance that happened over the last seven days in India. And this week, it spoke of the Bengaluru Water Crisis where it drew upon the way Cape Town, the first Zero City (in 2018), was trying to fight the crisis.
I know someone will say that if Cape Town has adapted to the situation in last six years, let’s learn and implement the solutions. These people don’t realise that even if the problem sounds similar, the solutions are not the same, though one can expect a lot more of overlap.
It Is Bengaluru Today, It Could Be Indore Tomorrow
There is a need to overreact. A few of us may not be alarmed or react to then situation as we may not have ever experienced a dry tap. We may be the ones who despite the umpteen messages to conserve water – may still be waiting for the bell to ring.
We may joke that we Indians are good at crisis management and hence would wait for the day. We may laugh at the climate alarmists and brand it yet another ‘Behdia Aaya‘ (wolf) moment. A few of us, strengthened by the Covid mindset, would say we will adapt to the situation and find a way out as we did in the past. Many would play that helpless card like they do during the voting, questioning what difference could a single vote make? Not knowing that every step, vote, and drop counts. And not understanding that the government can do this much and no more.
Sabka Number Aayega
The water crisis is very secular and democratic. Sooner or later, it will hit all of us. For some time, a few wealthy ones may be able to scrape through and manage, but the government will have to step in and treat everyone as equals.
Rationing of water, police deployment, restricted service would be par for the course. One may even be imprisoned and penalised for using more water than authorised. It can be worse than the Covid oxygen crisis.
No, I am not trying to scare you but only familiarising you with the future. You better be scared, or there is nothing to say.
The Clock been running out of Time.
The Bengaluru crisis was not created in one day. We have been walking towards it for many years. It was one of the Top 10 cities globally in the list of cities where the crisis was expected to hit first. At every city level, we and the government know the looming water crisis has picked up pace. How one or two bad years of monsoon may just tilt the balance.
The Problem is That We Know It all.
Come summer, there will be some cuts of 10-15% and we will manage. There will be Save Water campaigns. Some brand may even take it as a part of corporate social service and do lip-service to the situation. Hotel bathrooms would have those smart looking water-saving stickers on mirrors and will ask you to change the towel and bed sheet only when needed. A few leading newspapers and TV channels will start initiatives to get their audience to contribute to save water and talk about five- things to do to prevent water wastage. And soon as the first announcement of monsoon dates (forget first shower) will revert to our normal default setting of water wastage.
We will forget, like we have done for so many years, that a drop saved is a drop made.
Many will tell you not to preach because each one of us actually knows everything.
We all know the importance of saving and not abusing water availability.
We have been learning and training others to act.
We have stopped looking for hotels with bathtubs.
We use only one bucket to bath and have stopped using the shower.
We close the tap while shaving and brushing.
We don’t use the heavy water guzzlers of fully automatic washing machine.
We don’t waste water washing our vehicles every day.
We recycle wastewater. We harvest rainwater.
And more… The possibilities in the ways we can contribute are many.
And on the other side
In the name of development and infrastructure, we continue to bury the remaining lakes and water bodies.
We continue to cut trees and reclaim marsh lands.
We create concrete fortresses clogging every possible inch recharging underwater bodies.
We dig borewells not worried about underwater bodies.
Oh,
We have developed Apps and use AI to solve the problem.
Oh,
We know it will not solve the problem without a behavioural change.
Oh,
The list is long; we know what we should/could do.
However, even then, we are guilty of not acting despite knowing what to do.
There cannot be a worse idiot than literates who know.
How many of us make it to the list of people who know, can act- but don’t to save water.
Indeed, a lot of us.
We are like that only
Many of us know the need to wear seat belts and don’t. We wear it only when we know we can be penalised. Same with the helmet, speeding, insurance, jaywalking, or cleaning the house or not littering to road.
We are habitual offenders, and we are the smartest of all.
So we don’t need to be told or demonstrated what we need to do.
We speak through our ego powered by the chalta hai attitude. We also believe we are beyond the tipping point and the helpless, we can make no difference.
I Am Guilty Too.
Yes, I am guilty too. I recall the water crisis film that my friend made a long time ago, the films that agencies did, and the campaign that newspapers ran and some of them I contributed to. Unfortunately, the clouds of water crisis were not as prominent as they are now and the efforts were seasonal- not really geared toward measuring the results.
Net-net
There is no time to play the blame game. No point in pointing fingers and listing who is more responsible for the crisis.
Before accusing anyone else, I must look inward and make a promise. I will leave the list of the idiots who know but don’t act. I will do whatever is right and what I must do to conserve and avoid wasting water. And I will share and tell others to do everything possible to conserve water.
Like me, we can be the small example for our circle of influence and control. And there, we can make a difference. We must know that the act is far more critical this time than the destination.
Meanwhile, I look forward to the government, institutions, resident societies, cooperatives and colonies using every possible means. Use Sham-Daam-Dand-Bhedh (Logic and rationality, Price and penalty and differentiation and doubt) to nudge the population.
It may be the water pressure, water-map, or levies – fines or control. Maybe it is time that we not only look at Bengaluru and the crisis but look at the whole nation. However, working from home or migrating without habit and attitude change only relocates the problem geographically. We need a behavioural change.
When one plots the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in marketing, one arrives at a singularity where all of marketing is the AI avatar of a brand in direct conversation and interaction with the AI avatar of the consumer. I have called the AI avatar of consumer – Concierge Intelligence in many of my columns here, including my first MxMIndia column back in Jan 2022 -“The Coming Post-Digital Age”.