India has braved one of the worst droughts of the recent past without too many calamitous consequences. Now that there are forecasts of a fairly good monsoon, the time has come to educate individuals and communities about the utmost importance of rainwater harvesting programmes. It should be a part of every State government’s mission and vision. Every civic body across India should be responsible for sewage treatment and ensuring that rivers and freshwater sources in and around their limits are not polluted. People have undergone severe hardships and this must be taken as an opportunity to ingrain in them forgotten water conservation techniques. Being assured of rain should not make us forget the hardship of previous months (Editorial – “Monsoon’s here”, May 31).
A. Thirugnanasambantham,
Coimbatore
Much of South India is dependent on rain-fed water sources and is at the mercy of the monsoons. Tamil Nadu in particular has no policy of effective “water management”, allowing nearly 90% of rainwater to flow unchecked. It is only after every flood that the government talks about removing encroachments, water management, water conservation and desilting of lakes and tanks. They remain as ideas on paper with no follow-up action. Now only there is some semblance of governance in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami needs to act quickly taking a leaf out of book of rain-starved Gujarat and Rajasthan. The new-found enthusiasm of EPS in desilting the Mettur dam should be catalyst for water conservation programmes across the State. There should be a plan to ensure that this is so successful that the State no longer solely dependent on the Cauvery and Palar for its water needs.
N. Ramamurthy,
Chennai
