Udaipur is the city of lakes. It is also among the cleanest cities of India. I remember, when I visited the beautiful city, the cleanliness amazed me.
There are many natural and artificial lakes in the city of all sizes. But even this city of lakes seems to be looking at a potential water crisis in the coming months.?
The city saw a weak monsoon in 2018, and the levels of potable water there are actively decreasing. Monsoon this year in North India has not been exceptional either. As a result Udaipur may have a water crisis headed its way.
If monsoon does not go as expected this year as well, the city is in for trouble. People take the fact that it has lakes for granted but one should remember that drinkable water cannot be directly extracted from lakes.?
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According to Udaipur Times, million litres of water per day is sourced from the four major lakes of the city- Pichhola, Fatehsagar, Jaisamand and Nandeshwar. These lakes are the primary sources of potable water. Even today there are some residential areas that are receiving rationed water supply only once in three to four days.
The decreasing levels of rain does not mean there is a decrease in water consumption. That remains the same. Add to that a growing population and rapid establishment of industries. If anything, demand for water is only increasing.?
ˇ°With the increasing population, the daily demand of water has increased too, but nothing concrete has been done to meet the requirement by means of increasing water resources or by optimal maintenance of the water level,ˇ± said Anil Mehta, member of Jheel Sanrakshan Samiti was quoted by TOI as saying.?
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In May this year, a lot of districts like Dhauji ki Bari, Chitrakoot Nagar New Ahimsapuri, Goverdhan Vilas, Sajjangarh area were already hit by a water crisis because of low-pressure supply. Reportedly, the daily requirement of the city is 128 million compared to which water department lifts 95 million from the major sources and now that the water levels in the lakes are reduced, the daily supply has been reduced to 84 million litres a day.?
Udaipur has been through drought before about a decade ago. And the city is looking at a crisis again.
Water wastage and pollution is only going to add to the problem of availability of potable water if the dry spell continues this year also. After seeing what a major crisis Chennai is in we hope fellow citizens in Udaipur to try to save and conserve as much water as possible, and at the same time be responsible in water consumption.
That holds true for people in cities like New Delhi and Bengaluru too. India is facing the impacts of climate change this year with half the country drowned in floods while the other half is struggling with water crisis.?