A few days ago, I heard a new phrase to describe the world’s three biggest challenges: FEW Problems, to refer to Food, Energy and Water. I loved the FEW monicker. And the W part hit home when I was talking to a friend in the suburbs of Mumbai.
He is living in a new building (constructed about two years ago). Everything is good about it – except they get very little water from the municipal corporation. The result is that they have to get water via water tankers for the bathrooms, and get Bisleri big water bottles for the drinking water. When I probed further, he said that the corporation seems to have an unstated policy of providing a limited supply of water to new buildings.
That I found quite shocking. If a building has been given permission to get constructed, why make life difficult for its residents? Maybe, we need a national Right To Water Act!
