Dear Bangalorean, are you law abiding?

We love bashing the government for what it doesn’t do. Have you thought of how you need to only be fully compliant on some simple basic laws that city authorities have already put into place in a city like Bangalore?

Consider just three regulations from the state Pollution Control Board or the Bengaluru Water Supply Board. One is to ensure you harvest rainwater from your roofs for drinking while you harvest the water falling on your land for recharging groundwater.

There’s a second law that insists you have to treat all waste water in your building and reuse it for purposes other than drinking.

There’s a third that mandates fixing water meters with sensors that help you track amount of water you use.

Of course the fourth is a simple gadget that reduces flow of water in your tap while causing you no hassle on use of water.

Why should you comply? Why should you not be one of 100s of apartment associations which will bribe its way into not doing? Or worse, pay penalties of up to 2-3 lacs a month to continue to violate?!

So why? If you just complied with these four regulations you will bring down demand for water in the city from only homes by nearly 25,000 crore litres. That is 40 percent of the city’s demand. Can you imagine the load that will be off the hapless officials at the water supply board who struggle to meet the daily demand? Can you imagine the load you take off Mother Earth as you stop bleeding her water veins at the deep aquifer?

Okay let’s assume you don’t give a damn for the harm it does to earth. Look at the money you save.

The saving in electricity bills alone will be a cumulative ₹1,000 crore a year of the total of ₹2500 crore we spend on just the water part of our electricity bills. We’ll show you the math if you want to know how.

We crib about wasteful public expenditure on many things we know the government should not be squandering money upon. You and I could make this big saving happen if only we decided that all water we need for things other than drinking, can be treated by us right at our home or apartment, with solutions that are available. And these solutions don’t need subsidies. The money you spend is recovered in less than three years in most cases. You double your ‘investment’ in three years! And the cost is so small that you can’t even say you can’t afford it.

What’s more. You are helping yourself. And you help millions of Indians living in Chhattisgarh or Jharkhand or Odisha who have their lands bleed. You save on the cost of power, the cost of coal to produce the power, the cost of carbon pollution that comes from both power and coal. You save the massive quantities of water that every power plant uses for generating electricity. That’s dirty power. It hurts our forests and our rivers die.

So what does it take you to be fully legally compliant? If you’re worried about costs that your apartment will have to bear, and you don’t have the money, there are agencies today that are even willing to put in these installations, make you legally compliant and have you pay over time at the same cost as you incur today for water or energy or for managing the waste that your apartment or industry or the mall puts out.

Can you ask for more? Can you blame the Govt for not doing when you default? When will your apartment go legal on these needs?

Talk to us at actionforum.blr@gmail.com. We’ll help you comply with the law.