Tank revival may solve water woes

“A city cannot be smart, if it has no water. We should talk about the primary things required to make a city smart. The Central government has announced Rs 100 crore to make cities smart, but there is no planning for it,” said Dr Pervaram Padmavathi, vice-chancellor of JNAFA University, during a one-day seminar on mainstream conservation of water resources in urban planning.

Mr Rao said that medical and other private institutions were encroaching on lakes in urban areas. An action plan would be formulated to resolve such issues by focusing on one lake at a time to make Mission Kakatiya a success.

The workshop discussed unplanned and unregulated urban and industrial growth. “The major problem these days is that people do not know how to use technology. There are 53 borewells in Osmania University, out of which only three are used. There are very few countries which get monsoon rains, and India is one of them. Yet, there is no proper planning for storage of water,” said environmental expert Purushotham Reddy.

Experts requested the government to announce a centre for lake studies in every university, to research and collect data. Managing director of the Water Board M. Jagadeeshwar, in a workshop titled ‘Latest Technology in Water & Waste Water Sectors’, added, “There is a need to explore ways and means to develop technologies that reduce the human element in sewage cleaning as against the prevailing situation wherein scavengers are employed to clean sewers/dispose sewage.” “There should be regular interaction between Board engineers and industries to achieve a zero human element in sewer cleaning. Customers are willing to pay a little extra for modern technological equipment provided they are offered better quality and performance.”