Mangaluru: He is not your armchair activist, but believes in practising what he preaches. A water conservationist, who has been involved in the battle against the Yettinahole project, Mr MG Hegde is reusing the waste water from his laundry and kitchen in his home in Mangaluru for flushing toilets and watering plants. In the process his demand for water has fallen by about 40 per cent.
Mr Hegde decided to start water conservation at his house after he built it about a year ago in Santhosh Nagar in Vamanjoor. To begin with an underground tank processes and filters the waste water from the washing of clothes and also the kitchen before it is goes to a 2,000 litre tank next to it, where it is treated using slaked lime, sand and charcoal. “From here it is pumped to a separate tank and then used for flushing in the toilets and to water the plants in my garden. I have been able to decrease my water demand by 40 per cent this way," he explains. Besides doing his bit to conserve water, the activist has come up with a “social concern challenge,” to motivate elected representatives and ordinary people to participate in social work, inspired by the “Ice bucket challenge,” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fitness challenge. He intends to tag Mr Modi, Congress president, Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy to any moves he makes on this front on social media, he reveals. “Any professional and even the common man can take up a social cause and continue it. For example, a doctor can hold a free medical camp and a lawyer can take the case of a poor person for free. Ordinary people can do their bit by just planting a sapling. And they could then challenge others on social media to do likewise,” he suggests.
