While the entire urban India is in the grip of water scarcity, several cities in the country have been grappling to the extent of living the “Day Zero”, when all taps in the city go dry for a day. According to government reports, 12% of India’s population is already living the ‘Day Zero’ scenario and by the year 2020, major cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and others will reach zero ground water levels and denying over 100 million people access to drinking water as a consequence.
In a report on the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) released by the Niti Aayog in 2018, by 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual six per cent loss in the country’s GDP.
The enormity of the water scarcity can be gauged by the fact that the Union government recently formed a new Jal Shakti (water) ministry, which aims at tackling water issues with a holistic and integrated perspective on the subject. The ministry has announced an ambitious plan to provide piped water connections to every household in India by 2024.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his radio speech on ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has given a clarion call to the citizens of the country to join hands to save water this monsoon. In this endeavour, Modi is also seeking contribution from media. As a responsible news network, iTV Network launched ‘Aakhri Boond’ – a water conservation initiative.
Meanwhile, another CSR project is part of water conservation interventions by Govt. Of Uttar Pradesh and District Administration of Gautam Buddh Nagar. HCL Foundation, the CSR arm of HCL Technologies, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with District Administration, Gautam Buddh Nagar to work towards Water Conservation interventions and increasing the green cover in Gautam Buddh Nagar district, under HCL’s urban development program ‘HCL UDAY’.
In accordance with the MoU, HCL Foundation and District Administration, Gautam Buddh Nagar will work together to co-develop digital database platform for monitoring, reporting and verification for existing water bodies in the district. HCL Foundation jointly identify with district administration few water bodies which are in need of rejuvenation and conservation and take up water conservation interventions in them.
During the 360-degree pan-India campaign of Aakhri Boond, iTV Network will sensitize and educate people across pan-India about conservation of water reservoirs, present situation of depleting state of water and adopting steps to save water. iTV network, will be doing a series of activities and programmes on water conservation on multiple platforms including print, electronic and digital media with its millions of viewers.
The specialised content will be focused on the seriousness of the water crisis, methods of water conservation, rivers of India and the role models and success stories to establish that it is possible to bring change if all decisively act.
Says Kartikeya Sharma, Founder & Promoter, iTV Network, “Aakhri Boond is a mission to educate people about water crisis conservation solutions and we are dedicated to fulfill it.”
The campaign will focus upon creating awareness to showcase the ground reality and further focus upon sensitizing towards providing solutions and the partnerships between stakeholders to mitigate the situations. iTV Network will also reach out to the masses at a national level and create a community which is aware and is acting towards improvement of the situation.
In a similar vein, HCL Foundation and District Administration of Gautam Buddh Nagar will also collaborate in disseminating mass communication campaigns for a larger citizen’s action such as public meetings, workshops, symposiums, street plays etc. to create mass awareness about the water conservation and afforestation for brighter environmental future of the society.
