As the summer hits us, newspaper headlines such as “Hyderabad’s twin sagars left to dry and disappear” have become all too common. The campus water situation is alarming, and it really needs everyone’s attention. I got a mail recently from a concerned student who had an earnest plea: Please make our wardens and their supporting staff realize their duties.
K Hostel, for instance. Water fills the tank, and then overflows throughout the night, and here are pictures taken at various times to document the fact… As the student says, “You are intelligent enough to calculate the amount of water wasted. Please increase your efforts to bring the university members from their research laboratories or offices to see our daily issues more closely.”
Wardens. Staff. Students… This is our problem, our campus, and it should be our common concern.
Please act! Don’t just watch a tap drip! Like the logo from a conservation advocacy site says, Every drop counts…
I worked in a college where too, the support staff let the tanks overflow. Usually, instead of getting them to come and turn off the valve, I would do it for the tank above my lab. But it is difficult to inculcate that culture. Very few people feel a pang on seeing water wasted in large quantities. It is much easier to fit in automatic cut offs in the tanks.
Yes, I had run from pillar to post just to get the overflowing tank repaired (because I did not know the DIY solution for it, otherwise I would have done the job myself) and water overflowed for six months!!!! I ran harder to get it repaired.
Erratum: Not the tank mentioned in your blog-post! But another one.
There should be a CPWD here, one in Old and one in South Campus where we can go, register our complaints and they can promptly send someone. I remember my good young days when there was a CPWD in our Govt. housing, and I liked to go to register a complaint every now and then, and then they would come to rectify.
this is seen every few weeks.
1. water supply halts
2. all the taps are left open by students .. apparently they do not realize that no tap would have water.
3. water supply is restored late in the night
4. the taps all are open and keeps flowing till morning
5. next day we again have a water supply problem
It is not just twin sagars of Hyderabad, but our peacock lake is becoming dry and shrinking. We are also worried about the pollution levels of this lake. So, please take necessary action to save natural water bodies of UoH.
I am no more in the campus, but the story is really ages old. Yes, this was the same story 10 years ago.
There are simple solutions, well known to all. A simple float valve, the same basic type inside your toilet flush, will do the job. And it costs next to nothing.
In fact, most of the tanks were fitted with a float valve to start with, if my basic information is correct.
The plumbers break them regularly, because, believe me or not, it takes away their jobs!
The concerned student, wants the warden and the supporting staff to realize their duties! But our students will always support the right of “no work” for the same staff.
How about the concerned student getting up and shutting off the valve? It takes less energy than sending the email, believe me.
Dear Vice-Chancellor
Your post that water is being wasted in hostels based on an email from a student prompts me to comment.
If I see any tap overflowing, I immediately shut it down. For instance, I had to close the valve of a tap that was broken in one of the “toilets” of old life sciences building and in the process I drenched myself. Should I have allowed the water to flow until I could have got the University plumber?
The comment that Wardens should wake up and the same endorsed by the Vice-Chancellor of the University by posting it on a public domain is disappointing. As suggested in the replies to your post, shutting the valve does not take much time and it gives a sense of responsibility and pride that one had made a small contribution to the University and environment as a whole. As a head of the Institution, you are supreme, and instead of publicly making a comment on the responsibility of wardens, you could have directed the engineer that valves should be fitted in all water tanks within 12 hours and no overflowing should be allowed. And the engineering section should implement it. Please go through the files in Warden’s offices about the reminders sent to different sections for repairs in the hostels. Then make a comment.
You have also posted the comment that wardens should come out of their laboratories and look into their issues. By posting this comment, you have endorsed the view that wardens are not taking care of the hostels. Wardens work for the University with an intention of social cause. If the same University has doubts on the working of wardens, it is disappointing. Your post has projected that the water wastage is only due to the indifferent attitude nature of wardens and their supporting staff. Is this true? Aren’t other people in the University responsible for this?
Extending this, who is responsible for all the littering on campus? Is the sanitary section only responsible? Can this be accepted? Extend it more. How much of water and other resources are wasted in our hostels due to illegal boarders? Who hosts these people? Wardens? How often you have conducted meetings with the Wardens and help them out in solving problems?
If 5000 students write 5000 emails and you are going to post all of them. I understand the crux of the problem raised by the student that water is being wasted. But instead of addressing it, publicity is being generated. Instead of posting in a blog, you could have called for a meeting of wardens. Are we running the administration to please some or with an intention of providing better facilities to campus community? It is projected that wastage of water at K hostel is going to dry up entire Hyderabad region.
Sir, please at least now direct the engineering section to fix automatic valves to all water tanks and issue stern warning to plumbers that main valves that supply water to these tanks should be closed promptly. Wardens cannot direct plumbers and engineering section. You only can. Direct and see the result for yourself. Then post again on the blog. Am curious to know the result.