Program at Dr Reddy's Lab, Leadership Academy

On World Water Day, 22 March, during an event organized by Dr Reddy's Lab and Confederation of India Industry (CII), I enjoyed being one of the speakers to talk about the value of water.

The purpose of the program was to share knowledge, lessons and innovations about water conservation. The program was attended by various dignitaries and college students and broadcasted live; it was an excellent platform to share Organo's experience on water management.

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The underlying intent was how we must value our precious water resource. It was an interesting topic because thinking about it, how DO we value our water? During times (and places) of abundance, the value is meagre. During times (and places) of drought, the value is immeasurable.

From my experience, when there is water scarcity, other things become less important. Things like growing organic vegetables in your community and cleaning solar panels regularly become second priority. Such is the value of water.

From a barren land, Naandi has transformed into an eco habitat. Through different techniques such as trenches, contour trenches, bio-swales, recharge/injection bore wells, bore chargers and percolation pits, the groundwater table could be improved but what we could not predict was the farmlands around the community would change.

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The farmer who was once a firm proponent of organic farming and water conservation has converted his land into a cricket ground. The reason is straightforward. It fetches more money, and owning a cricket ground has far more appeal he society than saying he is a farmer.

Water conservation has various issues that need to be addressed at ground level, but it is time to manage them. If we don't fix it, no one else will.

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