This could have been enough water for 27 families for a year
Despite BMC's instructions about wastage of water on Holi, the city used up 35 lakh litres of water during the celebrations, enough for around 27 families for a year. Clearly, residential buildings did not heed the warnings and carried on as usual.
While most tanker owners refused to give details on the number of tankers they supplied for rain dance, a water tanker owner said, "All owners are scared that the BMC will take action. We had got a notice from BMC asking us not to supply tankers to people for rain dance, whether it is potable or non-potable, but it is the only time we can earn. After dahi-handi, holi is the biggest festival where we do good business."
"The city used around 350 water tankers this holi. We had got 25 water tankers today apart from the daily supply, which is 30 water tankers in Andheri west. However, this year the supply has gone down because of the water crisis. People this year are using more gulal and eco-friendly colours. The average demand every year for holi is around 450 tankers," added the supplier.
Fall in demand
Agreeing to the fall in demand, Amol Mandhare, owner of Akshata water supply, Vile Parle, said, "There is so much awareness this year that people voluntarily cancelled orders. I had an order of 12 non-potable tankers from a renowned housing society in Juhu for rain dance. However they cancelled it on Saturday. Last year we had sold around 20 tankers." Rajesh Thakur, secretary, Water Tankers Association, said, "Till Saturday we had got 125 bookings alone from Mahim and Prabhadevi area. However many backed out after the warning. Each year, around 250 tankers are used for holi celebrations, but this year it was only 100 in the entire city."
Strict warning
Another owner added, "After the BMC warning, we have strictly said no to even non-potable water tankers for rain dances. Otherwise every year, we sell at least 80-100 water tankers. Holi is the major festival after dahi-handi were we get bookings in large numbers." Vinay Deshpande, chief hydraulic engineer, said, "We had warned people not to use potable water for rain dance. It is good if people have also avoided use of non-potable water for rain dance. Non- potable usage of a person is about 70 litres, and 20 litres for drinking and cooking, per day." Jain Jagruti association in Ghatkopar that organised rain dance at NASEOH (National Society for Equal Opportunities for the Handicapped) ground in Chembur used 5 water tankers, and around 300 people attended the Holi celebrations.
| How we arrived at the figure |
| Water required by a family of 4/year: 90 (litres) x 4 x 365 = 1,31,400 Water used in the city on Holi: 350 x 10,000 (a tanker's capacity) = 35 lakh litres Families that could have used that water = 35,00,000 / 1,31,400 = 26.7 |
Total number of water tanker suppliers in the city : 1,350
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