Water Crisis..

Place: Pune, Maharashtra

Day: 25th May - The monsoon is predicted to arrive on 6th June - Pune weather report
5th June - Monsoon hit Western coast, might delay its appearance in Pune
10th June - Monsoon may be delayed by a couple of weeks, rains expected on 25th June

Today: 12th July.... No rains in Pune!!!! Sharad Pawar declared draught situation in the city.

This year two world records might have been created... 1) Draught condition in Pune after around 51 years and 2) Maximum number of times weather forecasting went wrong!!

Its raining heavily everywhere around Pune, but not in the city. Today's condition is very bad. There are two dams which are primarily used for supplying water to the city. One has existing water storage amount of 5% and other 0%. Zero percent!!!! That's something I never thought can happen in Pune. Every year, in a news paper called Sakal, I see a picture of a farmer sitting on his arid, cracked land looking at the sky (I think, they copy past the same picture every monsoon!!), but this year I saw a happy farmer, and worried Puneites queueing up for water tankers. Accha hua.. hum apne aap ko bahut khush naseeb samazte the... ab bhugto saalo!!

The corporation stopped water for hours, people had to fill tanks and keep water ready for morning programs! I remembered my second sem in BITS where we had a similar water crisis... par us waqt authorities ko gaaliya to de sakte the.. ab kya karen!! Today we have to find our way out. My mom, being the secretary of the society, made a schedule of how to save and use water that was stored in the tank effectively. She was very involved with all this situation, and I said.. humne 6 mahine aisi situation me nikale.. tum log to 2 din me hi frustrate ho rahe ho!!.. She called me to accept this challenge of managing this crisis... obb..I backed off!!! :D (pata tha mom kitna kaam kar rahi thi.. its really laudable!) As I am going abroad now, I am learning to cook... Lekin ab 1 hafte ke liye chutti... coz if I start cooking, I will use all the stored water in one shot... and that will not be acceptable to anyone! :D (one benefit of water crisis)

Something more was there to worsen the situation...Borewells were drying up (8 wells in our society are completely dry!). Ye kam nahi tha ki.... MNS attacked the water tankers (obb for no reason) and the tankerwallahs called for an indefinite strike... LOL!! ab woh bhi paani band!! After many many phone calls, and meeting with nagarsevaks n all, finally the strike was called off.. but now knowing the situation the tankerwallas demanded Rs 3000, Rs 4000 for one tanker (which is generally for Rs 200). We had to pay!! :(

Now the situation is better. Its still not raining that heavily, but yes, the rains have appeared in the city. Corporation has resumed the water supply every alternate day and tanker wallas have also come down to 800-1000 Rs. ....... n I have started cooking!!!