Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Dial-A-Tanker

















The Hyderabad Metro Water Board has set up a number to dial a tanker. It costs Rs 250 (approx USD 6) for a 5000 ltr tanker. During summer it costs more because of black market. The above tanker is probably not through this service though, because it does not display the "Dial-a-tanker" logo and number. The above tanker is providing water for the apartment complex behind it. The water supply is sometimes not enough to fill the underground sumps of the apartment complex. So people order extra water through tankers. During summer it becomes a necessity to order water through tankers. Even though you dial the number and they take your information, sometimes the tanker does not show up for more than 12-24 hours because some people just go to the place where the tankers are getting filled up and pay the driver some money and "hijack" the tanker. Even though the Water Board claims that the water is clean, it is doubtful that they actually inspect the condition of the tank or enforce any cleaning of tanks. Therefore, it is always safe to filter and boil water before using for drinking and cooking. When traveling it is always better to carry bottled water bought from a reputed or reliable shop, because even bottled water available in some shops and railway stations is said to be duplicate!! There are many such "duplicate" things including medicines as some consumer oriented TV channels keep warning their viewers. Talking about bottled water, there was news on TV which said India will be exporting mineral water from the Himalayas to the USA and other countries.

Water supply is for a few hours a day or every other day in some areas. The Chief Minister has promised a 24-hour water supply. Things were not always like this. Many years ago the city used to get water 24x7, but over the years things have deteriorated to this level.

As India and China are the most populous and most rapidly developing countries in the world, by 2015 they will be severely water stressed. The CIA predicts that water shortage will contribute to ongoing conflict in this region. This is an entirely believable scenario looking at how neighboring states fight for water within India, but more so because of unstable countries such as Pakistan, which also possesses nuclear weapons and is distributing the technology to its cronies or to those who pay for it!

"Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over." -Mark Twain

6 comments:

Jules said...

What a hoot - guess what my post is about? WATER - The lack of it inside and too much outside.
We actually have no water worries due to a huge amount of rain here, but the water board took two days to fix a problem which left us all sans l'eau!!!
So love reading about your part of the world - i can soooo relate to this!!!!

Neva said...

I have been reading about the water supply of the world and how India and China are HUGE considerations for consumption of water. I am sure we are in trouble somewhere down the road if we don't start being ecologically and environmentally sound.

Web-OJ said...

That is such a DISCO lorry... so many colours.. red, blue, brown, yellow... In Bombay, in my house atleast, we are fortunate enough to have a 24 hours water supply. But at the rate we are going, wonder how long that will last!

Gudl said...

We take it for granted overhere...

Nihal said...

In Istanbul, there is no water problem and luckily we have a full time water supply. At least for today all is OK for us. As I always say that we -the humanity- should be careful for water consumption since the global warming is already on air, and all the past summer it was too hot for the countrywide over the expectations! BTW, tks a lot for your supportive references regarding my current articles:)
Kikitai koto ga aru node, oshigoto wa nan desu ka? Ogenki de.

Nihal said...

Watashi mo gishi desu. Sozei no gishi da to iimasu (eng: materials engineer). Anata wa sofutowea no gishi desu ne. Oshiete kureta doomo arigatou. Kiita imeru o okuremasu. Isogashii dakara, chotto omachi shite kudasai. Ja mata.