It has always been said that the next world war would be for water. Aside from the exaggeration, everyone agrees that the water crisis in India is getting worse by the day. A few years ago, the city of Latur in Maharashtra had to fetch water from a distance of 300 km by train. This means that the water crisis is now right in front of our faces. Water scarcity is a multifaceted issue. Some are environmental, while others are social or man-made. Water waste is a major contributor to man-made problems. The only solution is to properly use and not waste the water that is provided to you.

In India, drinking water is not supplied separately from water for other uses. All the water supplied through the tap is purified and given as drinking water. We use this drinking water for washing dishes, washing clothes and other cleaning work. That is, we contaminate the purified water again. This detergent-contaminated water returns to the river through sewers and pollutes the water. This means that the resources used for water purification are wasted and the river is polluted. This is the double loss of resources. Statistics show that it costs three to six rupees per litre to make the water drinkable.

About 2 litres of water is used to clean a meal dish. About one litre of water is used to clean a plate of breakfast and half a litre of water is usually used to wash a bowl. Millions of litres of drinking water are used daily for washing used plates, plates and bowls in places like banquet halls, hotels, restaurants, food stalls, company canteens etc. This is largely due to the increase in water scarcity. This wastage of water is largely responsible for increasing water scarcity. Due to such waste of purified water, more drinking water is pumped out of the water sources. This resulted in early depletion of river/ dam/ groundwater and deterioration of water conditions from January to February. Along with this, millions of kilos of chemical detergents are used for washing utensils and this causes pollution of land and water resources.

The simplest and cheapest way to avoid this huge waste of water is easily available. In hotels and restaurants, the use of plates and bowls made of natural leaves instead of steel plates and bowls will save a great amount of water. Thum Creative Paryavaran Dakshata Kruti Manch is running several awareness campaigns to encourage the use of plates and bowls made from natural leaves to achieve this goal. We concentrate on places where a large number of people visit on a daily basis, such as hotels and food stalls. The campaign is being carried out in collaboration with the Cummins India Foundation. Under this campaign, the link between water scarcity and wastage of water is explained by visiting hotels, food stalls, religious institutions in Pune city. They are urged to use eco-friendly, biodegradable green plates and bowls as a simple and easy solution to this critical problem.

This is a new idea for people involved in the hotel business as well as for customers. Motivating small hoteliers, especially stallholders, to use eco-friendly green plates and bowls is a major challenge. Generous individuals, organisations, and influential members of society should participate in this work.