Can Chennai be saved from "Blue Gold" crisis?

Chennai's "Blue Gold" crisis!

During 2015, Chennai got flooded due to excessive flooding and not proper releasing of water from chembarambakam lake. This resulted in huge loss to Chennai and the major cause was the government’s negligence in either not releasing water at the right time or in not giving out enough warning to people living in areas around the Adyar River so that they could shift to safety. The next year, I moved to Chennai for my work and stayed there for 2 years. During my 2 years of stay in Chennai from 2016-2018, I saw Chennai going through many various disasters continuously every year majorly related to Water which is now famously being called “Blue Gold” due to its scarcity and value. When the Vardah cyclone hit Chennai on Dec 6, 2016, it claimed over 18 lives, uprooted about 1 lakh trees in Chennai and its suburbs, and caused extensive damage to roads, supplies, and power infrastructure: over 10,000 electric poles were mangled and 800 transformers damaged. During the Vardah, I and my office colleagues helped in generating funds and providing relief to people who got affected in cyclone. The following year, again Chennai got it and this time it was not cyclone but flood. The area which I was living during that time also got affected and I was not able to step out of my home due to heavy flow of water. I and my apartment people were waiting for food & other reliefs. It is very odd but when I look back to 2015, Chennai faced a devasting flood which killed and displaced hundreds of people but today Chennai city’s four main reservoirs are virtually dry. The result of the crisis is not only due to lack of water but also a lack of proper management. The year 2015 was the time where Chennai was having enormous Blue Gold (i.e.,) water due to flood and only if the water was properly saved and utilized during these times, Chennai might not need to be facing its current “Blue Gold Crisis” situation.

Current Situation at Chennai

The current situation at Chennai is bad. The four lakes Puzhal, Cholavaram, Chembarambakkam and Poondi are dried up and they together contain only 1% of the volume they did last year. School children are carrying extra bottles to get water from school. Many companies have asked the employees to work from home & bring their own water to use. Many restaurants have been closed and water is being rationed in apartments. Malls are asking their water-intensive stores to either take a break or use the water frugally.

Having lived in Chennai and have gone through these crisis situations twice, I wanted to take this “Blue Gold crisis” that Chennai is facing right now as my challenge and propose a viable solution for it.

Thus, my challenge statement is “Can Chennai be saved from Blue Gold crisis?”

Reason for Chennai's "Blue Gold" Crisis

India received more than enough rain to meet the demand of over a billion people. According to the country’s Central Water Commission, it requires at most 3,000 billion cubic meters of water annually and receives 4,000 billion cubic meters of rain. But the reason why we still got into water crisis is because of misusing water and treating resources inefficiently.

In the fight against water scarcity, every drop of water counts. As the poem by Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney goes,

"Little drops of water, 
Little grains of sand, 
Make the mighty ocean 
And the pleasant land."

An important reason why water crisis exists is that the people are unaware of the amount of water they consume. In the urban areas, many people know only at the end of the month if they have installed rotameters and pay to the government authorities. In other residential areas like student hostels where there are common areas of water consumption, there is no existing way to track the consumption of a particular student. The lack of knowledge of the amount of consumption will lead to behavior that won’t save water.

Thus, I propose the solution of water management which can improve the efficiency in the use of water and change the behavior of people from spending water to save water.

Solution for Blue Gold Crisis

No matter how much amount of water we have due to rains or underground water or rainwater harvesting, if we don’t consume it properly without saving it, then the Chennai crisis persists and will never end. As one of the major causes of the water crisis is that the people are unaware of the amount of water they consume and they start misusing the water & treating resources inefficiently. In order to change the behavior among the people from consuming more water to save water, the solution can be the water management system “AQWACON – Automatic Quantifier of WAter CONsumption”. This is a water metering approach where a sensor is installed in the pipeline of a commercial building which gives data regarding the usage of water by individual units, amount of water wasted and even detects a leak in the taps. Each sensor has a unique ID and sends real-time data to consumers via a mobile application regarding water consumption. This is extremely useful in apartment complexes since families need to only pay for the water consumed by them, as opposed to paying a standard amount irrespective of the size of the family. It can also enable water rationing. This water metering will help in assessing the supply-demand data and also alerts the consumer about excessive usage which helps in changing the behavior of people towards saving water. This accompanied by significant customer engagement and an aggressive leakage reduction programme can help to overcome the water crisis.

Storyboard

Looks-Like Prototype

In the Look-Likes prototype, 4 snapshots of the app of AqwaCon is provided. The first three images show the profile page, water consumption, and usage through the app and the fourth image shows the trends observed. This is the front-end model of AqwaCon. The back-end model will have a water sensor that will be attached to the pipeline system.

Front-End Model

The trend of Water consumption in Aqwacon app which enables to track the water usage

Back-End Model:

Aqwacon Water Sensor which will be installed in the pipeline to monitor the water consumption

Low-Cost Experiment

The Low-cost experiment is required to validate the hypothesis for this solution of AqwaCon. But before the experiment, the leap of faith assumption taken as it is critical to the success of the idea.

The Assumption taken is as follows:

1) People are willing to use this AQWACON product to track their water consumption. This assumption is taken as till now, people don't measure how much water they are using and freely uses the water how much ever they want. Suddenly introducing this water metering approach, it is assumed that people are ready to use this method and are willing to track their water consumption.

The hypothesis is as follows:

1) Whether people change their behavior from consuming more water to saving water if they become aware of the amount of water they consume every day

2) Whether Aqwacon -water metering approach can help in the reduction of water consumption, in turn, reducing the demand for water 

The experiment can be conducted in two ways:

We can start with one day experiment by conducting a focus group discussion with IIM-B students about their water consumption and whether they are aware of the amount of water they consume. Also from the focus group, a survey can be followed which helps to identify whether people are willing to use the AQWACON water metering approach to save water. Following this, the below low-cost experiment can be done.

1) Using IIM Bangalore as an institution, I will take a focus group of 50 students. With the help of existing water tracking app available (if we enter the time we used the tap/shower, it will provide the amount of water consumed), I will ask the students to use the app and after 1 week, with help of survey assess whether there is any change in the behavior of students towards water consumption or not. this can help in proving my first hypothesis that Whether people change their behavior from consuming more water to saving water if they become aware of the amount of water they consume every day.

2) With help of NSRCEL, a prototype of AQWACON can be made and tested in IIM Bangalore or at an apartment and check whether the sensor and its real-time data alert to people actually help in reducing the water consumption or not. This helps in proving the second hypothesis (i.e.,) Whether Aqwacon -water metering approach can help in the reduction of water consumption, in turn, reducing the demand for water 

Cost of Experiment

For experiment 1, there is no cost as we are using the existing app available with the help of IIM Bangalore students. For experiment 2, the water sensor available in the market ranges from 1000 Rs to 5000 Rs and developing a prototype front end model (average cost to develop an app) will range from 25,000 rs to 35,000 Rs. Other miscellaneous charges range from 5,000 Rs to 10,000 Rs. Total Prototype cost can be approx. Rs. 50,000.

Measure of Success

The success of this low-cost experiment can be as follows:

1) out of 50 students, more than 50% of students start saving water by reducing their water consumption.

2) The total water usage of the apartment or institution is reduced after the installation of Aqwacon.