If all the water sachets used on one day of Ganesh Nimmajam in Hyderabad were laid on the ground, it would cover an area of 12 acres or 38 Olympic-sized swimming pools. “We distributed 30 lakh water sachets on the last day of Ganesh festival,” informs an official of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
What these 50 microns thick 9 x 9 cm plastic packets would have done to the environment is anyone’s guess. While rain on the morning of September 6 washed away some of the packets into the sewerage system,
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation workers had a tough time cleaning up the streets.
To be fair to the Water Board, the water packets came to the rescue of dozens of people who felt faint under the blazing sun on the day of immersion. K. Sreedevi, the police official tasked with maintaining order on the Tank Bund, kept on speaking about hydration and guiding the devotees to the nearest water kiosk.
The Water Board had set up 109 kiosks where the water sachets were distributed while some had water stored in drums.
“We distributed 600 bags of water packets on Tuesday. Each bag contains about 100 water sachets. Nobody went away thirsty from the event,” said a Water Board official overseeing the distribution of the packets in one such kiosk.
“At a large event like this, it was the only way we could distribute water to everyone. If we have the facility we would have used tankers and drums to serve water as we did during Bonalu. We set up a piped water facility during Bonalu inside Golconda fort for the devotees. We set up facilities according to the requirement and the location,” said a Water Board official.
A ban on use of plastic below 40 microns thickness is in force in the State. One of the reasons identified multiple times during urban floods in India is the clogging due to plastic sheets and PET bottles. The GHMC has even issued warning to citizens against disposing of plastic waste as it was ‘posing dangers especially during monsoon season’. The GHMC has also taken up an awareness campaign about ban on plastic bags below 40 microns.
Roped into the scheme of things are students from educational institutions, Residential Welfare Associations and Non Governmental Organisations.