I’d like to start off saying that the
future of urban cities are over urban
India and and the larger terms our
planet is increasingly dependent on
communities in the urban areas and how
they manage the resources so a lot of
you know more than 60% of the population
these days live in the cities and the
numbers are increasing and communities
is the one that can make the change but
nobody is looking at a sustainable plan
nobody is even thinking beyond a tanker
and tanker didn’t occur to them as a
depleting resource so the turning point
actually happened when during the TEDx
Salon 2016 we were actually taken in a
bus to a place which is called Gandipet
lake and we were sitting on this lake
bed discussing water in the city
it was so stark a contrast because this
lake in 1920s was the only source for
water and Hyderabad and that was
sufficient for the entire city and today
we are sitting on this lake dry bed so
it kind of attached to me deeply and
that’s when I thought like what are we
really doing with our city and started
to understand and explore and the
thought leaders has great leads to this
thought as in we had challenges as a
city because mostly it’s on sheet rock
and today we draw water from thousand
feet below so it’s logically right to
charge recharge the deep aquifers that’s
when the birth of safe 10k boars happen
which was an outcome of the salon a
small group we started working on this
idea where it’s basically rooftop
recharge through a simple filter and
connected to the dead boar so we’re
talking about reviving at least 10 lakh
boars right so this was the most
economical can be done in few arts and
you don’t need too much of a technical
support a simple plumber can actually
make this
happen then we took on to it in the
sense had a small press meeting and got
depressed to know about this idea and
started top searches and people in the
field who have worked in water and they
applauded this idea and we started
slowly driving it into communities and
soon I was driving it in schools talking
to kids telling them ok now go back to
your parents and ask them what is the
plan for water that you have in your own
homes and that while the kids understood
the global water situation they had no
clue about what the city has and where
it was going through a critical zone we
are actually talking no water in 10
years or we’ll be fighting for water in
10 years in Hyderabad that’s how much
depletion that’s happening is in
groundwater around this time is when
there was another platform called
Hyderabad urban makeover that happen and
this was a platform for NGOs and anybody
that was doing some good work for the
city could Co collaborate with the
government or other NGOs and you could
come up and work together for the larger
plan for the city so I saw a possibility
that it’s possible to rope in with the
government and work for a larger cause
and we came up with this 60-day
aggressive campaign plan for rainwater
harvesting because we realized that when
we told people that there is no water
for the city in the next 10 years and
understand how critical it is for you to
revive water that’s when they woke up to
the situation so awareness was key so we
had to do it citywide and it had to be
an aggressive plan not get diluted so we
gave him a 60-day plan and we actually
worked on budgets and also told him how
and why it will work a tying in print
media social media and also using
tankers they had the city owned about
750 tankers I actually got one of the
tankers painted and used the tanker as
campaign material the guy who needs the
tanker is the one who needs the most
awareness and you see these tankers
flying all over the city throughout the
day even if it is not summer so that’s
the situation in Hyderabad so and also
planned about 130 events tying up with
existing events and also talked about
art installations which will make an
impact which will give you that
thought-provoking thing so I went to
many hmw backyards you know looking for
pipes and rusted pipes and machinery and
trying to tie in the JNF aur students
into it and working with them on these
installations while we went far ahead
and it was just about ready to go then
the government came back and telling us
that the next three months they have to
plan aggressively on the industry
rainwater harvesting which was a larger
concern and they already had the budget
in place and they had to drive it so
it’s kind of meant in the back burner
but we are still working on that thread
then around that time I also became part
of a step well research team headed by
architect s with Rama Murthy and this
was to document the lost step fells of
Telangana and they will only 30 step
fells is documented where we had 200
plus historic stem cells so it is
basically documenting these Steffes
that’s when I got this profound learning
on our traditional water systems how did
it work
what was the watershed management that
they had from River to tanks to the
katha Thea rulers actually built about
3000 tanks and lakes man-made lakes and
then the last point was a step file so
that gotten a different kind of
knowledge that you know yes it is
possible if we revive step fells and the
surface water bodies we can make a
larger change so that’s when I suddenly
started seeing like when you say that
you have a strong intent and the
universe conspires right so the my
government thread that was already
happening in terms of campaigning for
rainwater harvesting so the mayor have
connected me to the zoning commissioner
and the lakes that we had identified she
was the one and the irrigation
apartment he tied us into so there was a
government connect and the people
connect to because I was working on
rainwater harvesting with various
communities typically it used to be my
weekend job to just walk in voluntarily
into committee communities and ask them
to do rainwater harvesting so I had the
community connect to and now the
architect friends from the stem cell
research team and other architects came
forward and they were interested in also
restoring the lake and talking about
beautifying the lake more meaningfully
okay so everything started coming
together and started becoming more
exciting then came the Ganesh Chaturthi
and I really took on to this festival
and took this as a huge opportunity for
mass awareness now you know Ganesh
Chaturthi is so connected to immersion
and in the lake so today we’ve polluted
the lakes with P or P idols and that
while clear Ganesha is not the problem
but the kind of garbage that goes and as
a city in Hyderabad
throughout the thirteen days each day we
have 300 tons more of garbage that you
know strains the city and there are 300
trucks flying in the large
infrastructure about 96,000 plastic bags
and understood like what are we really
doing to the city and and we’re just
further killing the water bodies so when
I took on to this there was there’s this
person called that – from peril Mumbai
who came up with this idea of tree
Ganesha where you plant the Ganesha
you don’t even immerse so that was a
while I was looking out for what is the
idea that I take across I found this to
be fantastic because it doesn’t even go
to the lake and you’re actually planting
a tree in your own vicinity and you’re
most probably 100% take care of it
because you are immersing a Ganesha
there so I started taking it to
communities that I’m working around
because the communities around the lakes
is one that needs massive awareness and
also took it to schools I reach to about
25,000 kids in schools took a pledge
from each of them that they would this
year not just do clay Ganesha but also
plant echinacea
and I took the thread to the government
also
and talk to the zoning commissioner
shared few pictures and she shared it
with the minister and he actually
tweeted and it and in the videos we made
around the planter Ganesha became viral
and the communities if you see those
kids there when I gave the awareness
they were about twenty thirty kids when
we actually started making there were
about a hundred kids making so the
entire slum communities a couple of
communities I was I was able to change
them from hundred percent pioppi
Ganesh’s to hundred percent clear
Ganesh’s and not even take them to the
lake though the lake is right in their
backyard and towards the end this whole
thing culminated into a massive event
where we partnered with the government I
actually worked on it day in and day out
and this only Commissioner was a huge
support bringing in the government angle
and we had a three thousand attendee a
mint where most of them were from
residential societies across Hyderabad
taking this awareness and they actually
distributed 2,000 plant tree carnations
to people through another NGO which was
also promoting this cause so that was a
fantastic move and while we were talking
about individual lakes and communities
and the festivals we also have to look
at the bigger picture because constantly
in the news you hear frothing lakes if
you see there we actually there’s a
funny tag on that froth my latte and not
my Lake
so it’s heavy chemical pollution reason
being Hyderabad is a pharma city too so
chemical pollution is one and on the
left if you see the leeches that comes
from 4,000 tons of garbage that goes
into a dump yard and the dump yard
through rains this year has created huge
leachate pools and these have destroyed
a few villages around and three lakes
have become massively toxic and
construction debris this happens with
every city because a lake is a no-man’s
land nobody ever cares about it so you
think it’s a you know glorified dump
yard so addressing these issues
happened to be a parliament committee
that was made for Environment and
imperial 3-headed this quickly took the
opportunity to go and represent the
lakes of Hyderabad – hadn’t happened in
Hyderabad with 31 MPs across the country
so took this opportunity and I went and
gave a representation from our NGO
talking about the sad state of our water
bodies and wanting to do something about
it and so that thread is happening where
we are tying in with her to get in
researchers to get in the MP funds to
get to see how we can help in a larger
way now while the larger representation
is happening the community engagement is
key and you have to keep this going and
persevering with them and you can’t just
do one clean up and back off right so
while the Danish Authority and every
other even there’s one event we did just
with kids when I get usually before a
clean up I give an awareness so again I
had a bunch of 20 kids and I saw quickly
that women and children were actually
drivers to this cause because women
concerned about the kids health and
children because they’re enthusiastic
about you know reviving a water body and
every event actually we play the
national anthem and we do a human chain
around Lake saying that you are take a
pledge today to save the water body and
that kicks in are certain commitment in
them ok I want to do this so we had art
competitions and even tied up with lot
of religious institutions because many
religious institutions around the lakes
– and they are a major source of getting
plastics and every clean up literally we
have at least three truck loads of
garbage and only plastics rain so and
then the first plantation event we did
we were quite surprised that the forest
Minister himself agreed to come and the
mayor was there so that was a very good
support for our even because they slowly
started understand and studying the
content of what we were doing so the
initiative slowly got noticed in the
main
stream so I made it a point that every
cleanup in an event I don’t call the
media because it is the purpose right it
is not a selfie movement it is this the
purpose and people have to start doing
it with a commitment so but then we got
noticed with all the good stuff that we
were driving in more communities across
the city started seeking our support and
government and larger NGO started
getting engaged with us and more
researchers came forward okay what you
guys are doing and what kind of support
you need and so just the media itself
took us to a larger level of support so
we started looking actively from other
end working more with the government and
municipality though they are supporting
we are looking at bigger support from
them
so there’s one lake where there’s about
one and a half kilometer of sewage that
just flows along the lake like canola
and it’s disturbing three for slum
communities they do not have the voice
to go to the government and talk about
this they silently suffer so that was
one thing I took on it took all the
engineering department the zonal
Commissioner and made few visits and now
they have come up with a proposal it’s
under tendering process then I’m going
to connect this open sewage at 25
different points to a mainstream drain
ugd line and so that’s going to be a big
change that it’s going to bring so while
we are talking about the lakes
addressing issues of the community on
one end also becomes of prime importance
you are you become one of them then they
are ready to bond with you to come for
the larger you know bonding with the
link and with architects and so it’s
trying to see see each lake is you know
you can’t have a prescriptive approach
to every lake each neck is different the
problems are different the solutions are
different so there’s one lake where
there’s a wall if you just simply cut
down that wall and make a seating edge
and there’s already an avenue of trees
so if you have some percolating
you know surface maybe it can be used as
a jogging track and stuff so simple
solutions which probably the community
can get together and make it
happen right and we’re looking at
corporis getting on board for the larger
problem of I don’t believe in diverting
sewage to another area and making it
their problem instead start talking
about treating with constructed wetlands
and through organic methods where we
don’t use power and we treat the water
and give it to the lake so my dream is
to make the urban lakes come alive in a
way that it becomes an interesting
public space and where you have saved
water in a large way and looking forward
to you know all the 172 Lakes well I’m
right now focused on one single lake and
through the restoration in such a way
that it’s sustainable and long-term not
a short-term solution now I want to
leave you with this thought rate who
named if you see the district of Pune as
a most polluted rivers in Maharashtra we
have one right in our backyard here its
pristine it’s beautiful on one end
actually took a walk along the river and
you see the dark side of it too so I
would hear requests like I said in the
beginning communities are the way
forward and how we adopt solutions how
we adapt sustainable solutions and each
one offers form the community if one
person like me could think and it could
catapult in many ways each one of you
can make it happen just the college and
the authorities and if you can get
together and just persevere don’t give
up see that one thing with social
changes do not give up you know when you
don’t give up we know all the problems
we have all the solutions believe me we
have every solution we just have to
connect the dots like the problems are
diverse the solution is also diverse and
once you start connecting the dots we
will build the smartest city today we
are talking about smart cities the
smartest city is the one where we are
talking about preserving the very
essence of life water thank you [Applause]