No denying that each drop of water must be conserved. In this light, 92.7 Big FM ongoing campaign on water conservation deserves appreciation. Using multiple celebrity voices, the 'paani bachao life banao' campaign has been pitched around plugging leakages and saving wastages. Targeted primarily at urban listeners, bulk of the messages relate to saving basin wastage, plumbing leaking cistern and restricting car washing. While the 'frequency modulation' medium is being effectively used to spread crucial message, it erroneusly assumes that 'indivuals' have been the cause of the crises. In reality, individuals have little role in the big water crises.   

The question that must be asked is: does water saved get reallocated to those who deserve it more? Ironically, the distribution system has no such provision and whatever little is saved gets sucked within the inefficient system itself. Afterall, municipal consumption is less than 10 per cent of the total water consumed across diverse sectors. For the big picture change, focus needs to shift from acts of personal consumption to gross failure of the system that controls and delivers water. Any campaign taking consumers on a guilt trip by engaging them in what-you-can-do-to-save-the-earth guilt trip is surely misdirected!