CHENNAI: The wars of 21st Century will be fought over water,” said Ismail Serageldin, founding director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the new Library of Alexandria and the students of MOP Vaishnav College for Women quoted him at the Save the Drop programme held in the college premises on Wednesday. “Save the Drop is an initiative that was started by our students in June when there was a water scarcity in the city. They wanted to do their bit to help conserve water,” said Susan Sridhar, associate professor and head, department of media management, MOP Vaishnav. “We are conducting three sessions of the programme today to ensure that we cover all the students.”
The programme started with a Tamil prayer song followed by a speech by Prof Susan Sridhar urging students to act on water conservation. A theme song for the initiative, composed by Raghu Srinivas was played followed by an award winning short film, Ek baalti paani by Arjun Diwan, which included a monologue by award winning director Madhur Bhandarkar. “By 2025, two thirds of the world population will not have access to drinking water. Money can buy water but it cannot make water,”
said Bhandarkar in the film.
Another short film Are you guilty of wasting water by MC Jithin followed which portrayed the plight of children in water depleted areas. The first year students of of MA media management presented a dance drama depicting water starved villagers resorting to plunder for drinking water.
Chief speaker RJ Badava Gopi said, “India is the only country that cultivates crops throughout the year and we have been doing so for over 1,000 years which makes water most important for our development. Chennai is the only city which faces water problems in summers as well as monsoons. The authority is to be blamed and youngsters like you should raise your voice. You have proved yourself at the Jallikattu protests and I believe you can do it again.” He urged students conserve water and cited the example of D Suresh, a professor in Kilpauk who has modelled his home to harvest rain water and capture solar energy.
The speaker for the second session C Gopinath, a TV anchor, said, “If an uneducated person does not follow water conservation, we can try and educate him. But when educated people are ignorant or choose to ignore genuine concerns, the society needs to step back and think. During a time when a year’s worth of rainfall pours in a matter of days, albeit because of climate change, it is utter stupidity to not save as much water as we can.”“We have put in a lot of effort to bring this event to life. I hope we have done enough to raise awareness on water conservation and I request everyone to do their part,” said Sai Saranya, a second year media student of the college.