BENGALURU: Till last year, the group’s main concern was only creating awareness and education. They had conducted a number of campaigns across various wards. This year they plan to make things more interactive between the group and citizens. Meenakshi Ravikrishna, a core member of the group explains, “On the request of any concerned citizen we will conduct not only awareness drives but also conduct a session with citizens and vendors who deal in water harvesting equipment such as aerators. Citizens can themselves interact with these vendors and get to know details about prices and things to do when installing such equipment.” She adds that such programmes will in no way be endorsements of these products.
The plan is also to conduct regular follow-ups with people. “Rather than just being a forum for awareness, we are also looking at the concrete action. Thus we are connecting citizens who would probably have no idea what to do in matters of water conservation with vendors and people who can inform them how to go about things,” she says.
This new interactive approach has already been welcomed by citizens. In the two WhatsApp groups that the team maintains, they have already got requests to conduct these programmes from four localities namely - ISRO layout, Sarjapur, Koramangala, and Kasavanahalli.“There is a lot of interest for these activities. We are conducting our first programme with the new orientation within a few days in Koramangala,” says Meenakshi.
Videos series on water
Sandhya Bhat, another member of the Water Warrior group, highlights plans to also reach out to people through a video series on water. “What better way to reach people than through the visual medium.
One such video has interviews with a lot of women who have taken pro-water conservation initiatives. This will drive the message for more people to come forward, while also showcasing the fact of how women are playing a leading role in water literacy efforts,” she says.
One of the members has coined a slogan for the new orientation - Adopt HER (harvest, economise and reuse).Sandhya also highlights an effort to create a database of vendors through which people can have easy access to instant information and contacts. “We are interacting with a number of apartment complexes as well as RWAs and also asking authorities from the BBMP and BWSSB to come and talk on various issues of conservation,” she says.