Sanjay Pandey, the activist who first flagged off the ‘Right To Water Act’ issue in India has now focused his energies to prevent wastage of water in maintenance of cricket fields. And further plans to extend the same to other sports like hockey and football, where a lot of water is wasted in maintenance of fields.
For instance, he said around 3,000 liters is used daily to maintain a normal cricket ground and some cricket bodies he alleged reportedly use purified RO-treated water for ground maintenance.
There are at least four to five large sports ground in each of the dozen main cities in the state which covers huge area. In 2019, around 29,000 villages all over the state has been hit by drought.
Pandey said as per reliable estimates, around 40,000 liters water per month are required for regular cricket ground maintenance, so the total quantity of water used by all grounds for all field sports in the country would be phenomenal.
The Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) had informed the Bombay High Court some time ago that nearly 6,000,000 liters of water was needed for maintaining the three pitches in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur during the Indian Premier League matches.
Moreover, it had said that around 60,000 liters of water was required per day for the ground maintenance during the IPL series, held annually.
Pandey urged the Mumbai Cricket Association and other field sports bodies to use either recycled water or the water collected through rainwater harvesting systems to reduce the burden on the city water resources.
Similarly, he said other field sports like hockey, football and golf courses, which also require huge amounts of water both on the field and for consumption for the run-off area around the field of play, running into lakhs of litres daily, should switch over to recycled or harvested water resources.
In this connection, he pointed out that the Rabobank Arena in California, the Lords in UK and Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia use recycled water for ground maintenance.
Pandey has written a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and will communicate with all cricketing bodies in the country to draw their attention to the serious issue of water wastage in times of crises.
Sanjay Pandey’s extensive tours across villages of Maharashtra and the other parts of the country was a moving experience for him and he decided to initiate every possible short term measure to provide relief and also explore long term solutions to nip the problem in the bud. His efforts took concrete shape in the form of ‘ MUMBAI WATER WARRIORS’, an organization he recently formed to spread awareness about water conservation and consumption. The organization further plans to regularly transport the water saved in cities like Mumbai to drought affected villages of Maharashtra. Education and creating awareness is the very backbone of the strategy formulated at Mumbai Water Warriors.
His video on the said issue titled “Ek Bucket Pani Se Kya Ho Sakta Hai” has been well received by residents of Housing Societies and corporate organizations alike. In this interesting video, Sanjay Pandey effectively explains how if every citizen manages to save at least one bucket of water every day, it could translate to major relief for rural, drought affected areas. The month long campaign by Mumbai Water Warriors headed by Sanjay Pandey also proposes to spread the message across all age groups starting from children to senior citizens and engage one and all through exciting online competitions and off line events.
Water is an integral part of human existence and we truly hope the efforts of all concerned make a tangible difference on the ground in ensuring water conservation and optimum utilization.Sanjay Pandey has been conducting all his social activities through a NGO called Nanaji Deshmukh Prathisthan which is now a movement by itself.
Pics Caption:-
1)Sanjay Pandey handing over the letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis
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