Tap-A-Tap: Update #1
Hi, I'm Anuj Agarwal, founder, EXTRA! INSIGHTS. I & my startup have taken an initiative to Save Kolkata’s Freshwater while building an online journalism aggregator & curator collating the most in-depth and credible news & information from the most reputable publishers across the world.
This blog post is an update on the ‘Tap A Tap’ initiative. To know more about the initiative and please read the previous post here.
I received an extremely overwhelming response for my first post, I can even go as far as saying that it went ‘viral’ on LinkedIn garnering more than 5L views, 18,000+ reactions, and 1,200 comments. I am thankful to everyone who not only took time to react and share but also stopped to view the post, it helped spread the word!
I had promised that we’ll fix 5 more taps in the week following the post and we have. I couldn’t do it in the week right after the post as someone very close to me passed away. In his memory, we fixed an extra tap this week.
Here’s an update on all aspects of the initiative.
Total taps fixed (26–09–2020): 10
Total money spent: Rs 6,000
No of Taps Stolen: 0 (ZERO)
No of Taps broken: 0 (ZERO)
Contribution received for 30+ taps (more on this below)
Daily water savings: 60,000Litres. (Approx)
My interaction with so many people who commented and came forward to help gave me some deeper insights on the issue, here they are.
There are actually 3 types of such taps.
Across Kolkata, there are 3 types of taps that spill water unchecked. They all can look the same.
The first type is called Ganga Taps, these are taps that bring water directly from the Hoogly river and can be found in areas nearby the river. We CANNOT fix these taps as the water that is spilled through these is Unfiltered and therefore muddy, so tapping them shall lead to sedimentation in the pipes and can affect the water flow.
A few people commented about this on my post, I opposed their claim due to lack of prior knowledge on the variety of taps, I apologize to them. However, I still believe that it is a shameful waste of resources as the water is still being pumped using electric pumps and there should be a tap on them to minimize waste. I’m looking for solutions to this particular issue, I welcome all ideas.
The second type of tap looks exactly like the Ganga Taps but spill perfectly usable and FILTERED water coming directly from KMC. These taps CAN and SHOULD be tapped. We have tapped 10 such taps.
If you ever want to differentiate the 2 taps you can do so by:
- Looking at the water, if the water coming out of the tap is a little muddy and has particles in it when held in hand, it’s probably unfiltered and directly from Ganga.
- Checking the timings of the water spillage. If water spills 24*7 from the tap, it’s probably from Ganga, filtered water spills only at scheduled times (usually twice a day)
- Ask people around the tap, hawkers, shop owners etc usually know the taps around them really well, asking them usually gives you the best information.
The third type of tap is a complex, high-pressure tap that spills a huge amount of water through large pipes. There are usually tanks created around these pipes to store water with a small pipe at the bottom to spill the water. These taps too CAN’T be tapped as the water never stops spilling into the tank, so if we tap the spill, the water pressure inside the tank will increase and water shall spill over the top of the tank. This too is an utterly Shameful waste of water and would probably require government intervention to stop it.
This water wastage isn’t limited to just Kolkata.
While my post was really well received by the people of Kolkata, they were not the only ones who commented and shared. I received a number of messages from people in Jaipur, Bengaluru, Mumbai & Hyderabad confirming such taps existence in their cities. It seems that this is a countrywide issue. I am therefore planning to turn this into a nationwide initiative where people from any city where such taps exist can join our team and lead the change in their own town.
If you want to be a part of this initiative for your city, reach out to me via WhatsApp (+91–6290640523) or message here or on LinkedIn.
I’m delighted to see that I have so many people’s support in this initiative. People like Jugal Kishor and Krishna Bose have come forward to help me build an interactive map and app for people to notify us of any taps they see nearby. Many have shown interest in tackling the issue in their cities and more than 15 people have promised me that they’ll make a contribution to the cause both as individuals and as corporations. They and you can now do that via this donation page.
The donations and location of taps being shared by people, the support that everyone’s giving me is the fuel to keep this initiative going and I’m sure will lead us to the success of closing all taps across the city and country!
Stay tuned for more updates. I thank you again for your support and appreciation.
Anuj Agarwal
For, EXTRA! INSIGHTS
