The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change. There are total 17 SDGs and 169 targets generally interconnected. The key to success on one goal will involve tackling issues more commonly associated with another.
Dr Divya Singhal
This article discusses SDG 6, related to water and sanitation, examine the role of business in promoting SDG 6 illustrate some initiatives taken by Lila Digital & Environmental Solutions Pvt Ltd. in Goa and GiveGoa Initiative by Goa Institute of Management, Goa.
Water is the key to life on Earth. Global experts have warned that global water shortages could spark wars in future. Although 2.1 billion people have gained access to improved water sanitation since 1990, dwindling supply of safe drinking water is a major problem in every continent.
The goal also envisions that nations and communities have achieved universal access to high-quality drinking water. The water resources required to produce food need to be used responsibly and efficiently. As proxies to measure the state of water issue, The ‘Gapframe’ includes two publicly available indicators: renewable water resources (SSI, 2014) representing annual water withdrawals as a percentage of total available renewable water resources, and water quality (OECD, 2015), a measure of ongoing satisfaction of citizens with the quality of local drinking water. The latest Gapframe report ranks India at 120 with the index of 6.2 identifying India’s water issues as critical.
Niti Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant too has emphasized the need of capacity building programme on the management of water. Our demand for water is increasing with the growth of population and industry. On the other hand, per capita annual water availability reduced from 1816 cubic meters in 2001 to 1544 cubic metre in 2011. A latest report by Govt. of India suggest that water usage in agriculture takes up about 70% of total water used in India, and water efficiency in India is half that of Thailand and China.
These challenges will only worsen and the impacts on people will only increase as competing demands for clean fresh water are aggravated by the effects of climate change putting more pressure on water quality and availability.These conditions will create increasing risk for businesses, governments, communities and the environment. Businesses can contribute to the mitigation of water challenges by adopting a water stewardship strategy that addresses the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of water. Groundwater is depleting.
There is a need to conserve water and create serious interventions for water management. Governments alone cannot achieve the targets of SDG 6. There is a need of collaborative efforts from business, academia and others. Lila Digital & Environmental Solutions Pvt Ltd, established in 2011, started as one stop total solution for water issues and wastewater treatment in Goa. The firm is doing its bit in creating awareness regarding water management in collaboration with Goa Institute of Management.
AbhinavApte, General Manager, Lila Digital, shared that proper rainwater harvesting can help tackle water-shortages in Goa. He outlined the initiatives taken by Lila Digital in past few years, and emphasised the need of cost effective water treatment. They have executed large scale rain water harvesting projects for prominent organizations like National Institute of Oceanography, Pentair Water India Ltd, Nestle India Ltd etc. Apte further stated that as the water crisis continues to become severe, there is an urgent need of reform in water management system and revival of traditional systems. He spoke about the completed projects at Bergers Becker, BPCL, Watson Pharmaceuticals, Goa Cricket Academy and also shared that recently the firm has installed a rain water harvesting system at Nirmala Institute.
In a state like Goa, rainwater harvesting is an intelligent management of rainfall that has ample benefits e.g. reduced water logging and stagnation, rise in the water levels in wells, helps to reduce storm water runoff by intercepting and sequestering it for later use, Apte said. Lila Digital is directly engaged in SDG 6 specific targets 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.5 and 6.6 through collaborative efforts with academic institutes such as Give Goa Initiative of Goa Institute of Management.
GiveGoa initiative, started in 2011 at Goa Institute of Management aimed to promote social responsibility among the students of GIM through service to the less privileged communities and thereby contribute to goal of a more inclusive society. As part of this initiative, students take up various projects with partner organisations in Goa that aims to help them become more socially aware and inclined towards taking responsibility for the community welfare.
Water is one of the focus area of GiveGoa Projects in last few years. Last year total 8 projects were undertaken targeting SDG 6. In the current year,GIM students are working with Nestle and Lila Digital to contribute towards SDG 6 by understanding the water scenario in the local setting by mapping the water resources and through creating awareness about water conservation &rain water harvesting. We hope that collaborative efforts will bring positive change in the society.
(The writer is a faculty at Goa Institute of Management, Sankhali)
