MUMBAI: While the entire urban India is in the grip of water scarcity; several cities in the country have been grappling to the extent of living the “Day Zero”, when all taps in the city go dry for a day. According to government reports, 12 per cent of India’s population is already living the 'Day Zero' scenario and by the year 2020, major cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and others will reach zero ground water levels and denying over 100 million people access to drinking water as a consequence.

The enormity of the water scarcity can be gauged by the fact that the Union government recently formed a new Jal Shakti (water) ministry, which aims at tackling water issues with a holistic and integrated perspective on the subject. The ministry has announced an ambitious plan to provide piped water connections to every household in India by 2024.

Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has also raised the concern over water crisis in India, iTV Network, India’s fastest growing news and infotainment network launches ‘Aakhri Boond’ ‘every drop counts’(http://www.aakhriboond.com/), an initiative to reach out to the last foothold of the country through all the platforms to sensitize and educate citizens about water conservation. 

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, during his radio speech on ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has given a clarion call to the citizens of the country to join hands to save water this monsoon. In this endeavor, Shri Narendra Modi is also seeking contribution from media too, being a responsible news network, iTV Network launched ‘Aakhri Boond’ - the first of its kind and the biggest water conservation initiative in the country.

Speaking about the campaign, Mr Kartikeya Sharma, Founder & Promoter, iTV Network says, “Water conservation is the need of the hour, with the current situation, every drop needs to be treated as last, it becomes imperative for every one of us to take it with utmost seriousness.  Aakhri Boond is a mission to educate people about water crisis conservation solutions and we are dedicated to fulfill it.” Further, he added about the campaign and says “The campaign would expand rapidly and will open up a whole new range of opportunities such as water conservation and recycling.”

For the campaign, Mrs Aishwarya Sharma, Chairperson, iTV Foundation, says “I pledge to provide all my support for Aakhri Boond campaign, which targets water conservation and recycling of water as Aakhri Boond aims to be the hope for the coming generation.”  

In a report on the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI)  released by the Niti Aayog in 2018, by 2030, the country's water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual six per cent loss in the country's GDP. Also, as per a UN report, about 377 million Indians lived in urban areas in 2015 and by the year 2030, the urban population is expected to rise to 590 million. The rise in population coupled with unabated groundwater pumping rapid industrialisation, almost 54 per cent of India faced high to extremely high water crisis. According to government report, 70 percent of water in India is contaminated and every year at least 2 lakh people die due to water-related diseases.

During the 360-degree pan-India campaign of Aakhri Boond, iTV Network will sensitize and educate people across pan-India about conservation of water reservoirs, present situation of depleting state of water and adopting steps to save water. iTV network, will be doing a series of activities and programmes on water conservation on multiple platforms including print, electronic and digital media with its millions of viewers. The specialised content will be focused on the seriousness of the water crisis, methods of water conservation, rivers of India and the role models and success stories to establish that it is possible to bring change if all decisively act.

The campaign will focus upon creating awareness to showcase the ground reality and further focus upon sensitizing towards providing solutions and the partnerships between stakeholders to mitigate the situations. iTV Network will also reach out to the masses at a national level and create a community which is aware and is acting towards improvement of the situation.