Chennai: ‘The India Virtual Marathon’ was held in Chennai city early morning on Sunday (August 3). The virtual marathon race commenced at Alcott Memorial and concluded at MRC Nagar in Chennai. It started at 5:00 AM and ended at 7:30 AM. The ‘India Virtual Marathon’ consisted of three sections; 10 km, 5 km, and 3 km. The Indian Plumbing Association (IPA) organised this virtual marathon named ‘Neerathon’ to spread awareness to save water resources in the country. IPA started a water awareness festival where they take many initiatives to preserve water.
Many people joined the marathon to ‘run for water’ in the early morning today.
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IPA National President Gurmit Singh Arora also participated in the marathon and said that we should “conserve, reserve, reclaim” our water resources. Mr Gurmit Singh Arora said,
Currently our population has crossed 1.43 billion and we are 17.35 per cent of the world’s population but we have only 4 per cent of fresh water of the world. We all know that 75 per cent of water goes for agriculture and if there is a shortage of water there will be a shortage of food, so we all must conserve, reserve, and reclaim our water used water to make sure that we make a country water positive. We appeal to everybody to save water.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – theLGBTQ population,indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water,SanitationandHygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fightmalnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health,adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues likeair pollution,waste management,plastic ban,manual scavengingand sanitation workers andmenstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India wheretoiletsare used andopen defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
