Good Intentions, Bad Policy: RO Purifiers
One of the errors we tend to make is to evaluate policies by focussing on their intent rather than focussing on its consequences . Pranay Kotasthane gives a good example of why that is a bad idea in Missing in Action . Take the ubiquitous RO water purifiers. They reduce the total dissolved solids (TDS) in water, and yes, it wastes a lot of water. Besides, the body does need minerals; so RO’s in areas where TDS is low to begin with are not such a good idea. Therefore, the government set a limit – no RO’s in areas where TDS is lesser than 500 mg/liter. A terrible policy if you stop focussing on intent and instead look at consequences. First , the real problem is the poor quality of water for consumption. Should the government spend on trying to address that or on framing and then enforcing regulations? Second , did anyone check what fraction of fresh water is used by domestic consumption? It’s just 2%. Which raises the question – did it make sense to focus on the wa...