Power can sometimes lead people to make some pretty poor decisions. A government official in India was suspended from his job after he ordered a water reservoir to be drained so he could retrieve his phone, which he had dropped while taking a selfie.
Food inspector Rajesh Vishwas dropped his Samsung phone in the Kherkatta dam in Chhattisgarh, India, after taking a selfie. In order to get the device back, Vishwas first asked local divers to jump into the reservoir to find the device, claiming it contained sensitive government data.
When these initial efforts to retrieve the smartphone failed, Vishwas demanded the reservoir be emptied using diesel pumps. Over the next three days, more than two million liters of water were pumped out of the reservoir. This amount of water was enough to irrigate at least 1,500 acres of land during India’s extreme summers.
Images from the incident even showed Vishwas sitting under a red umbrella as diesel pumps drained water from the reservoir. To play off his foolishness, Vishwas told local media that the water in the reservoir was unusable for irrigation and that he had received permission from a senior official to drain it.
Authorities suspended the official after he was openly criticized by others for wasting water resources, especially being one of the most water-stressed countries in the world.
Lucky for Vishwas, the smartphone was eventually retrieved but naturally, it wouldn’t turn on because it had been sitting in water for so long.
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-27/indian-official-drains-dam-to-find-lost-phone/102401292