Water Scarcity, A Dark Dream!

Dry taps, barren lands and clouds of smoke, acid rain and people crying of thirst, this is what our future will look like if we do not understand the value of water.

The Blue Planet

Our planet Earth is known as the “blue planet”, but if the conditions of water management remain poor, that day won’t be far away when it will not remain blue. It might seem from distance that Earth has water in abundance, but how many of us know about the real facts? Out of all the water on our planet only 3% of it is fresh, drinkable and the rest is either salt water. Out of that 3% of water, 70% is in form of ice and the rest 30% is liquid. Now, the question that arises, is this amount of water actually adequate for the entire ‘living’ population on Earth?

The Water Adequate Country

India, the country in which at the time of independence, availability of water was around 5,000 cubic meters per capita per annum, higher than what was required then, is now one of the major countries facing water crisis. Overtime, India has failed to maintain and develop that extra availability. It is known as ‘water adequate country’, but the amount of water being wasted will definitely bring a change in the terms. In the national song of our country “Vande Matram”, we call India “sujalam sufalam”, which means a land of monsoon, but will it remain the same in future? With all the present practices and mismanagement of water, definitely not.

No Water ?

After two sequent years of weak monsoons, 330 million people – a quarter of the country’s population are affected by severe prolonged shortage of rainfall. According to the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) report released by the Niti Ayog in 2018, 21 major cities in India (Delhi, Bangaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and others) are rushing to reach the zero ground water levels by 2020, affecting the access of adequate amount of water for 100 million people. Ground water used to be available at 100 meters below the ground and if people continue wasting and using underground water carelessly, the level of water is expected to decrease from 300 meters – 400meters up to 600 meters – 800 meters below ground. Government is focusing more on providing water pipe-lines in almost all the houses of the country but they seem to have forgotten that if there will be no water, what help will those water pipe-lines be?

The Precious Treasure

Underground water is like a treasure and the soil is like a bank, below which water is collected drop by drop. Water down there is safe and is prevented from evaporation. It can be used as per the needs and requirements. Nature provides us water in abundance, it never does injustice. It’s humans who have forgotten to respect nature and its fruits and most of all we have forgotten to respect water. The treasure that is stored below the ground since such a long period of time, people are spending it heedlessly and emptying it. People earlier used to dig wells and pull the water up manually, but with the development of technology, people started misusing electricity and machines to get hundreds of buckets of water through a single button. The water level eventually starting dropping and the deeper we go, we will find contaminated water which is not at all fit for drinking. That contaminated water was like a first warning, that if people keep on carrying the same practices there will be consequences.

Exploitation Of Rivers

Researches have shown that people in India pollute the rivers to such an extent, that most of the stretch is now dead. People in India refer to the rivers as mothers, but they do not realize the harm they are causing to their mothers. Most of the rivers in India have turned into dumping places, whether it is solid, liquid or gases. Waste from factory’s and industrial areas is also disposed into the rivers, but they do not realize that the same water is later used for drinking and other household works. A research shows that out of 1400km stretch of the Yamuna river, 600km stretch (Panipat to Itawa) is said to be officially polluted and dead. The amount of oxygen in that water is zero.

Respect Water

It’s time for us to start respecting and valuing water because every drop of water today is precious. World Health Organization states that an individual requires around 25 liters of water for meeting his/her daily basic hygiene and food needs. 2 to 3 liters of water is necessary for drinking purpose and we use around 150 to 200 liters of the ‘fresh water’ in washing, cleaning, flushing toilets and in other non-potable purposes.Lower quality of water can be used for all the other household purposes. Thus, for environmental sustainability, water must be treated and supplied according to the usage.

Our Responsibilities

It is time to go back and start practicing our traditional system of rainwater harvesting, catching water where it falls. Some measures that can be taken to save and use water efficiently are - Treated water must be recycled and reused for household purposes like, watering plants, moping and cleaning etc. which is cost effective. Managing water situation is not just the job of engineers, hydro-geologists, economists and planners, but also the responsibility of all the civilians and communities themselves. We need to make efforts in order to see results. Where at a place people and children die because of insufficient water, many others do not realize that how important it is to save it. People will have to stay dependent on water tanks which will provide very limited water and there is a possibility that ‘water ATM’ machines would start getting installed in cities. Rates of packed drinking water will jump four times the present rate. We need to make efforts in order to prevent such circumstances to occur. Small initiatives and steps taken by one, can give bright and successful results.

Are we ready to face the distopian future?

To me it seems like a fight between water and humans, where water clearly is winning it. If we do not start using water expeditiously now, that day is not far when water will be charged or rationed. It’s time to see the bigger picture and start making efforts. We are always taught that respect is earned. We forgot to respect water and today the same is happening with us. We can either start saving and storing water today or prepare ourselves to face water scarcity in coming years. It is for us to decide whether we want to watch the dark dream come true, or we want to change it into a bright one?

©Loyal._.Frienemy