Thy name is life and water is part and parcel of our life. Three-fourths of the earth’s surface is covered by water and only one fourth is land mass as per the geographical survey. Most people know it and it is time to keep an eye on water position available at our disposal. What many of us do not know is that 97.5 per cent of the water available on earth is salt water and unworthy of drinking and bathing. Only 2.5 per cent of earth’s water is sweet water of which roughly 68 per cent is held as ice in Arctic and Antarctic region. Of remaining 32 per cent of 2.5 per cent most quantities are stored in underground and in various kinds of organic and inorganic matters. It is only a mini minuscule part, precisely 0.26 per cent of entire water of the world which is in all the rivers, lakes, ponds and other water bodies which are the only sources of sweet surface water available to living beings and the need to preserve and protect is of our utmost importance. So preserving water and not polluting it is of paramount importance and each and everyone of us in a thickly populated country like India should realise this and control the usage water to the optimum level.
In a reality check, we observe on the World Water Day that the source of groundwater is drying up in this country and the alarming worry about water levels continue. Many of the proposed smart cities in India lacks basic infrastructure and the decision to include them is defeated with the drawbacks particularly lack of drinking water and usable water. Thus, we are in the troubled water and India’s largest state UP tops the list. Wells and bore wells serve the purpose when there is a water shortage.
As water levels go down considerably we should plan for Rain Water Harvesting as in Tamil Nadu and other neighbouring states. All through our childhood and growing up years, whenever we had an opportunity to play in the water or leave the tap open with water flowing down the drains, as elders always used to reprimand us for stating that with every drop of water, wasted it was money that was getting wasted. Never did we realise the consequences or the connection between water and money, but now with the sorts of situation that we are heading towards and placed on the brink of a catastrophe is time for retrospection at this crucial juncture as the water shortage threat throughout the world is catching up thick and fast.
(The remaining part of the dairy will be continued on Sunday)
Jayanthy Subramaniam
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
