Both social scientists and environmentalist warn that there is going to be war for water in the future, and the available water resources are unable to be sustaining life in this planet if the attitude of the whole world does not change for good. That we have enough water gives us the false impression that we can waste water or use water the way we like. But it is not the real case when water is taken in a holistic perspective. Yes, the water security an individual currently enjoys gives him/her a notion that the water s/he has is his/her water and nobody has any claim over it and no one can question the way s/he utilizes the water.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. Whenever there is water shortage, the same individuals who had had the luxury of enjoying water to their full for long would turn to the society and government and demand for alternative measures. They may claim that it is the responsibility of the state to supply its populace with enough water. But we hardly think of how precious each drop of water we waste in innumerable indigenous ways in our homes. We have no water management policy in our families. I think we all need to have a water culture to be able to lead a water-secure life today and tomorrow.
What are we doing towards this on the contrary?
· Good water habit, like any other good habit, begins at home. Our kids are not taught to pick up that habit.
· Unfortunately, unlike in the past, now we do not have separate water for washing purposes and drinking. We have one source and we use that source for everything: from washing our cars and carpets to drinking, bathing and flushing the toilets.
· How many of us know that when we flush our toilet once, minimum six to ten litters of drinking water goes down the drain.
· When we do our dishes, we keep the tap running so that we can wash and drain at the same time. It takes four to five times more water than what is actually needed.
· When we do our teeth, we keep the water tap on so that we can use it in between; the time we start brushing and the time we spit out the last spray of water. We could save one to two litters of water if we could use a mug or container at the time brushing.
· Our toilets are no longer a places for ‘that thing’ alone. They are now glamourooms where the hindwares we use consume ten times more water than required.
· Our luxury takes lusty connotations and dimensions and we spend much of our time in our glamourooms, indulging in nobody knows what.
· Taking bath is an indulgence and the shower does not have any idea how much water, both cold and hot, it should spray down on us. And the person takes bath gets into a frenzy of freshness at the cost of some hundred litres of water.
· Our wells near our homes, water tanks under ground and up above, are supposed to be full all day long. The electric pumps attached to these are doing more harm than good to our water sources.
· If people are made to draw water manually, their interest in spending hours in the bathroom will die out in a few baths. We need to get a minimum five hours’ power outage to understand this.
· When it comes to washing clothes, we do it with detergents that form into buckets and buckets and the amount of water needed to wash out this soap and suds could be better managed if we use washing cakes and do it manually.
· Cleanliness is next to godliness. But it need not be at the cost of life. One can be godly only if one lives a healthy life. Wasting water excessively for personal cleanliness need to be controlled. Cleanliness need not be an obsession.
· Personal possessions like cars and motor bikes need to be kept neat and tidy. The frequency of their washing increases according to the availability of time and water. If these isn’t enough water, we are happy to drive out our car with some dirt and grit on it.
· Going to a service center and washing the car once in while will do to keep a car in good stead. Washing it with drinking water every other day is an obsession.
· Raising garden of flowers or vegetables is good idea. The water used for watering the garden need not be drinking water. The water we spend for washing vegetable, rice, fruits and similar edibles could be reused for gardening.
· And when we raise concrete edifices, let there be a little open space around so that a little rain would seep down our own soil. How many of us do it? We marble the whole area and let the rain water go its way back to the rivers and seas.
Unless we make amends in the way we look at this precious natural resource, we will come to have water related tussles, both internal and international, in the coming days. We need to inculcate in our kids a healthy water culture so that their future will be water secure and the coming generation will live their life drinking enough water at least, not taking three square meals a day.
As educated, informed individuals, we all have a moral responsibility to sustain the available resources and ensure that every drop of water we spend is well spent. The rivers and similar public water reserves need to be kept neat and healthy, and they need to be declared pristine properties of humanity to be maintained the same way by every one who comes to harvest its benefits. The MNCs that flourish on aerated beverages and bottled water need to be kept off the bay. They are terminators of life.
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