As the famous English saying goes – “3
minutes without oxygen, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food”, water
without a doubt is the fuel that drives life. From the beginning of time, water
has been accorded a very special status by mankind and is considered holy in
almost every religion on the face of this earth. But man has changed, so has
his attitude. At a time when governments are spending millions searching for
water on outer space (thus accepting the fact that water is a giver of
life!), we humans along with our governments are simply destroying
quality water on earth.
We all learnt in school that water
covers most of the surface of the earth, but only a mere 2% of which is
potable. Out of this nearly 60% is locked up as ice in mountain glaciers and
polar icecaps. The ever increasing global temperatures are forcing these
icecaps to fast melt and thus converting even this scarce source of fresh water
into salt water. So where are we headed? Is the future going to be thirsty? And
who is to blame?
Did you know that out of the 7 billion
people inhabiting the earth, 783 million do not have access of good quality
water? Did you know that about 3.4 million people die every year of water
related diseases? Did you know that every 21 seconds a child dies due to lack
of access of water?
So how is climate change going to worsen the situation? Well for starters, global warming induced sea level rise will reduce the availability of fresh water along the coasts by as much as 50%! (PS: 40% of the world’s population lives along the coasts). Changes in precipitation patterns will further aggravate the situation. Fast receding glaciers and ever decreasing mountain snow-pack would reduce the annual feed of perennial rivers. Failure of monsoons would lead to drought like situations even in areas considered water-rich. Scientists estimate that by 2050 nearly a third of the world’s population would be deprived of quality drinking water. Will I be on that list? Will our children be on that list?
Where are we headed folks?
It’s a selfish world we live in and it is high time we wake up do something
about it.
The first question that you
need to ask yourself – “Am I gifting my child a thirsty future?” No?
Then please join hands and together we can ensure that our kids drink good
water. Change begins at home. Be conscious about the use of water and encourage
your neighbours to follow suit. But this is not enough. In developing countries
like India, the poor sewage systems and lack of water recycling plants are fast
reducing the quality of available ground water by mixing of sewage in it.
Therefore the need of the hour is to pressurize the government servants and
elected representatives into ensuring the purity of the already scarce ground
water. Every parent must come together and ensure that the water bodies in
their localities are devoid of pollution. Elected representatives must be put
to task and questioned when they come begging for votes during the elections.
What we need is a revolution like the Arab spring to secure
the quality drinking water.
It’s a selfish world we live
in, but if we truly love our children, then we cannot afford to be selfish.
Change begins at home. Wake up!
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