Guess Thanos was right because the day is not far when wars will be fought with sticks and stones over the issue of water. People still think that that Roti, Kapda, and Makaan is all that a human needs for proper well-being, but today when more than 800 million people on the planet are living without access to safe drinking WATER, the former three amenities do not stand a chance. The current situation is that we need to save every drop of water for the generation later.
You should be grateful that you are reading these facts on the IE Blog and not a newspaper because it takes about 300 liters of water to make the paper for just one Sunday newspaper. (based on a study conducted)
People are struggling to get a glass of drinking water in some areas. A report by the United Nations quotes that “Every year, more people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war.” In India, about 163 million people do not have access to safe water. Although there have been improvements in past decades, the large and increasing population has caused these efforts to fail. About 500 children under the age of five die each day of diarrhea alone.
The people in the picture are not gathered for the first
day – first show ticket of Avengers Endgame but
for the drinking water tanker which shows itself
once in a week in their society in Delhi, India.
Pacific Institute found out that each day, about
2 million tons of sewage, agricultural waste and
industrial waste are discharged into water
bodies, this weight is equivalent to that of the
entire human population of 6.8 billion people.
This is the reason that nowadays mineral or
purified water is a billion dollar industry, and
people still wonder why Indian cricketers drink
imported purified water for Rs.500/litre roughly
10 times the cost of milk.
Water scarcity in India is expected to become worse as the population is expected to touch 1.6 billion by 2050. “Day Zero” has already arrived for over 100 million people, and the main reasons behind this are improper rains from some years, excessive pumping of groundwater and inefficient water supply system. By 2020, Day Zero is expected to arrive for millions more across India, and when this happens, the groundwater level is predicted to run out for 100 million people in north India.
Here are some suggestions and initiatives to be taken to reduce water wastage:
- One can sweep lawns, porches using a bucket of water instead of flooding them on Sundays and holidays with water to clean them.
- Unnecessary showering, five minutes of showering can take 37 liters of water. Using low flow showers or a bucket will make a huge difference.
- Being careful while brushing as people like to keep the tap open for the whole brushing period.
- People flush the whole toilet even if it is urine, half-flushing can do the same cleaning as the full-flushing. Also, leaky toilets should be repaired as soon as possible.
- Playing dry Holi instead of so-called filmy Holi with wastage of gallons of water
- Wastage of water in the kitchen in the form of unnecessary water usage to wash the vegetables in a stream of water instead of doing the same in a bowl of water. Reusing the water used for soaking veggies is also a good idea. This water is also nutritious and can be used for cooking or to water the plants.
On a brighter side, India has a relatively wet climate, but due to no or improper rain collection programs, rainwater is either dried up or displaced. Water harvesting is not a new word, we studied about it long back, but still, there is no application of this brilliant idea of water collection. This water can be used for agriculture and also available for human consumption after proper treatment.
These might seem like small stupid steps which might not change anything, but Avengers went for the last chance, and I’m sure this will contribute a lot to prevent “Day Zero” around us – “Whatever It Takes.”
“When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.”
-Alanis Obomsawin
References
https://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/society/water-the-next-looming-crisis/amp
https://water.org/our-impact/india/
