Nature & Water

Nature & Water

Mauli Dhar

What is most important in your life?

Definitely the answer will differ from man to man.

On asking that, the answers may come like – family , friends, assets, luxuries, cars, pets, girlfriend/ boyfriend, smart phone and many more. But what is most commonly used and  would rather the most important, is ignored, i.e water.

CapeTown, the second largest city of South Africa, where in January’day zero’ was announced to be on April. Three years of consecutive drought brings down the capacity of the dam, from where water is supplied to the entire city, just over 22% .

Due to the ‘day zero’ impact,  Capetownians now understand both the value of water and restrictions over consumption of water. It can be noticed that the southern part of the city is facing the ocean. But ocean water cannot be consumed nor can be used diurnally. Bangalore, known as the silicon valley of India, is also going under the same threat.

Apart from Cape Town and Bangalore,  nearly ten other large and busy cities in all over the would are facing the water shortages. Beijing, Cairo, Jakarta, London, Maxico City, Moscow, Istanbul, Tokyo are the cities most likely to run out of drinking water.  The crisis is approaching to all over the world. According to UN, till 2050, nearly 500 crores of total inhabitants would deprive of clean drinking water.

Even today, there are over 663 million people living without a safe water supply close to home. After countless hours of queuing or trekking to distance sources, they able to collect water coping with the health impact of using contaminated water.

Water is important for each and every living creature in the earth. But fresh water is equally important to lead a healthy life. To highlight the importance of freshwater, every year International Water Day is observed on 22 March. This year, the theme of the World Water Day 2018 is ‘Nature for  Water’. It is to explore solutions based on nature to fight against the water challenges that the world facing in the 21st century. It is also to advocate the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

Now, let focus on our state Assam. River Brahmaputra, which is regarded as the lifeline of Assam, turns dry during winter. In one hand, during monsoon, the Brahmaputra and its tributaries spill over causing destruction due to flood and soil erosion, on the otherhand, during winter the rivers dry enough to ccause drought. Environmental damage, together with climate change, is driving the water related problems.

Flood, drought and water pollution are all made worse by degraded vegetation, soil, rivers and other natural water resources. The rapid increase in population leading to the expansion of new living areas, cities, industries are indirectly aheading to the present situation. A huge number of forest is destroyed to meet the demand of the so called ‘progress’ and the continuation of destruction of greenary, lacks, hills etc. are again degrading the situation.

Drinking fresh water is another crux for our people. Inspite of being opulent with water resources, the pure drinking water project collapsed in many villages. This is undoubtably a serious issue to work out. It is our right to get plenty of fresh drinking water.

But it is to be considered as privilege that we r getting fresh drinking water. So our duty is to preserve the nature and its resources. Good lesson starts at home.

So, saving water and saving the world should be started from saving water resources of our own state. To develop ourself and our economic system too (as we r rich in agriculture) which also related to the culture, food habits etc., preserving water and nurturing the environment is to be considered as our prime duty.

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