Imagine you’ve just come back from a 5-mile run, sweaty and pleasantly spent, and want nothing more than cool water to quench your thirst. But to your shock, there’s not a drop at home. The taps are dry, the bottles are empty. What will you do? Can you fathom the helplessness and frustration you will experience? Not to mention what will happen to your body if it is deprived of water for too long? Simple. You will die. Food, air and water are required to sustain life.
Picture this – in the Makueni County in Eastern Kenya, women and young girls start from their homes at 4am and walk for eight long hours to reach their nearest water source by noon. They fill their plastic containers with water and start an exhausting walk back home, to reach only by late evening. The only thing they have accomplished all day is ferrying water. This water will be used for their families’ myriad needs the next day. The day after, the same trek will be repeated. Closer home, in parts of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, the situation isn’t too different.
If you think only people in villages go through water shortage, think again. Cape Town recently averted ‘Day Zero’, a day when the water reserves in their dams would be so low that taps in the city would run dry, only by imposing severe water restrictions and taxes on ALL its citizens – whether affluent or poor. The city isn’t out of the woods yet. If it doesn’t receive healthy rainfall this year, ‘Day Zero’ could well be a reality in 2019 despite the steps taken by the city.
Why is there such brouhaha about water? Dumb question, you may say. ‘Water is life’, we’ve heard all our life. But do we understand why water is so crucial to existence? Let us try to decode this basic fact of life.
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You probably know that two-thirds of Earth is covered by water. A similar percentage makes up the human body, more in babies and lesser in adults. What does all this water in our body do? For starters, it acts both as a solvent as well as a delivery channel, dissolving essential nutrients from food and transporting them to cells. It flushes out toxins, regulates body temperature and aids metabolism. Water also hydrates the body and serves as a lubricant to moisten joints. That isn’t all; it also protects our eyes, heart, brain and spinal cord.
Besides being essential for our bodily functions, we also need water for numerous other undertakings like agriculture, power production, in the manufacturing industry, and in everyday tasks like cooking and cleaning.
Now that the importance of water in life has been firmly established, what can we do at our level to help stretch water supplies? MINDFULNESS is the key here. We should consume water responsibly, with awareness. So instead of showering, use half a bucket of water to bathe. While brushing your teeth or cleaning utensils, close the taps when not in use. Turn off faucets tightly so that there is no wastage. If you can, harvest rainwater. Repair leaks in your home, and if you notice any in public areas, report them immediately; don’t wait for others to do so. Where water is concerned, we can’t shrug our shoulders; the buck stops with us.