Water - The Elixir of Life

Water, the very word gives a feel of freshness and also apprehensions to all. Water is one of the most important natural resources that helps sustain life on earth. It is one resource that is unique and essential that makes life possible.  The fact that it is god of life has been taken lightly and ignored over time as we started moving towards commercialization and in pursuit of materialism. This vital natural resource is facing all forms of threats ever since the Industrial revolution. Water is prone to exploitation ever since the world has taken the path of globalization. This essential commodity, as it has become one in the modern era is fast depleting. It is high time that we start to act now in saving the most essential resource of the world, for as the consequences are serious in the long run that is even possible to take many lives and stop any form of life to exist in future. Water has become so scarce today and we have no time to save it as we already lost enough time and the fact is that it has serious implications both in short and long term.  We have to at least conserve it for our future generations to live life peacefully on earth and enjoy the gift of nature.

Food and water go hand in hand. From my very own experience I realized that one can live without food for a day but not without water. The sense of warmth one feels when seeing water, dying thirsty, has no words to express.  Water bears the feature of tasteless and odorless but no food in this world can be accepted and claimed to be as better as water when a person is in dire need of it. Water is the reason for life to exist on earth but the very resource that is essential for life is becoming scarce. The reasons are many. This problem cannot be looked upon from only one perspective as it is a resource that is widely used by everyone in the society for various purposes and is in great demand of all the other resources. Water covers 71 percent of the earth’s surface out of which 96%  of the planets water is found in oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in ice caps and glaciers and the remaining in large water bodies like lakes and ponds. Water is one of the most unique forms of nature as the resource undergoes a wonderful cycle to get accumulated in our planet known as the water cycle. The process involves four most important phase namely evaporation from water bodies on earth into the air, transpiration from plants and animals into the air, precipitation from water vapor condensing from the air and falling to earth through rains and finally runoff from the land usually reaching the sea.

Water is one resource that has got many uses and is used for various purposes. Water is known to be vital for any form of life on earth. Water can be classified into many types based on their use. One serious problem that we face today is water scarcity. This problem requires immediate attention, the ignorance of which has lead us to this problem and if we continue to do so the consequences are severe mostly life threatening. The issue of water crisis cannot be solved immediately as the exploitation and scarcity situation that we face today took a very long time to happen. This issue cannot be neither solved by one individual nor left to the politicians to be taken care of as the use of water by one person affects the other. This shows us how interdependent we are in using water. Hence a collective measure and attention is needed to address the issue. Though knowing the fact that it is vital for life to exist, why have we allowed ourselves to face this situation? How have we been contributing to make water scarce? This may sound ridiculous but that is what we have been doing, we have been contributing for this crisis to happen over the years. Who suffers?  All of us.  Water is essential not only for life but also for various purposes like  generating electricity, manufacture of certain goods, preparing drugs and medicines, cooking etc. The reason for water crisis is many. One of the common reasons in the developing nations like India is the increasing population and urbanization. Industrial revolution is the major reason for water stress in the western world. As demand supply gap widens in the emerging nations, more groundwater is being exploited. The estimate global population in 2050 is 9 billion, all of which will depend upon finite water resource. Global leaders talk about sustainable development but I don’t see this happening. We are only in the pursuit of economic growth affecting the environment and economic stability. Access to safe drinking water was once very easy, affordable and readily available but now people all over the world especially in the third world countries face acute water shortage. However, this problem is severe in developing countries it doesn’t mean that the developed countries have access to pure water. They have polluted the water resource and as I mentioned earlier water use is wide and interdependent, this issue has thus become a global concern.

Water being the most widely used natural resource in the world has got serious implications and impact on various sectors. The lack of water is also going to affect the GDP in the long run which is the primary concern of the government. So if the politicians are not going to find ways to conserve it I think they are going to miss on their goal. Many industries and service sector in our country depend upon water. The scarcity of water is bound to affect the growth and production in the long run. Today, nearly one billion people in the developing world alone don’t have access to safe drinking water. Water is very much related to health. The first and foremost problem that comes along with water scarcity is health issues. Worldwide, 1 out of every 5 deaths of children under five are water related diseases. Access to clean drinking water is essential for healthy living. Research and reports claim that about eighty percent of illness in the developing countries is linked to poor water and sanitation conditions. So not only water scarcity is a problem but the crisis comes along with another sub problem of access to clean and safe drinking water. Drinking poor water which contains killer worms and bacteria can pose serious threat to our health. The developed countries do not face this problem as they have sophisticated water systems but however they have contributed to wide amount of water pollution. Young children and infants are the one most affected by this problem as their immune system is weak during those initial years. Malnutrition and hunger is another severe problem in the developing nations. Lack of water is one of the major reasons for rise in hunger levels. Poor health directly impacts productivity in the economy.  Poor health also leads to poverty. Lack of education, awareness about safe drinking water, hunger and poor health are all correlated and cause the vicious cycle of poverty. Poverty is a big concern in the developing nations and a systematic approach to eradicate poverty includes access to safe water. Development be it infrastructure or social is feasible only when enough water is available. The villages in India face more problem in access to drinking water as they have to go a long mile to get water which is a very tedious process. Many dams and lakes in India have become dry. The Srirangaraya and cauvery, what was once a river has become a long stretch of dry ground. This is attributed to the lack of rain and good monsoon in our country. This affects the agricultural production as many lands in India require a large amount of water for irrigation. This has resulted in supply constraints in food and other essential commodities that depend on water as their primary raw material. This has contributed to various other problems like high inflation in food prices and reduced consumption demand.  Water scarcity also comes with economic scarcity and economic cost. Lack of water also affects education. Many schools in developing countries lack proper water facilities and sanitation. This affects students health and consequently academic performance. Water scarcity and lack of water leads to inequality. So now you can realize that we have been destroying water resource by exploitation and accumulating it with industrial effluents forgetting the fact that at the end it is we who are directly affected and going to face the deadly consequences.

As I said earlier that the water use is interdependent and everyone’s water use affects the other in more than one way. So what can be done to solve this growing issue? The most efficient solution and the one that has got importance in recent times is water cooperation. Cooperation is essential for water access, poverty alleviation and environmentally sustainable development. Over the years we have been running behind growth at the cost of environment and this has mainly lead us not only to a situation of water scarcity but also getting access to clean and safe water. The water bodies in India and the western world are intoxicated by industrial waste. So an environmental friendly and efficient waste disposal system is required to stop the damages caused to water resource. Cooperation also helps to a great extent in this regard. Water cooperation helps in achieving efficient water allocation to all by protecting social harmony and increasing human welfare. It can help in better management of water resource. With increasing privatization water cooperation can stimulate resource mobilization. Water cooperation requires multilevel inclusive and innovative approach. Cooperation is said to be effective but however in a country like India with huge population it is an extremely great challenge. Water is a public good and no one can be denied to get access to this natural resource. But it is really disheartening to see increasing discrimination in allocating and getting access to water today. Hence not only water cooperation is necessary, further, the government’s development policies should be consistent and in accordance with the water policy. The United Nations has declared 2013 as ‘International Year for Water Cooperation’ and it also dedicated the World Water Day (March 22) to water cooperation. The need of water will be truly realized in summer and as we are heading towards the hottest month of summer let us consider saving water. Being a chennaite I know the importance of water as summer is coming to its peak. This year we the people all over the world who are responsible for the present situation regarding water scarcity take an oath to join hands to conserve water and stop exploiting the resource. Let us minimize the damages caused to water and at the same time stick to economic growth by encouraging all the living beings in the world. Towards this let each of us be much more tolerant and sacrificial rather than adopting a competing strategy. Lets not forget the saying "Every drop makes an ocean"