Ah! Water!

Tulika books has announced its Blogathon 2 at http://tulikapublishers.blogspot.com/2010/03/water-stories-from-around-world.html.

There was a game we played in primary and grade school, word association. I believe this game is now being used in hallowed circles of corporates for personality testing. Let's try it. What comes to my mind when I say, "Water"?

Cool, Cold, Wet, Flowing, Drink, Pour, Swim, Lapping, Wash, Splash, Spray, Spout, Ice, Steam, Soak, Cook, Boil, Clouds, Rain, Pitter-patter, Puddles, Jump, Child, Happy, Pool, Lake, Well, Stream, Waterfall, Clear, Muddy, Brook, Gurgle, River, Wide, Bridge, Boat, Coracle, Cliff, Beach, Sea, Waves, Crash, Tsunami, Drown, Floods, Silt, Banks, People, Civilisations, Egypt, Fields, Green, Crops, Farms, Agriculture, Rich, Verdant, Meadows, Cows, Graze, Placid, Milk, Food, Eat, Healthy, Infections, Pollution, Industrial waste, Spoil, Dirty, Epidemics, Polio, Gastroenteritis, Cholera, Death, Life.

I could go on and on. These are just the words I managed in 2 minutes. As you can see, water is something associated in my mind first, with something happy and soothing, almost childlike. It goes on then to the more unsavoury side of it. But whichever way you look at it, one thing is very clear- Water is very closely linked to our lives. In fact it is life itself. Even the Sanskrit word for it is "jeevan" which when translated means life. It is an undisputed fact that life as we know it began on earth only after water appeared. An absence of water means an absence of life. Most living organisms' bodies are mostly water. A human body is 60-70% water and a cucumber is 95% water. All internal functions of life can happen only in the medium of water. Which is probably why everyone is so excited about the Chandrayaan finding water on the moon.

The Earth is 3/4th water. Pictures taken from space show a beautiful blue coloured planet. Most of it, however, is saline water, and therefore not potable. A person adrift upon the sea with no drinking water would literally dehydrate and die. Only about 3% of the earth's water is fresh water, and of this, 2/3rd is locked up as ice in the polar regions. Some of this melts every year and flows down as rivers, but then again some returns to it as precipitation, essentially it remaining the same. So, you can see how little we have to use in the first place!

I have been fortunate in that I have always had access to a good piped water supply. However, a lot of people I know have had to store water. The stories were many. Some kept taps open at night, so that they would be woken by the water gushing into buckets kept under them, at ungodly hours like 4am. Some had to rush home early from work, because water came only from 4-5pm. Some had water supply only on alternate days, or only twice a week. Some were dependent on tankers which came erratically with the bi-weekly or weekly supply. In slums lining local train tracks, it was a common sight to see people lined up with buckets, pots, plastic bottles, what-have-yous, and squabbling over who was ahead of whom, and who has filled how much water. Some are completely dependent on the rapidly depleting groundwater-borewells.

Water woes were brought home to me one summer vacation week, when we stopped getting our regular supply because of some reason I don't now recollect. The only supply was by tankers, and even that was erratic, as our complex was not a regular customer. We had to keep a watch for the tanker, and when one arrived, a shout would go around, and there would we be, with buckets and pots and plastic bottles and what-have-yous, standing in a line to get our supply of water, chatting away with neighbours in the middle of the day. We stay on the 2nd floor of the building, with no lift. So then of course, there was the lugging it up two flights of stairs. I can tell you it was like a community get-together!

Since that (somewhat fondly remembered!) episode, the water condition has steadily gone downhill. Only now that we know that the problem is here to stay, we are better prepared, with some storage of reserve water.

The need of the day is to conserve the water we still have. Our children will inherit what we leave them, and surely we wouldn't want to deprive them of the sheer pleasure of pure,cool, flowing, thirst-quenching water.