As the summer heat hits us (especially in India), and temperatures reach the 40s (centigrade), one appreciates more than ever the gift of water. We’re drinking bottles of it, we’re showering at least twice a day, we’re washing a seemingly endless number of clothes and dishes….and yet the water is continuing to flow in our home.
And we’re truly grateful because in parts of our city there are people standing in long queues to fill water; others are paying huge amounts of money for water and there’s a lot discontent, anger and exploitation because of this. (Read a recent newspaper report on this subject).
In other parts of our country and the world women travel miles to fill their pots of water….
In case you have taken water for granted, I suggest you take this quiz by BBC. You might be startled by the answers.
In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference. ~Rachel Carson
Let’s never be indifferent to this wonderful gift of water – let’s be thankful each time we use it and use it sparingly thinking of those who have to struggle to get this basic need which we so take for granted.
May you be inspired – everyday!
Good and thought provoking post.
Like those accompanying pictures.
A wonderful and relevant post ..if only people would make a conscious effort to not take things that come easily for granted ..
and im loving the new look too its more organised ..im always in favor of 2 columns ..
And the new tagline – fabulous 🙂
We're under "stage 3.5 water restrictions" in Melbourne and our state of Victoria has been in a declared drought for some 7 or 8 years. Recent rainfall suggests an end to the drought – but I haven't seen the official declaration of the end of drought.
Within the continent where I live, there is a real contrast when it comes to water. Large parts of New South Wales or the northern states are usually flooded when we're in drought conditions.
In Victoria (our state) we've been under at least "Stage 3" water restrictions for the last 3 or 4 years. This means that we are only allowed to water gardens on certain days – and that with a trigger controlled nozzle on a hose, and only during certain times of the day. We are not allowed to water lawns. We are not allowed to wash cars with a hose – only with a bucket. We get rebates for installing rain water tanks.
For people living here – that is a HUGE deal!
I grew up in Hyderabad and still remember waking up at 4:00 am as a landlord to ensure that the building overhead tanks got water pumped to them for the tenants – and collected water for cooking between 5:30 am and 7:00 am.
I'm proud to say, though, that in Melbourne, we've installed a 5,400 lt. rain water tank, which gets pumped into our laundry (for clothes), and both toilets. The Victorian Government introduced a new guideline called "less than 150" – i.e. aim to use less than 150 litres of water per person per day. The state has been doing very well. Per capita, we're using (as a state), around 130 litres of water per person per day. In our household, we've been averaging under 100 litres of water per person per day. The water bill shows you your average consumption – in a table that says – if you have this many people in your household, your usage is so much per day. Our best is 92 litres for a 3 month period. Our worst is 97 for a 3 month period. We're changing over our dishwasher to one that uses 1/4 of the water per wash as our current dishwasher. We're also bringing back a technique where the half glasses of water that you don't end up drinking, the half bottle that you think has been sitting around for more than a day and therefore you want to refresh, and so on can be stored in a jug and used for rinsing before they go into the dish washer. So there's no hygiene concern.
Amazing huh? How a fundamental necessity such as water has such little profile – i.e. not enough being done about it. There's so much going on about environmental issues – air and atmosphere basically – that water is being ignored. I liked the quiz. The last question though should have had an option (e) 5% of the worldwide annual defence budget (that's all it takes to handle water scarcity!!).
The funniest bit is this: I did the quiz and I consider myself a water conservationist. My results just go to show that I haven't read enough facts and figures on water. My results were as follows:
You got 2 right!
Poor. You barely think beyond your kitchen tap – which you usually leave running.
When I was in village, I used to get surprised to read that there might be war in the world because of water. After coming to city, I myself have realized what I had then read in village.
Even here in Kathmandu, most of the city folks do not have required supply of water and I have seen people in very long line to get a bucket of water for hours. (I even had to wait until 11:00pm for two buckets of water at my relative's once).
In fact, very thought provoking post Corinne. How have you been?
The new look of the blog is much better than the previous one from my perspective! I think there are still some room left for widgets arrangement.
I agree! I think we should have water meters everywhere, just like electricity meters, and water should be rationed – this might force us to use it with care 🙁
Hi Corr,
I agree with you completely.We do take our resources for granted…especially water. I did go to the bbc site.and seriously i was so shocked at the answers that i had to actually go quite for a bit just to digest how ridiculously wasteful we are of this precious resource.
Thank you for this lovely reminder.
Much Love,
Z~
http://zeenatsyal.wordpress.com
p.s. love the new look and new theme posts 🙂 Big Hug!
I agree too Corinne. Good post. We waste so much water everyday dont we? To top it all when I see water tankers leaking like crazy it makes me mad!
@IHM we do have water meters IHM..only problem is that just like with electioneer meters people tamper with them 🙁
Also everytime that the govt tries to raise the water charges the public creates such drama as if we are entitled to as much water and water wastage as we ant…
Little realizing that the debate on future wars being fought for water might become a horrific reality one day:(