5 Ways to Use, Not Abuse Water

I was once crossing a signal when two girls came asking for some money or food. I stopped and offered them water instead and their eyes shined as if it were like an annual bonus was announced. I emptied 1.25 litres of water down their parched throats while two tears roll down my eyes, besides a few drops of sweat. I couldn't drink any water that day and then it was as normal as ever.

Once Upon A Time

Soon, our kids will hear it as a fable on how we used to water our gardens, fill up coolers, buy and fill water bottles by the dozen, wash scooters and cars, shave for hours, brush at length, bathe till we had the strength, swim till we were tired. But leave the taps and pipes open. During and after use. They will hold us in admiration? Well, much to their haw, they'd curse us more than anything. Believe me, kids in some parts of the world are listening to such fables already. Let's save Water, save Life, save Earth!

Ab(use)

At their age, they will get water as an incentive. And looting, abductions, and murders will happen over a litre or maybe 250 millilitres of water. And I'm damn serious.

Two words always go hand in hand and still don't complement each other. Use and Abuse.
The simple difference is that Use is when within limits. Abuse is when we get used to using. Since we have it easily available for use, we think it is our birthright to abuse it. Why is it always that we realize the importance of water only when the MCD or another department cut down the supply?

Dependability

It's what err what err everywhere! So, what errs we are doing is that we have imagined and trained our minds to think that there is someone looking after everything and it's not for us to do. Someone, as in, the water department, state government, or even the central government. They will do it, after all, they are being paid for it...it isn't my headache, now is it? Wow, that school of thought!

Trust me, if you join the same department or become part of the government, you will still not do it.

Now there could be two reasons:
1. You may not have ever understood what scarcity of no water means;
2. You may have lived with the scarcity but now it's payback time. It's like, I suffered for no fault of mine, now let others also suffer.

Another thought perception that I have seen is that there is no scarcity of water here, in area I/we live. It's beyond here. Well thought! But my dear, your knowledge is like 'no ledge'. Water usually has two sources: surface water and underground. Let's actually not deviate into the surface water, how we are drying it up by choice of chemicals, waste dumps, and whatnot.

Resources

Let's talk about Underground water right now. It is the water that gets collected by rainwater that seeps in from soil spaces and fractures in rocks. Hope it isn't difficult to understand as much.
The major source is rainwater. And not all rainwater seeps in through the soil and rock spaces, as there may not be any. So, there is something called Rainwater harvesting and/or the rooftop harvesting technique. Now, since this is a little costly, many of us tend not to waste money here. Well, let me tell you for your 'knowledge' that the huge amounts of water, caused by rains and known as water logging, dries up and gets wasted. Had better sense prevailed of getting a wise investment in a rainwater/rooftop harvesting system installed, a lot of it would have been underground saving us some effort.

Solutions

These days, a thing in fashion is the RO systems. Well, they are much needed also because the quality of water isn't as great, and rightly so. But here also, most RO systems have an extra pipe to release wastewater. This wastewater quantifies the same amount of water that you use. So, if you fill two 1 litre bottles, about 300% equal amount of water gets discharged. As waste. Yes, that is true. And we, including me, see it drain down, going nowhere, and do nothing about it. However, a few wise men realized and took some evasive action like providing RO wastewater solutions.

Take Aways

We read so much on social media, have long-related articles and news flashing, and even experienced it ourselves. Despite that, why don't we wake up to the harsh reality staring down at us?

Let us get real, let us get prepared, let us get honest, and let us do our bit. Let us save while you bathe, brush and shave! If we do not start saving water now, it may be a thing of the past and the cost would be too high and mostly paid by future generations.

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