Status show off is an egocentric social activity in India. Everybody tries to show off his/her status by various means so that society considers him/her as a rich person. Wasting Water is one such common act in India by which people from various walks of life and various socio-economic classes try to show off others that they can afford to waste precious and depleting natural resource ‘WATER’ – even if the neighbours are thirsty or deprived of. If you are suffering from water scarcity because you are dependent on alternate-day limited time municipal water supply, your neighbour will switch on his submersible water pump to suck up underground water and proudly throw it on his another status symbol (one or more car). The gallons of water flows out on pavement and spreads on the street in front of half-a-dozen neighbours’ houses and apartments. This provides him a sense of self-satisfaction that what is scarce for you, he has in abundance. Hence, he is a rich while you are a poor. But in reality such people are poor in intellect. If an intellectual person, who cares for the environment and is concerned for the misuse of natural resources, tries to create an awareness about the misuse of water, he will be insulted by ‘the water-rich person’ with an argument that he wastes his own water. So who are you to interfere in his personal affairs? This shows the sheer selfish motive of the so-called ‘water-rich person’. Whether one belongs to an educated class or an uneducated/ illiterate class, upper economic class or lower class, it hardly matters. Everyone has acquired the same fashionable-cum-egotistical practice of throwing and wasting water – a national character of All Indians. After indulging in this activity, people feel satisfied with a ‘sense of achievement’.
Our bureaucrats and ministers are the great suckers. They waste another resource like water. It is Petrol (and diesel). They get an unlimited amount of petrol free of cost at government expenses, i.e., wasting public money. All so-called progress of India will come to standstill when these two resources will cease to exist. A country can import petrol or crude oil but not water. The widespread deforestation has further deteriorated the situation and resulted in drought-like circumstances. The underground water has already gone down in many parts of India to an alarming level. But the government as well as public – both are sleeping callously. Days are not far when people all over India will indulge in a war-like situation with multiple neighbours. The news headlines will appear like: “India Inferno”, “Fire emerged from Water – India Inflamed by Civil War”, “Water catches Flame: many killed”, and so on.
Most children in India are usually not taught by their parents, grandparents or school teachers – “not to waste precious water” but to preserve it. They must be taught that when they grow in the next 5 to 10 years, almost entire country will be affected by drought or flood water in some areas (which is not usable water) – if they do not conserve water and protect the environment. Many children play with water and derive pleasure in throwing and wasting it in various ways. If you point out to their parents or grandparents, there is invariably a common reply you can expect, “He is just a child now...”. But only a child can learn readily. That’s the reason a child is sent to a school (and not his parents/ grandparents – even if they are uneducated). Children can pick up and easily learn any language depending on the linguistic environment they grow in – which adults cannot usually do. Henceforth, it is the high time, children should be educated to preserve the natural resources and conserve water.
The percentage of usable water suitable for human consumption is only 3% on earth, out of which 2.25% water forms the polar caps and glaciers. In India, the Himalayan glaciers are the largest source of fresh water that irrigate the entire North India. Due to global warming, glaciers are rapidly depleting that resulted in shrinking of major rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, et al. If every second person wastes just one litre of water per day (usually people waste in gallons), 600 million litres of water is wasted every day in the country. This could quench the thirst of nearly 300 million people in India. But actually every second person wastes at least a bucketful (10 litres) or more of water every day. This explains why there is a water scarcity in India, and why we always face a crisis of water every year for 4 to 6 months in the country. The selfish, egoistic and pseudo-status-conscious Indians will never ever change their attitude and mind. A horrible fire is heating to engulf the whole country to devastate its superficial progress. The news media has already witnessed an onset of such incidences in the last years during summer of 2008 and 2009.
~Gunjan Gupta, Esq.
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