Save Precious Water!

Water, water ,everywhere, nor any drop to drink.
Scary words, aren’t they! Yet these words by Samuel Taylor Coleridge from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” will soon come true if we are not careful with the use of water.

Contrary to what many people believe, fresh water is an exhaustible resource and will soon disappear if adequate measures are not taken now to conserve it. Consider these facts, 70% of the earth is covered with water, less than 3% of which is fresh water. Unbelievable, but true! Fresh water that sustains each and every type of life form is in so less quantities. To add further to its scarcity, deforestation on humongous scales the world over, reclaimation of swampy lands for human habitation, familiar issues of global warming is adding more to depletion of water reserves.

What, one may ask, as a person can I do to stop this? Well, the answer to this is quite difficult; but yes we can make a lot of difference! A huge difference would it make if we started using fresh water wisely enough! To start with, observe how much water is being used in our homes for our daily chores. If you are using a washing machine to wash clothes, try and see if you can limit the use of machine once or twice weekly and manually do washing daily. If using the machine is quite unavoidable due to time constraints, take little efforts to recycle this water. E.g, every washing machine usually has three cycles of washing during which dirty water is let out and clean water taken in. The very first cycle of water which contains soap and dirt from the clothes can be used to flush toilets; thus a precious amount clean fresh water can be saved from literally being thrown down the drain. The second and third cycles of water can be used to clean floors, floor clothes, wash your vehicles etc. and also to water your garden.

To ensure that this is being done diligently will no doubt take up some of your time; but as the saying goes, each drop saved will fill up an ocean. Once you get used to doing this, it will seem like no big deal.
Other methods of conserving water would be to keep the water tap closed while shaving, brushing teeth etc. These are very small things but this is where a whole lot of water is being wasted in major households. Also, saving water in which rice, dals, and vegetables etc. are washed and using this water in your gardens does wonders for your flowers and fruits. Since this water is rich in nutrients good for your plants, you will have that added benefit of good yield in your garden.

There are many more ways by which you can identify wastage of water in your homes and take steps necessary to stop it. The need of the hour is that you DO IT!! Take those steps now and make a difference!! Each step counts, to you personally, to the society, and to the mankind as a whole!!!