Water!   

Water~the elixir of life

Auteur : Shreya Dutt

Note :

Enquête : -> La pollution de l’eau dans mon pays

Pays : Inde

Lieu : kolkata

Langue :

The article depicts the gradual pollution of water resources in India and is a deeply vocal report on the need for water quality control and water conservation in India.

WATER

“Many a time I walked
A well beaten track
In search for Water
Cool, clear and pure
It was hot and dry
The sun hung high
When I search for Water
Cool, clear and pure.”

‘Ah! What a nice poem!’, suddenly remarks my English teacher. Truly the poem is remarkable but even more remarkable is what the poem is all written about. At once my thought drifted to the pitter patter of rain and the swish swoosh of mild and calm sea waves. I think of an isle surrounded by clean and pure water – just like an ocean with wide expanse. But suddenly the visualization is marred by the harsh reality of impure water that will no more be pure to drink or bathe. We are almost losing our natural resource due to pollution and contamination…….the delight is almost getting extinct. We the foolish earthlings have defeated the usefulness of water! Water is the elixir of life. The blessing of this elixir is a gift of nature which we are exploiting to such an extent that soon we shall soon hear the knell of death. `Hey the world, wake up now to protect it, or else face the loss of life!’ The time is over ripe to have an insight of the disaster done to water.

Daily the industrial and the domestic wastes are drained down the sewer for emptying into the rivers and seas. The garbage flows uncontested through these outlets putting life in perils of toxic contamination. Daily millions of tons of such toxic decomposition stand as a threat to our life. Gomti river in Lucknow is one such example to highlight the disaster caused by the sugar factory toxic wastes emission which turned the beautiful azure blue dazzled water into brownish black open sewer. This natural habitat the fish can no longer find home to live and hence millions of them die out of hunger for fresh water. We have caused death to life…..have we turned that insensible that we do not care for this elixir! Throwing plastic materials anywhere and everywhere is choking the sewer system, poisoning the whole life system. Plastic materials are indisposable, choke the drains and water bodies. All over the world, the rivers are losing their beauty and charm, only because of us-the so called civilized society, who have become virtually irreparable-making water subject to all wastes. Do we have any right to destroy nature? Certainly not.

Our needs have increased and so has the procurement of consumer goods. The rapidity with which we buy, with far more haste we throw. But where do we throw such domestic wastes? Obviously into water bodies which is our only support in the ecosystem for disposal of garbage and wastes. We always find water to be the best host to wastes. The villagers too are so ignorant that they bathe in the ponds and rivers, and wash their clothes in them, turning nature into misery. We have not stopped as yet. We are careless, callous and even reckless while handling water. Simple examples from our day to day life style have proved of our ignorance. When we brush our teeth we do not close running tap…thus wasting voluminous gallons of water, if measured, for the whole world. If we take more care to harness the wastage, we will be able to not only preserve water but also use it for beneficial purposes.

Awareness of pollution is important but at the same time prevention and control of this environmental hazard is necessary. In industries, water treatment plants are installed to treat the toxic wastes so that when these are released, such toxic contents do not pollute water. New techniques and devices like end pipe technique and wet scrubber are evolved for application to control industrial wastes, reduce degradation and pollution of water. Awareness programmes are launched by various organizations and the government in order to make people more aware and alert of the effects of our actions and pollution of water. A very small portion of the earth is covered by fresh water. Hence if we do not use it judiciously it will soon get depleted and end up in scarcity. Moreover, pollution of water is creating dangerous problems for us. In villages, people consume such contaminated water which causes diseases like cholera and tuberculosis. In urban areas we find that there is shortage of water because in the past we have wasted water to such an extent that the government too is failing to cope up with the required supply of fresh water.

If we are still not woken up to control such pollution and wastage of water, it is not far away that we will be destroying habitat on earth and life will fail miserably. Hence for the interest of future generations of living beings, we must preserve water and control its pollution. If every one of us contributes to think seriously about the aftermath of water pollution and wastage, we will then be able to counter the problems to a great extent though it might take time due to the extent of the damage. The damage done to the resource so far is enormous and cannot be undone, yet we all must put in all our efforts and at least devote some time and thoughts about saving water ‘who’ gives us life. I use the pronoun ‘who’ for water because, even though she is non living, she gives us life. And if we consider her to be one like us, we shall be able to understand her feelings and emotions and only then we can prevent her death. Can we hurt our beloved one without whom our existence is at stake? Certainly not. Then what do we still wait for? Let us all stand up to our commitment to preserve water to its good health and take a vow to cherish her like our mother whom we all love.

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Mots-clés : water, India, water pollution, water quality control

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Contexte NEOS : Nature et environnement

Thèmes

Nature et environnement

L'eau et les cours d’eau