Shall not be washed away

“Despite its growing scarcity and preciousness to life, ironically, water is also man’s most misgoverned, inefficiently allocated and profligately wasted natural resource.”
― Steven Solomon, Water : the epic struggle for wealth, power, and civilization

Monsoon arrives! This year has been the most vocal year in my memory regarding conservation of water. Over 10 states in India were under severe drought. Cash-rich IPL matches were shifted, donations poured in from all sides and festivals were celebrated without much wastage of water. The department predicts that Monsoon shall be better this year in India. Whatever the future holds for us, let us hope that the rising awareness doesn’t get washed away until next drought surfaces.

There’s plenty to learn. The state we are living in today is because of continuous abandonment of sense of responsibility, lack of will and ‘not my problem’ attitude of people and politicians. Last week, I came across an article about Israel’s water management technologies. The statistics will blow you apart. Israel is World’s number one water recycler with 85% recycling rate followed by Spain who is at 12%. Look at the gap! Israel is situated in an area where water shortage is inevitable, a place where 60% is desert area and yet exports high value farm produce.

Where are we going wrong? It is simple. Besides lack of technology, it is the behavioral aspect too. It is high time we consider this an alarming problem and move towards importing technologies and ideas of water conservation. Today, Israel’s 60% water comes from the sea, 80% of waste water is used in agriculture. Desalination technology is becoming cost effective and is going to be cheaper in coming years. With Maharashtra being a state with a long coast line, I wonder why don’t we start adopting state of the art recycling technologies. The authorities has to step up and fix the leakage problems with conveniently wasted more than 30% of our water. Education Department has to introduce lectures and practices and inculcate knowledge about importance of water resources to young minds who are quicker to adapt and change. A simple transformation from Shower bathing to Bucket bathing can save so much of our water. Introduce rain water harvesting techniques, make people aware, involve religious institutions for I believe in India, if you need a quicker push, start from religious place.

Israel is home to the world’s largest Seawater Reverse Osmosis desalination plant, annually producing 100 million cubic meters at the low cost of approximately $0.52 per cubic meter of water – the most cost-efficient of its kind in the world. India is the first country to send Mars Orbiter in first attempt. There is no doubt why India cannot continue improvising on such technologies. Heat is going to increase, so is population and water needs, if we do not wake up now, when will we?

Israel’s success arise from the continuous need for and support of innovative methods, technologies, holistic water resource management and strategies for sustainable provision for the nation’s water needs and I see no reason why India shouldn’t crave for that need desperately.