Water is one of the essential things that lets life thrive on this planet. Thus, the significance of water can be compared to the significance of air. All living organisms, animals or plants, everyone is entirely dependent on water. Though water is a necessity to all living being on earth, having enough water and healthy drinkable water is a rare commodity across the globe. The planet consists of 70% water, among which 97.5% of water is found in the oceans and is salty, and only 2.5% is potable freshwater.
But much of the freshwater gets contaminated and may contain minerals as well as organic impurities. Sometimes this contaminated water spreads bacteria causing epidemics such as cholera and typhoid. It is estimated that around 790 million people (11% of the world’s population) don’t have access to an improved water supply.
Nowadays, the cases of contamination of water sources are relatively common, with many industries sending out their effluents into the ocean without proper sewage treatments. This leads to the destruction of marine life and indirectly affects the life on land. When contaminated water is released onto the oceans, the marine life engulfs the impurities and later when humans consume the aquatic animals, they get affected with the harmful impurities and chemical but in a much bigger scale. This phenomenon is called bio-magnification.
Thus the water needs to be adequately filtered before getting released into the oceans. This is one way to ensure that the water in our water bodies does not get contaminated. Water may seem to be in abundance in the cities, but it’s not the same for all the parts on earth. There are so many places where an ounce of freshwater is a luxury. Due to climate change, so many small water bodies like streams and ponds are drying up in the lesser commutable areas giving them no access to drinking water.
People worldwide are suffering because of water deficiency. The underground water resource is not a sustainable source. It is likely to dry out and get contaminated with minerals like arsenic, lead and iron if we mindlessly keep using it. There are several ways in which water is getting wasted. Rainwater is a source of water that can be harvested, but most of the population is ignoring that which leads to wastage of tones of water every year. Tap leaks and careless water spills are also an issue.
India has sufficient water potentiality enough for its population, but severe disregard and lack of monitoring of water development projects, several regions in the country experience water deficiency from time to time. Further neglect will cause water scarcity in the next few decades. Thus it’s necessary to prevent this crisis by utilizing technology in the best way and spreading awareness to conserve the existing water resources, to make efficient use of water for agriculture, industrial production, human consumption and saving resources for the future generations. No water is equal to no life, and no future.
