TIME TO PAY SERIOUS ATTENTION TO WATER ISSUES

                                                                        -By Milan K Sinha

The great civilizations of the world including ours blossomed on the banks of rivers. These rivers are so revered in India that people worship them as their mother. Whether its Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, Saryu, Narmada, Krishna, Godavari, Mahanadi, Chenab or Jhelum, Indians particularly ordinary Indians have a feeling that their life moves with the flow of these rivers.

But due to increasing population coupled with modern technological initiatives in the name of GDP growth, the sanctity and survival of most of these rivers are at stake. The plight of most of them can be seen to be believed. On top of it, the traditional tested methods of water conservation and management by civil societies were assiduously weakened and destroyed by active intervention of colonial masters before independence followed by the new Desi masters afterwards. True, until water shortage impacts the planners, policy makers and large sections of creamy layers of society, this life saving liquid will continue to be managed poorly. Not to overemphasize the issue, you must have seen blatant abuse and misuse of water in certain Govt. institutions such as Railways, municipalities etc. and   at the same time found to spend lots of public money in the name of water supply and its proper management. 

It is unfortunate that the educated and economically well-off section of Indian society know well that due to global warming and other climatic changes together with erratic and gradual lesser rain fall during monsoon would result in dwindling water availability which is bound to intensify Inter State River disputes and general water related conflicts in society at large. Naturally, this may threaten the democratic fabric of the nation and may have serious impact on our reported economic growth story in days to come. 

Can you believe that there were millions of ponds and thousands of lakes in different states even in 19^th and some periods of 20^th century in India? The then Mysore state alone had 39000 ponds in 1800 AD. Delhi too had more than 300 ponds.  And so were innumerable ponds in Rajasthan. These ponds either dried up or could not be maintained due to apathy and lack of support from the then masters of state. Now the situation in our country has come to this pass that we are facing the dual problem at the same time- water shortage & water pollution on the one hand and severe drought and floods on the other. Even two days torrential rain in places like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata or even in Patna or Jaipur disrupts the normal life beyond imagination. In some cities even civil life comes to almost stand still. But very little efforts at the Govt. level have been taken except making some promises on those crisis moments to be forgotten as a routine. 

In nut shell, there is a serious water problem in the world and also in India. We know many people find problems in opportunity but some people find opportunity in problems as well. These courageous and brave people are the solution finder in every society. They think out of the box and travel through uncharted path to achieve their social goal on their own.               

           

 मजरूह साहेब ने इनके लिये ही  शायद लिखा है :

मैं तो अकेला ही चला था जानिबे मंजिल मगर ,

लोग साथ आते गये और कारवां बनता गया !

We shall talk about these inspiring initiatives in my next post. All the Best.