by Kesaru Hasun
Water, as I mentioned, is the most polluted substance on Earth and also it’s one of the most significant resources on this planet. We all know, one can live without a house, love, passion, and so on but not without water.
“Thousands have lived without love but not one without water.” – W.H. Auden
But why do we still not care about the future of the earth’s water? We are concerned about viruses that could be caused in the future, we are concerned about future fuel problems, human welfare, oxygen problems, e-waste problems and everything but not much about water. Probably some people could be concerned, but not quite enough though. Then ask me, what is enough, how much should we be concerned about the water on earth? Why should we be concerned about that? Why do we always try to ignore it? Why don’t we discuss that much? This blog is about that.
As we know there are three states of water. They are called Water, Ice and Vapour. The thing is if these three didn’t exist, not one living creature would have existed. So it is simple, everyone needs water to survive. But why should we need to care about proper water management? Water exists in different forms. Also just as the water itself can be observed as marine water and freshwater. And from freshwater, at the present, entirely less than 0.01% is available for human hygienic usage. Have you ever wondered about where your water comes from? Yes, possibly you would have known, but were you concerned about it? If there is only one water source for the whole community you live with, if there is a problem with the water source, it could cause trouble to that whole community.
Some countries’ main cities have been downed because of the water shortage in the town during drought while some countries have water all throughout the year. Shortage of water happens in countries individually for a few reasons.
- Climate
- Water Management Issues
- Region of the Country
But when it comes to the whole world, it′s always the climate. I meant the regular friend of natural disasters, Global warming. The amount of water that can be used is way less than we think.
More than 90% of clean water is used for agricultural production only. Other 10 per cent is used for industrial and daily purposes.
So now, it is clear that we have only a small amount of water available for living beings’ usage. Also, there is no way that water moves off the planet, thanks to the natural phenomenon of the water cycle. But, that little amount of pure water available gets polluted by human activities.
Some people think that some countries do not have pure water as those countries lack proper water management. Yes, it is half true. Countries like Mexico are undergoing serious water scarcity problems due to improper water management. The Mexican city has been built on a lake, and it receives a higher density of rainfall every year than England. But they have a huge water shortage problem during the dry seasons.
And in the same world, there are some countries that do not have water independently. For example, countries located in and around the Sahara Desert, the Middle East, Central Australia, the Gobi Desert area of China, etc. They use various methods to obtain pure water for their regions. The best case is in Singapore.
But here is something I know: Some things do not get valued when they are available but they get valued more than ever when they are not available. The specialists have predicted that another 15 countries will be having water scarcity by 2050. The reasons are basically, global warming and water pollution.
Mostly, water pollution occurs on occasions where we don’t think pollution can happen. Carelessness is another reason. Once an American newspaper mentioned that “Water is the next petroleum”. I say no; even if we have no petroleum, people can survive and won’t die as it is not a basic need. But water is not the same case. No water, no life.
Well, the next part is about the ocean. We cannot miss the ocean when we talk about water pollution. ⅔ of the world is covered by seawater. There is a huge area under there. A lot of mysteries that could not be realized are still under there hidden in water with dark. Those species live to balance nature. And it’s a must to mention, they are our ancestors too. But according to recent and last centuries’ records, the sea has been corrupted a lot by stupid human activities done for short time profit of themselves. The best thing is to leave the oceans and seas as they are.
Since I live in Sri Lanka, I would like to report something we experienced recently. This was discussed in local as well as international media. A few months ago we had an ocean disaster where a ship was blasted in the middle of the sea not more than 20 miles away from Sri Lanka’s coastal line. So, while the ship was burning, to avoid the damage, the Sri Lankan navy was commanded to move the ship away as much as possible from Sri Lanka. But while they were trying to move it away the ship started to break and sink. The worst thing here is the ship was loaded with a lot of plastics and cosmetic items. Simply, extremely harmful materials to the environment. Then the government and the ship’s operators failed to prevent the ship from breaking up and sinking. Unfortunately, such a huge amount of poisonous materials including plastics, cosmetics, chemicals, oil, and glass items started to reach the beach. Not only the Colombo Galle Face beach, Negombo and Puttalam region’s coastline was also polluted by the ship’s cargo. Well, after this disaster happened, the government could do nothing but leave it alone.
Now as I comprehended, this kind of disaster cannot be sorted out with the poor facilities of a poor country with poor management. If some environmental disaster happens, not only the country where it happened is responsible for that but also the whole of mankind.
My idea is, we should have another strong international organization for the environment like WHO for health. It should have a good capital to support to recover the natural disasters of the countries; not individually but internationally.
There are unbelievable amounts of illegal things happening in every ocean of the world. Most of them really affect the ocean water directly and indirectly. To prevent this, we can use modern technology efficiently. For that, we need to be concerned about it, care for it, look for it, plus we should be involved with it. This should be more important than finding another world to live in. More than that, I say.
We’ll do our part and contribute to conserving water. This is a time we should give a proper concern about conserving water as the water pollution is increasing rapidly along with the industrial development. It’s becoming a huge problem for living beings. Demand for pure water is increasing day by day in most of the countries in the world which makes it very important for us to focus on and reduce water pollution and also work to develop and maintain sources and resources of water.
“Without water, survival is impossible”
Written by: Kesaru Hasun and Nethmi
International Youth Concerned Society.
#actnowwithiycs
