World Water Day - Water is life, water is happiness!

Today, 22nd March is World Water Day. United Nations General Assembly declared 22nd March as “World Day for Water” in 1993, and since then the day is being observed to address critical water issues.  

Its purpose is to ensure clean water to everyone to safeguard health, conserve water and to protect the water resource bases – aquatic ecosystems management.  Each year with a different theme the United Nations and several countries are doing their best to take care of water. I do not know where India stands in this movement, but I know for sure that there are multitude water related problems in India. Within our own city of Hyderabad there is tremendous scarcity of water since decades. We get municipality water only once in two days and that too for just one and a half hour. And there are many places within the city where water is supplied only once in a week, for a short time. People have to depend on bore-water or get water in tankers. And the quality of this water is not to be trusted, so in almost all houses there are a variety of water purifiers to obtain safe drinking water. And in rural areas the problem is much more serious. Our city’s once upon a time most beautiful lake, Hussain Sagar is now a stinking, toxic sewage pond. Similar situation can be seen all over our country. Go to the villages anywhere in our country and you will see womenfolk carrying water to their houses from distant wells, lakes or rivers. These simple observations tell that not much is being is done by the authorities in our country to tackle water related problems.   

We all know that water is life and water is happiness. India should tackle water problems on a war footing. It is not gold; it is neither oil nor gas, which will determine the political, economic and social development of nations around the world in the future, but access to a constant supply of clean water. Every Government and society all over the world should realize this, especially India.