Abstract
In this blog article, the worth and importance of water have been highlighted. Water is the most essential requirement of human beings and all other forms of life. The survival of all forms of life including humans lies in the very secret of water.
However abundant use of water and its wastage have caused water crises in many parts of the world. The growth in the world population means more requirements of basic life-related needs in terms of food, water, shelter, and clothes.
The misuse of the available water resources, scarcity of water in certain specific areas, droughts, and improper water distribution and management are the great threats to human society which we need to address immediately in the larger interest of happy and peaceful human societies across the globe.
Therefore this blog article has discussed the basic issues related to water as
well as suggested some possible and viable solutions in this regard. Let’s read
out what is inside this article blog.
Worth
of Water; an Overview
We know that water covers around 70% of the total area of the earth in terms of oceans and seawater. Although it is a huge amount of water yet it is of no use because of salt and other things which make it heavy and harmful water for drinking, cooking, and agricultural purpose.
Drinking water which we also call as pure and fresh water is only 3% of the world’s total water and is mainly available in frozen glaciers form including water in rivers, streams, canal, and lakes.
According to World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) statistics, around 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to pure water and around 2.7 billion people face water scarcity at least for one month whereas, around 2.4 billion people use impure water and face inadequate sanitization problems. As a result of it, approximately 1 million people die each year due to drinking impure water.
On the other
hand, after every 3 minutes, a child dies due to water-related diseases in the
world, particularly in the African continent. It is also estimated globally that around $260 billion is being spent on water due to a lack of basic water and
sanitation access which is a huge economic loss, especially to under-developing
and third-world countries.
The Water Science
Water is an important chemical substance that is an inorganic, tasteless, transparent, and odorless compound composed of hydrogen and oxygen gases. Its chemical formula is H2O. Although water has zero calories and no organic nutrients yet it is very important to live.
In fact, water is considered life itself which is the major source of life for all forms of living organisms. From a biological point of view, the human body contains 55% to 78% of its total weight from water.
An adult human being needs to drink 7 to 8 glasses (2.5 liters) per day. Even if we see the importance of water from the historical point of view, history tells that ancient human civilizations including Egyptian civilization, Mesopotamian civilization, Greek civilization, and Indus Valley civilization, all flourished near rivers, streams, and other major waterways including sea and ocean. Not only that but water provided important trade and economic routes to many human civilizations for ages.
On the other hand, if you
observe today’s human world you will find that many important cities and
countries like Shanghai, Tokyo, New York, London, Mumbai, Karachi, Hong Kong,
Paris, Montreal, Buenos Aires, and Singapore owe their success and easy
accessibility via water that even till today world’s major economy is driven by
trade through the water.
Significance of Water in Human Life
Human beings have been using water for different reasons. It is being used for drinking, cooking, washing, agriculture, transportation, chemical and industrial use, recreation, food processing, medical use, electricity-generating, etc. Directly and indirectly, water has a very significant impact on the world economy that even by selling drinking water bottles, the economy goes in billions of dollars every day in the world.
On the other hand agricultural products, dairy products, animal keeping, and plants growing heavily rely on water consumption. So it is very much understandable that water
has a such key significance that human life is impossible without water.
Water
Resources in the World
Resources of pure water occur in two major forms called “Stocks” which means stored or preserved water and “Flows” which means flowing or moving water. “Flows” water is available through rivers, streams, canals, etc. while the “Stocks” water is available in the form of glaciers, ice, snow, lakes, dams, and underground water.
Water which is available in the form of “Stocks” is very
much important for any country in the world as it is considered a big resource
and an advantage. Similarly, proper irrigation systems, the least possible water
wastage, and sensible and modern agriculture are added advantages for any country
of the world to preserve its key water resources.
Water
Crisis and Politics over Water in the World
In today’s neo-liberal world of interests and politics, water resources are being considered strategic resources which may lead to political conflicts and eventually cause severe health impacts and a huge loss of biodiversity across the globe.
There is still a strong opinion and argument among various think tanks of the world that the actual motive behind invading Iraq, was to get access to oil and pure water resources inside Iraq and the Middle East region.
Likewise, we have already been seeing the water conflict between Pakistan and India since 1947. The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in 1960 took place with the intervention by World Bank (WB) between Nehru (Indian prime minister) and Ayub Khan (Dictator & Martial Law Administrator, Pakistan) which eventually cast heavily on the interests of water resources for Pakistan as president Ayub sold out three important Eastern rivers (Sutlej, Ravi & Beas) to India.
Not only that but Pakistan agreed that India
will use 20% of the total water of the Western rivers (Indus, Chenab &
Jhelum). IWT in 1960 was a huge mistake made by Pakistan which since its
penning down to today has been creating a constant water crisis inside Pakistan including creating a rift among different provinces of Pakistan due to the water shortage issues.
Water
Crisis Inside Pakistan
Water resources in Pakistan are going down at a very rapid pace as the current per capita availability of freshwater resources in Pakistan has drastically fallen below the water scarcity threshold level. At present we have just 1000 cubic meters of water per capita which was 1600 cubic meters per capita in 1991 and 3950 cubic meters per capita in 1961.
This is not an end but due to rising population as well as certain climate changes have created a worrying situation for Pakistan which may lead us to face severe water scarcity by the end of 2040, particularly in two of the four provinces of Pakistan (Sindh & Balouchistan) where water shortage has remained a major issue.
On the other hand, considering the current water crises in Pakistan, the Washington-based magazine of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has placed Pakistan in 3rd position on the list of countries facing acute water scarcity.
According to an Al-Jazeera News Agency report, Pakistan may face a severe water crisis due to the Himalayas glaciers melting which may cause a severe water crisis for over two billion people living in South Asia.
The report further threatens that Pakistan’s largest city (Karachi) may face a severe
water crisis for its residents in near future due to the constant and rapid
increase in the population of the city as well as the low level of water reaching the ‘Kotri Barrage’ and Delta region near Thatta, Karachi.
Conclusion
Sensible and economical use of water is a prerequisite for the world to face the water shortage in the future including control over rapid growth in world population.
Similarly adopting a sensible and modern agriculture system has become inevitable for all countries across the globe. Water wastage in terms of logging and salinity needs to be stopped. There is also a dire need to preserve rain and floods water through dams.
However preserving water resources is all about reasonability which we need to realize and take it on our shoulders immediately as the Last of the Prophets of Islam, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had rightly said 14 hundred years ago that “do not waste water, even if you are standing on the bank of a river”.
Therefore we need to stop wasting water by any means and at all levels to save humanity from scarcity and water crises in the future.
Author: Raja Bahar Khan Soomro
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