Water is one of the things we need most besides air, and thank god! water is plenty generally speaking, because three-fourths or so of earth’s surface is covered with water. This is only a general fact and not all places on earth are having enough water and healthy potable water is a rare commodity. Rivers may bring water and lakes may be having it. From the health point, they may not be fit for drinking. Most of these waters are contaminated and may contain mineral as well as organic impurities, and sometimes epidemic spreading bacteria like those causing cholera and typhoid. Nowadays the chances of the contamination of water sources are quite common with industries coming up and sending out their effluents indiscriminately. So to make these waters potable they must be treated before being supplied to a population.
Treating water and supplying it to a town or city means cost. The water has to be filtered for suspended impurities and then chlorinated and then pumped to a storage tank from where the water is distributed through pipes. So one must remember that when one draws water from the tap, one is actually buying or paying for water. This has become inevitable with the growth of cities and towns.
Once we bear in mind we will be careful in using water. There are many ways in which water is wasted. The tap may be leaky whereby water may be spilled. That means some periodic attention must be paid to the plumbing and leaky taps. The tap may be open and the water running out and nobody would care to stop it. Unless there is need, the tap must be kept closed. This must be particularly remembered when one leaves home on holiday; otherwise, throughout their absence water may be flowing out. Just as we see if the electric mains are off when we are away for some time so too is the water tap.
Major part of the water is used for bathing, washing, and cleaning. In all these needs water must be prudently used, Take bathing for instance; when one is scrubbing or applying soap to one’s body the shower need not be running. Water economy must be remembered in the use of bath tubs. One need not be a rhino to be in one’s bath for hours on end. This prudence in the use of water may be practised in washing and cleaning. Since these consume a lot of water, the municipal corporation, if it is affluent and water is in plenty, can have a separate system supplying water for washing and cleaning alone.
The industrial houses must not be allowed to draw from public water system for their industrial use except perhaps for drinking water.
One must bear in mind when one wastes water, one is depriving another of his share of water.
Good water may get scarcer in days to come. With the advent of rapid industrialization contamination of water sources poses a threat. So the industrial people must feel it their duty not to add to water pollution. In areas of acute water scarcity steps may be taken for recycling water.
Remember one of the casualties of the so-called modernization is that we have to pay for Nature’s bounties of which water is one.
