By: Kazim Laghari
Water is universally known as life. But negligence and ignorant attitude towards this blessing gift of God have been making it acute shortage and contamination. UN held a conference in Stockholm, Sweden, under the theme of World Water Week the previous week. The motto was Seeds of Change: Innovative Solutions for a water-wise world. In Mach this year, The United Nations general secretary Antonio Guterres also warned at the opening of the global body’s first major meeting on water resources that the future of humanity’s “lifeblood”, water, is under threat worldwide. He further said, “We have broken the water cycle, destroyed ecosystems, and contaminated ground waters”, at the three-day summit in New York, in which some 6,500 participants were gathered including a dozen heads of state and government.
Given such a grave threat of water depletion by the UN general secretary, the water’s unusual use has not been ended. In some areas of the world, though the UN has underlined the world’s full of emptiness, people are using intentionally water extraordinarily. For instance, more water has been reportedly wasted lavishly in washing vehicles, and houses without need, industries are also wasting water without recycling, etc Such a negligent attitude must be stopped to save water for the sack of life.
Coming to Pakistan, the water’s resources are in considerable amounts, yet some areas are affected by saltness. Fortunately, the land of the country is blessed with enough water. But the worrying thing is that the water has become contaminated by the lack of attention of the people, and the waste of human beings and animals has been drained into the rivers and sea without recycling. And lack of proper knowledge of using biodiverse and artificial substances for the field to make enough yields has also caused depletion and contamination of the groundwater treasury.
Sadly, where the people have become addicted to bypassing their moral duties and playing dangerously with natural resources, both the federal and provincial government’s role is also not appreciable. Despite strict laws and rules given on water management and distribution and other natural resources, the implementation remains unseen. And the governments their concerned official departments are also seen as lenient to some extent on such grave unlawfulness.
A few years ago, the companies were given contracts in the Sindh province to explore the gas and petrol reservoirs across the province. undoubtedly, it was a timely and better effort by the then governments to boost the country’s frail economy and save the country from the heavy burden of importing for the energy sector, but the companies were not properly dictated or they evasively avoided the meeting some basic principles of careful exploring and saving the unearthed sweet water’s treasury in the province. They spread the vires network around the place where they got clues about reservoirs, and they blasted bombs for the dig. eventually, after some months nearby areas and villages, which have the only source of potable water unearthed water pumped by handpumps and electrical motors, water coming from handpumps and electrical motors became completely polluted and toxic. Many diseases erupted such as kidney, respiratory, and liver failures.
Sadly, the villages near Taluka Hala, District Matiari, are suffering a lot of problems due to drinking toxic water and are compelled to drink that water because of not available any other source of potable water. Many times they have protested and asked the government’s concerned departments but their hue and cry went unaddressed. It is extremely saddening to know that children are suffering bone and kidney diseases from that water as doctors suggested.
Notwithstanding, the digitally rich global world and technologically super, such latest modalities have remained inaccessible for Pakistan specifically for its official departments. Not taking in developed countries but also in developing countries technology has prevailed in most of the official departments, and its expedient usage has made things easier. Many countries are taking advantage of using new technology by recycling the water and making it re-potable.
The magical invention of Artificial Intelligence(AI) has caused widespread debates across the world. keeping its disadvantages aside, AI can be a helpful tool for preserving and recycling water in considerable amounts. If it is used in this manner to benefit human beings in various fields such as water preservation, health, agriculture, etc., it will be praised and applied accordingly in a fruitful way.
Regrettably, reporting on such a high scale of contaminated water being distributed to the masses via water lines, the governments have not even bothered to ask the concerned departments for such ineligibility and incapability. By drinking contaminated and toxic water many diasporas in the country have faced surges in fatal diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, etc. These lethal diseases have been affecting every age of people for a long time, even newly borne babies are not safe from these monsters. Sadly in remote areas of Sindh and Baluchistan province, people have to go far to get water for drinking, in the Thar desert of Sindh masses have to go for several kilometers only to fetch potable water because where they are living there the water is not available, rarely, if rain showers then they have muddy wells for storing rainwater, otherwise they have to follow the same cycle of a long journey for getting water. However, in the recent past, the report allegedly declared that the big cities some population of the country has been drinking contaminated water with a mix-up of feces. What else big fraud be with our innocent masses than this?
Despite a grave warning by the UN general secretary, if the governments especially developing countries do not pay due heed, it will cause a huge crisis in the shape of ill masses and sick nation’s coming youth with a lack of immune power and considerable abilities. The already climate-hit and inflation-hit country cannot afford to harvest such an ineligible generation. As water is an integral part of life, life cannot be survived without water and also life cannot be survived productively by drinking contaminated water with multiple harmful germs. This serious monster of water depletion and water contamination must be addressed timely.
After all, this research and cautioned warning by the UN general secretary must be taken seriously. both governments ought to take stable and strict actions against the water management authorities, and the theme of World Water Week must be taken on the board with ensured implementations. The governments must take every stakeholder on the board and carve out a strictly viable strategy that can ensure addressing the water-related problems and provide clean and germ-free potable water to the nation specifically to the remote and affected areas. Moreover, the technology can be helpful to use in the mechanism, as it can be fruitful to save water by recycling the used water. Subsequently, it also can save to flow of waste and sewerage to rivers and seas directly and contaminate the ecosystem of water species. Though the laws and regulations are already given in the statute book, the concerned authorities have to implement those laws intensively.
Considering such a sorrowful scenario of water pollution and depletion, the concerned authorities are needed to tackle this problem on an immediate basis. Undoubtedly, countries future lies on the shoulders of the coming generations, If the generation is not healthy how a country can harvest a better and prosperous future for stability and prosperity? The water problem is the Achilles’ heel of the country. The earlier it would be tackled, the better future is yielded.
The writer is a freelance columnist and can be reached at lagharikazim@gmail.com
