Hubby: (with a relief on his face) Aah! Indeed, water is life!

Me: (surprised) What makes you say this hub?

Hub: You know hun, it’s summers that make you realize how essential water is in our lives. Quenching your thirst for water is a blessing in itself, isn’t it?

Me: Indeed hub, it is! But, water is essential all the year round and not just seasonally important. In fact, studies say that humans can live an entire month without food, but barely a week without water.

Hub: Astonishing!

Me: But, are we even understanding how important a resource is it? Not at all! In fact, we are diminishing its existence day by day.

Hub: You are right hun. But how is that so?

Me: An estimated 1.8 Billion people worldwide drinks water that is contaminated with feces.

Hub: That’s unbelievable!!

Me: I agree but that’s a fact! In fact, 1 in every 10 people lack access to safe water whereas if research is to be believed, every human takes almost 2 gallons of water to brush their teeth annually.

Hub: That’s such a misfortune. There are people dying due to insufficiency of water and we waste gallons of it on the pettiest of activities.

Me: It doesn’t end here hub! A bath uses up to 70 gallons of water, a five minute shower uses 10-25 gallons, hand-washing the dishes uses up to 7 times the water a modern dishwasher uses, an average swimming pool loses 1000 gallons of water a month due to evaporation. In fact, each day, the Sun evaporates trillion tons of water.

Hub: That’s an astounding figure hun! There’s so much of wastage happening around us. Isn’t it?

Me: Yes hub! There’s wastage and then there’s also contamination. More than one-quarter of all bottled water comes from a municipal water supply- the same place that tap water comes from. An estimated 3.4 Million people die every year from water related diseases.

Hub: It’s because there’s shortage of fresh water that people tend to consume harmful and toxic water, thus leading to their death. I doubt that we may be in the lucky ones to consume fresh water.

Me: You’re right hub! The water that we consume may not be as impure as the ones available in remote areas, but we are equally susceptible to fatal diseases.

Hub: How can we conserve water?

Me: I have read about simple ways through which we can achieve them. One should not leave water running for brushing their teeth, shaving and washing dishes. One should water their plants at the time of least evaporation like early morning or late evening. One should use buckets to clean floors, windows and cars. One should install a Duel-flush toilet. One should not use toilet to dispose of rubbish such as used face clothes or cigarette butts, etc, instead we should use the bin. One should install water-saving shower heads and try to limit their showers to 4 minutes. One should use full-load in dishwasher and washing machine and use “Eco” setting when possible. One should periodically check and repair all possible leaks from toilet to the taps to pipes.

Hub: Those are many but not impossible. But, we should also spread awareness about it through conversations and broadcasts, like the one we are having now. And we should only consume water or use it as much as we need or want to save water, just like this video by #CuttingPaani

Me: I agree hub! But that shouldn’t stop us from following ways to conserve or save water, because every step counts.

Hub: True that hun!

How are you conserving or saving water? Share your thoughts in the comment section.