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Introduction Water is the precious gift of God on the earth. Life exists on the earth because of the availability of water. Itself being tasteless, odorless and colorless, it adds taste, color and nice smell in the life of living beings on the earth. It is found everywhere and known as life. It takes nothing from us but gives life to us. It has no shape but takes the shape of container we store it. We find it everywhere in rivers, seas, tanks, wells, ponds, etc but we lack clean drinking water. Three-fourth part of the earth is full of water however we need to conserve water as there is very less percentage of clean water.
Importance of Clean Water
Without water life is not possible on the earth. All the living beings like human, animals, plants, etc need water to grow, develop and live. Water is the only source of all lives here. We need water in all the walks of life from morning till night like drinking, cooking, bathing, washing clothes, watering plant, etc. People working in different fields need water for different purposes such as farmers need water to grow crops, gardeners to water plants, industrialists for industry work, electricity plants to generate hydro-electricity, etc. So, we should save clean water for the wellness of our future generations and healthy life of water and wildlife animals. People at many places of the world are suffering water scarcity or completely lack of water in their regions.
Why to Save Water |
India is one of the countries worldwide facing huge level water scarcity today. Places in India like Rajasthan and some parts of Gujarat are facing water scarcity where women and girls of the houses cover a long distance on bare foot to just get a pot of water. In some cities like Bangalore people have to buy water bottles worth Rs. 25 to Rs. 30 to drink clean water. People face more problems during summer months when the daily need of water increases. Recently, it is studied that around 25% urban population lacks availability to clean drinking water. In some areas, the privatization of water bodies is the main reason of water scarcity.
Simple Ways to Save Water
There are various simple ways which we can use on daily basis and save gallons of water daily. Following are save water techniques which we must use to save water at home and other places:
We should use shower heads with low-flow (also called as energy-efficient shower heads), low-flush toilets and composting toilets (instead of conventional western toilets as they use large volumes of water) or dual flush toilets (it uses very less water than others).
Keep the tap close while doing hand wash, tooth brush, face wash, washing dishes, etc.
Collect rain water during rainy season to use in toilet flush, watering plants, sprinkle in garden, etc. Using raw water like sea water or non-purified water in toilet is also good.
We should be habitual of reusing or recycling waste water.
We should promote rainwater harvesting, using high-efficiency clothes washers, weather-based irrigation controllers, garden hose nozzles, low flow taps in wash basins, swimming pool covers, automatic faucet, etc for water conservation.
Water saving techniques should also be given priority in the commercial areas as it is a big area where gallons of water can be saved on daily basis.
Water saving techniques in the business areas are like waterless urinals, waterless car washes, infrared or foot-operated taps, pressurized water brooms, cooling tower conductivity controllers, water-saving steam sterilizers (in hospitals and health care units), rain water harvesting, water to water heat exchangers, etc.
Agriculture field is also a vast area where we can save more water on daily basis if we follow water saving techniques. We can use overhead irrigation for crop irrigation (using center-pivot or lateral-moving sprinklers), minimize evaporation, runoff or subsurface drainage, etc.
Use of green manures, recycling of crop residues, mulching, animal manure, etc in the field improves the soil organic matter which again increases the water holding capacity and ability to absorb water (during torrential rains) of the soil.
Water saving techniques is also promoted at the social and community level by the municipal water utilities or regional governments through the use of common strategies like public outreach campaigns pay higher price for increasing water use, restrictions on use of clean water for outdoor activities like lawn watering, floor cleaning, car washing, etc.
There should be universal metering for water supply to each home just like electricity. This facility is only available some UK households areas and urban Canadian homes. It is estimated by the US Environmental Protection Agency that water metering is an effective technique which alone can reduce water consumption by 20 to 40% on daily basis.
The growth of more water-efficient crops adopting less irrigation should be promoted as only crop irrigation takes around 70% of the world’s fresh water.
Conclusion
Lack of water is a big issue in many countries. It is a symbiotic factor and important element to which life depends on. The level of drinking water under the ground is becoming less because of the disturbance in the natural filtering system. Deforestation and lack of plants causes rain water to run away instead of going inside the ground. We should follow all the key activities regarding save water from loss, unnecessary use and waste as well as damage of water quality.