World Water Day 2018

N Munal Meitei *

World Water Day is celebrated on March 22 since 1993. This day is also celebrated to highlight required improvements for access to WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene) facilities in developing countries. The theme for WWD this year is 'Nature for Water'.

The theme is focusing on the importance of nature from water, which invites us to think about nature-based solutions to the water challenges we face today. Nature-based solutions refers to the sustainable management and use of nature for tackling environmental and societal challenges such as climate change, water security, water pollution, food security, human health, and disaster risk management.

This means that growing forests, creating rivers and fields rich with soil, and restoring other natural elements of environments that are damaged, can assist in purifying water. A statement from the UN reads: 'Damaged ecosystems affect the quantity and quality of water available for human consumption'. This day also aims to promote awareness of the extent to which water resource development contributes to economic productivity and social wellbeing.

In Manipur due to some of the good showers in the last two –three years, we are a little bit relaxed from the acute water crisis. But in our state everything depends upon the monsoon rain and hence we are very prone to the most dreaded water crisis – if there is drought for one or two consecutive years. The state has no snow fed river and that is the unlucky of our state, Manipur.

Cape Town, the South Africa's second-largest city and a top international tourist destination has the most ever horrible water crisis. Now, residents play a new and delicate game of water math each day. They're recycling bath water to help flush toilets. Many residents catch all water from the tap to wash hands and dishes and use it for the plants. Everybody is trying to fill whatever left out container with water from city suppliers- this has further exaggerate the crisis. They're being told to limit showers to 90 seconds. And hand sanitizer, once somewhat of an afterthought, is now a big seller.

"Unwashed hair is now a sign of social responsibility," resident Darryn Ten told CNN. An even grimmer scenario now looms: Day Zero, when the government will turn off the taps for most homes and businesses in the city to conserve the very last supplies to Hospitals and other vital institutions.

But how without water ..? People arrive for long queue before 5 a.m. opening the public water points, and brewery security guards police the crowd to ensure order. Leave it for drinking, undrinkable tank water also cost Rs. 25,500/- per tank. Nobody thinks of water for their animals, plants and they are zeroing to constructions for want of water. Hotels start to close for water. But very unluckily, the Government has decided to stop public supplying from the 14th April. That will be miserable water crisis. At present Army is protecting almost 30 water supply schemes.

What is happening to Cape Town could also happen to us. The Cape Town crisis stems from a combination of poor planning, three years of drought and spectacularly bad crisis management. The city's outdated water infrastructure has long struggled to keep up with the burgeoning 4.5 million populations. The other fact for Cape Town to suffer so much is lack of preserving the wetlands around. Here we may remember the theme of this year's International Wetland Day, 2018 "Wetlands for sustainable Urban Future". With this, for our state Manipur also, we need to conserve all the wetlands of the state for any environmental eventualities.

In Manipur, in valley area, earlier during our childhood, there were many ponds in each of the homesteads. For any household utilities, we could get abundant water. But now due to increase in population and also the land value, we could hardly see such ponds in our locality. The State is now facing acute water scarcity. Therefore we are compelled to know the importance of water. Water is life, sanitation and hygiene are dignity.

Water is the source of life. All organisms contain water and depend for survival. Water is one of nature's most important gifts to mankind. Water is crucial for all biodiversity including human being. In a wide range of ecosystems, water is a dominant component. Water bodies or wetlands are among the world's most productive environments. They are cradles of biological diversity, providing the primary productivity for countless species of plants and animals. Water is an important storehouse of plant genetic material. In short, we can say, water keeps our planet alive and well.

Water on Earth is constant. No water is added or taken out from the Earth. But the problem faced by the earth is its scarcity. Due to injudicious use of water, human is facing insufficient water. Our so called civilized society continues to contaminate this precious resource.

Water on Earth moves continually through two hydrological cycles, one above the Atmosphere and another below the ground through the process of evapotranspiration, condensation, precipitation and runoff, usually reaching the sea.

The human body contains about 70% water. To function properly, the body requires about three liters of water daily to avoid dehydration. Medically, for a healthy person, we need to drink about 3% of our body weight as water daily. Water is one of the most essential elements to good health — it is necessary for the digestion and absorption of food; helps maintain proper muscle tone; supplies oxygen and nutrients to the cells; rids the body wastes; and serves as a natural air conditioning system. Water helps the body metabolize stored fat; it may possibly be one of the most significant factors in losing weight. The precise amount depends on the level of activity, temperature, humidity, and other factors.

Civilization has historically flourished around rivers and major waterways. Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface area. On Earth, 96.5% of the planet's water is found in oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.8% in glaciers and the ice caps.

Only 2.5% of the Earth's water is freshwater, and 98.8% of that available freshwater is also in the form of ice and groundwater and only about 1% are available near us as palatable. Out of this palatable water, the maximum are again in the lakes and rivers. Hence only a little fraction of water is available for our use. Approximately 70% of the fresh water used by humans goes to agriculture. Because water dissolves numerous substances in large amounts, pure water rarely occurs in nature.

Precipitation absorbs carbon dioxide and other gases, as well as traces of organic and inorganic material from the atmosphere. Because water reacts with minerals in the soil and rocks, surface and groundwater may contain many different dissolved substances. For a safe drinking water, impurities are to be removed by screening, sedimentation, filtration, chlorination, or irradiation. Aeration removes odors and tastes caused by decomposing organic matter, industrial wastes, and some gases.

Water safety and quality are fundamental to human development and well-being. Providing access to safe water is one of the most effective instruments in promoting health and reducing poverty. Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other life forms even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. A recent report by World Bank suggests that by 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50%.

A significant amount of disease could be prevented through access to safe water supply, adequate sanitation and better hygiene practices. Diarrheal disease alone amounts to an estimated 3.6 % of the total DALY global burden of disease and is responsible for the deaths of 1.5 million people every year (WHO 2012).

It is estimated that 58% of that burden, or 8,42,000 deaths per year, is attributable to unsafe water supply, sanitation and hygiene and includes 3,61,000 deaths of children under age five, mostly in low-income countries (WHO 2014).

World Water Day called on each one of us to maintain and improve the quality and quantity of fresh water available for our future generations. The goal was to inspire political and community action and encourage greater global understanding of the need for more responsible water use and conservation.

In our state, most of the water sources have been dried up due to lack of vegetation in the upper catchments. As an impact of climate change, the state is facing the scarcity in rainfall. Except for last one-two years, most of the rivers and lakes including the water storages are well dried up and incapable of supplying water to the consumers all over the state. If we do not take care of our water today, then we may be the next after Cape Town in some years.

Therefore, our pledge can be as simple as taking shorter showers to save water, or making sure about taking reusable bags to the market places, or getting more practically involved by helping to organize a clean-up of our local water sources. We need to educate the younger generation about the importance of water and the water conservation.

The dreams of Manipur of becoming a world tourism hot spot will come true only when we conserve our hills, forests, wildlife, wetlands and our water sources. So let us join and take part in the celebration of World Water Day today to secure this vital part nature for the sake of our future generation.