When Water Extinction is Near, Human Extinction is not Far Behind!

World Water Day (March 22nd)

Saving the Earth from Dehydration

Think before you Hit the Shower

How many of you remember the plight of Cape Town last year when the city literally ran out of water & feared the arrival of the ‘Day Zero’ when there would be no water left. That’s our plight everywhere in the world today which is ironic yet true. Almost 70% of the world is covered with water but only 3% of it is freshwater. And we, have been overutilizing the world’s most undervalued natural resource-water. Water might be the essence of life but there is more to it than quenching thirst or safeguarding our health. It is critical for overall human development including economic and social development as well. Despite this billions of people live without water for their households, schools, workplaces and even farming. It was in 2010 that the United Nations recognized the right to safe & clean drinking water as a human right that’s the necessity of life. This right entitles each and everyone to safe, clean, easily accessible and affordable water for drinking, sanitation, washing clothes, cooking and personal hygiene.
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The growing climate change, environmental degradation and population rise impact water availability which in turn impacts quality of life. There are more than 700 children under the age of five dying everyday due to poor sanitation. Also, it’s the women and girls in the family responsible for collecting water in 80% of the households. Worse, more than 800 women die every day due to pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications. Don’t you think these are more than enough reasons to safeguard every precious drop of this priceless liquid and celebrate a day every year to educate and spread awareness?

Water, Water Everywhere but not a Drop to Drink
Water is the second-important element needed for survival after oxygen. We drink water when we feel thirsty, sometimes soon after getting up in the morning and rarely when we feel guilty for not drinking enough of it. Often, we are victims of headaches, tiredness, poor concentration, slower reactions, lack of strength and mood swings. We have reasons for each of these but do you know that lack of enough water consumption can lead to all of these health problems? Just like Mother Nature even 70% of our human body consists of water and this liquid is needed for helping us with the smooth functioning of vital body organs such as the brain, heart and kidneys every day, every single second that we breathe.

Beyond helping in enriching functioning of parts we need water to flush out toxins from the body, stay away from kidney stones and UTI problems. Dehydration is a problem that occurs when we don’t consume enough water to compensate for the water lost from the body. This makes us come up with the most important question, “How much water does each of us need every day?” for which the answer is generally 6-8 glasses. But there is more to these as various factors too play a role in deciding upon the right quantity for every human. Some of the important factors include the place of stay, nature of work, body type and health. Know how much is right for your body by getting a detailed insight at www.firsteatright.com.

Water is the blessing to us but we have lost the original charm of it by contaminating this colorless liquid with chlorine, lead, chemicals and bacteria. There is a high probability that even bottled water is at a high risk of contamination. It’s the duty of each of us to protect water from vanishing from Earth and if not, human extinction is unavoidable.

World Water Day
World Water Day is celebrated every year on March 22nd to spread the message about water’s importance in our lives. The theme for 2019 is “Leaving no one behind” which means finding a way to make water easily available to the billions of people living without safe water, pursuing every way possible to increase the availability of water and educate people about its importance.

There are events organized, campaigns arranged, activities conducted and ideologies shared on making the best use of water and saving it for our future. We might have come up with rain water harvesting and other such methods for safeguarding this natural resource but we still let water flow from our taps continuously while brushing our teeth or washing vessels. Don’t you think bathing under a shower is a luxury when there are people who don’t get to drink a drop of it in some places? Cut down on thinking about yourself and start thinking about others. You will find ‘n’ many ways to save the world from running out of the elixir of life.

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