Parched earth insensitive water wastage: Our legacy to the future

Page: 497-501
Manbeer Kaur and Harshpinder Singh (Khalsa College Gharshankar, Hoshiarpur, Punjab)
R. Lamba (Anthropologist, CEO, The Rural Envionrmental Enterprises Development Society, Chandigarh)

Ancient scriptures have stipulated the priceless treasures of Nature to be inexhaustible. They have, however, warned about their conservative use and warned against wanton waste. The world today has become aware that its exploitation of the environment can result in turning man’s habitat into a hostile terrain. Living without water, trees, rain forests seems unthinkable and yet the concrete jungles are engulfing large surface areas. While the Earth has large resources of water because of which it gained the name of ‘Blue Plant’, there is very little fresh water that can be used for drinking. Less than one percent of the available water on earth is drinkable. It is a crucial issue for human survival if this small fragment of water is endangered in anyway. Reports from all over the world are coming in where certain cities are being declared as crisis cities because of the acute threat they are facing of becoming totally waterless. The huge realty rates will crash once the water scarcity becomes a reality. The focus of this paper is to ascertain how rural populations consider this world water scarcity crises. Are they aware? Do they exercise conservative measures? How tuned in are they to the water crisis of the world? What measures are they taking to conserve weather? A study was conducted among rural populations around Garshankar block of Hoshiarpur district among 540 respondents to ascertain their views on the issues. The study findings were shared on World Water Day among the Faculty and students of BAM Khalsa College, Garshankar, Punjab, India