BREAKING NEWS

03-29-2024     3 رجب 1440

Coronavirus Pandemic Teaches Importance of Water

April 01, 2020 | Farooq Wani

In the chaos caused by outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, we may have forgotten about World Water Day that’s observed on 22 March every year, but the medical advice of frequently washing hands as a precaution against this infection highlights how critical the issue of water availability is. And so, while the world continues to battle coronavirus, we shouldn’t lose sight of the importance of conserving water, because as they say, ‘No water-no life’!
The problem is that since nature provides us with water in the form of rivers originating from glaciers, melting snow, lakes, springs and rains, we take its availability for granted. So much so that we don’t realise how we are rapidly losing precious potable water due to large scale deforestation, over-exploitation of underground water resources and by contamination that renders it unfit for human consumption.
Today, the only proven defence against the coronavirus pandemic is to wash our hands frequently — 20 seconds each time and needless to say the water we use for this purpose has to be clean and free form other disease carrying contagions. Thus, if we want to survive this pandemic and emerge victorious then we have to ensure adequate availability of water.
Most of us don’t realise the problems that water scarcity can cause because water from taps being readily available has made us complacent-if we find that tapped water isn’t clean enough, we simply switch to buying and drinking bottled water. The water crisis becomes a serious health crisis in the time of coronavirus. The 20-second hand wash advised to kill the virus, would mean roughly 1.5-2 litres per wash; washing hands frequently would require between 15-20 litres of water per person; a household of five would need 100 litres only for hand washing. Though this is quite a lot, but it’s necessary in order to keep coronavirus away.
Ensuring ‘water for all’ is a major challenge and a large number of people across the globe (including some parts of India) don’t have access to potable water in quantities that will allow frequent washing of hands and clothing to avoid coronavirus. This pandemic has highlighted the importance of water in fighting coronavirus contagion and reminded us that we can no longer afford to waste water.
The good news is that we all know what needs to be done. Water is a replenishable resource and so we must ensure that we harvest every drop of rainwater and this can only be achieved if we create rainwater-harvesting facilities, build local water storage systems; recycle and reuse every drop of wastewater. While many of these schemes would require government or community intervention, but the one thing each and every one of us can do is to ensure that not even a drop of water is wasted.
And even if each one of us saves just a drop every day, we’ll collectively be able to save thousands and thousands of litres of water every year and this would not only reduce our dependence on groundwater but also help in maintaining an environmental balance in Kashmir.

 

 

BREAKING NEWS

VIDEO

Twitter

Facebook

Coronavirus Pandemic Teaches Importance of Water

April 01, 2020 | Farooq Wani

In the chaos caused by outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, we may have forgotten about World Water Day that’s observed on 22 March every year, but the medical advice of frequently washing hands as a precaution against this infection highlights how critical the issue of water availability is. And so, while the world continues to battle coronavirus, we shouldn’t lose sight of the importance of conserving water, because as they say, ‘No water-no life’!
The problem is that since nature provides us with water in the form of rivers originating from glaciers, melting snow, lakes, springs and rains, we take its availability for granted. So much so that we don’t realise how we are rapidly losing precious potable water due to large scale deforestation, over-exploitation of underground water resources and by contamination that renders it unfit for human consumption.
Today, the only proven defence against the coronavirus pandemic is to wash our hands frequently — 20 seconds each time and needless to say the water we use for this purpose has to be clean and free form other disease carrying contagions. Thus, if we want to survive this pandemic and emerge victorious then we have to ensure adequate availability of water.
Most of us don’t realise the problems that water scarcity can cause because water from taps being readily available has made us complacent-if we find that tapped water isn’t clean enough, we simply switch to buying and drinking bottled water. The water crisis becomes a serious health crisis in the time of coronavirus. The 20-second hand wash advised to kill the virus, would mean roughly 1.5-2 litres per wash; washing hands frequently would require between 15-20 litres of water per person; a household of five would need 100 litres only for hand washing. Though this is quite a lot, but it’s necessary in order to keep coronavirus away.
Ensuring ‘water for all’ is a major challenge and a large number of people across the globe (including some parts of India) don’t have access to potable water in quantities that will allow frequent washing of hands and clothing to avoid coronavirus. This pandemic has highlighted the importance of water in fighting coronavirus contagion and reminded us that we can no longer afford to waste water.
The good news is that we all know what needs to be done. Water is a replenishable resource and so we must ensure that we harvest every drop of rainwater and this can only be achieved if we create rainwater-harvesting facilities, build local water storage systems; recycle and reuse every drop of wastewater. While many of these schemes would require government or community intervention, but the one thing each and every one of us can do is to ensure that not even a drop of water is wasted.
And even if each one of us saves just a drop every day, we’ll collectively be able to save thousands and thousands of litres of water every year and this would not only reduce our dependence on groundwater but also help in maintaining an environmental balance in Kashmir.

 

 


  • Address: R.C 2 Quarters Press Enclave Near Pratap Park, Srinagar 190001.
  • Phone: 0194-2451076 , +91-941-940-0056 , +91-962-292-4716
  • Email: brighterkmr@gmail.com
Owner, Printer, Publisher, Editor: Farooq Ahmad Wani
Legal Advisor: M.J. Hubi
Printed at: Sangermal offset Printing Press Rangreth ( Budgam)
Published from: Gulshanabad Chraresharief Budgam
RNI No.: JKENG/2010/33802
Office No’s: 0194-2451076
Mobile No’s 9419400056, 9622924716 ,7006086442
Postal Regd No: SK/135/2010-2019
POST BOX NO: 1001
Administrative Office: R.C 2 Quarters Press Enclave Near Pratap Park ( Srinagar -190001)

© Copyright 2023 brighterkashmir.com All Rights Reserved. Quantum Technologies

Owner, Printer, Publisher, Editor: Farooq Ahmad Wani
Legal Advisor: M.J. Hubi
Printed at: Abid Enterprizes, Zainkote Srinagar
Published from: Gulshanabad Chraresharief Budgam
RNI No.: JKENG/2010/33802
Office No’s: 0194-2451076, 9622924716 , 9419400056
Postal Regd No: SK/135/2010-2019
Administrative Office: Abi Guzer Srinagar

© Copyright 2018 brighterkashmir.com All Rights Reserved.