I am an MSW student who has travelled across a few places for rural field work. I remember visiting a tribal rural village situated on top of a mountain for food security act campaigning. The climate was dry and unbearably hot with temperature more than 45 degrees. There was something distinguishing that happened at this place. We weren’t offered some water to drink. This may not sound strange for you. Well, this was strange for me because I had always received so much hospitality from every village that I have visited.They explained that they couldn’t afford to give us water because they themselves were deprived of it. They had to walk long distances, stand in big queues to fetch water which was available for only an hour or so. Water was scarce and so they couldn’t carry enough to meet their needs. They managed cooking, cleaning, washing and everything else with bare minimum water. They didn’t have enough water for consumption during the hottest summer. Their issues were so many. I listened to them. I felt helpless because I had no solution to offer.
I remember an instance when I had to lift a bucket of water when motor wasn’t working for a day. I felt so freaked when I had to lift it and walk just a few steps. I fell hard on ground and hurt my back as I wasn’t habituated to do even this much. So it makes me wonder how little children lift big pots of water and walk so many kilometres?
Atleast one thing that you and I could do is to stop water getting wasted atleast when it happens in front of our eyes at our homes or anywhere else. A little change in our attitudes and actions can make a difference!