Wake up or face draught in near future

22 April is celebrated as Earth Day every year and as you will see everyone including Google doing a lot of talking to remind you constantly about the importance of the day. But what is so important in this particular day or what we have done to preserve earth from environmental degradation! I know most of us have no answer.

Environment is the front page news but for all the wrong reasons. There is nothing new the newspapers often carry headline news for last few years. Why, I read news only recently that water is being transported to different areas by special trains.  I read the other day only that water is under protection of armed guards.

Political parties are taking full advantage of this situation by targeting ruling parties but the fact is every political party is culprit of ignoring the issue. They have done precious little to save the water or educate the masses. They have not done anything for conservation of water. The result, the water which was available at 20-30 fit has gone down as low as 100-250 ft from ground level.

In some place the water level has gone down as low as 1000 ft below the ground level.  I remember the time when water was easily available at 30 ft in Bangalore but recently they tried to dig a bore-well in expecting water at 800 ft but they dug up to 1000 ft deep yet failed. And Bangalore is among the first cities of India with rain-water harvesting rule in place.

The problem has taken an ugly form as the official reports say that more than 25% people are living in the areas facing acute shortage of water. That means over 300 million people are suffering from draught like situation and this is only the beginning of summer. The environmental problems are undoubtedly the side-effects of over industrialization but our planners have missed the conservation part of water so very badly.

Image source https://pixabay.com/en/desert-dirt-dry-cracked-mud-terry-1803878/