“Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”
The above poem still
lingers in my mind which my English tutor quoted for the very first time during
our visit to Mukkambu dam in the year 1995 on the eve of Swami Vivekanda’s
Centenary celebration at Tapovanam in Thiruparaiturai. She didn’t owe much definition
to it rather the same was quoted to inform us that she was a literature freak. I
got this thought as we weren’t in the midst of ocean water all around unlike
Samule Taylor Coleridge, the ancient Mariner. But now I find a great
significance attached to it.
I recollect reading in
magazines that Greenhouse effect would increase the earth’s temperature resulting
in melting of glaciers, which literally means ice would melt and instead of
providing drinking water, the rivers would flood and cause mammoth damage to
life and property. True indeed because not a year has gone past since the
Uttranchal flash flood. If this is the
condition of North and North East India, in South India it is precariously worse,
as we are running out of water in any form. The prevailing condition in my home
state Tamil Nadu stands a tall example as the water desalination project in
state capital which got to limelight half a decade ago is finding hard to ground
its foot. I find no reasons why my place of birth, the Blue Mountains, the most
sought out summer destination is reeling under water scarcity.
What happen to
the springs? How the drinking water problem got aggravated all of a sudden. The
situation in the most favoured shooting spots of 80s and 90s, Pollachi is
increasingly dangerous as the panchayat water supplies water only once in a
fortnight and that too for two hours but the city is lucky unlike The Nilgiris,
where it is for an hour every one month, can we imagine? The ground water level
is too low and my own personal experience of digging a 300 feet borewell
yielded no water. But as I had constructed a dwelling I had the privilege to
cover my bore well unlike many uncovered bore wells nearby. This is a serious
topic which we shall discuss sometime later.
Coming to the water
situation in delta districts of the state, we have got used to see the dry
Cauvery all around. The situation seems no different with Vaigai in Madurai ,Thamiraparani
in Tirunelveli, Bhavani in Erode and Aliyar in Pollachi. Everywhere it is said
that the storage would last only for a week. I myself see the nearby village homemakers
walk for 2-3 kms daily to fetch potable water.
What is happening to the
sub-continent? Will we die of thirst? Are we going to leave back our dependants
with no water around? I am scared!! I am scared!!!
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