Done with Corona, what next?

Our unborn progeny is crying hoax to warn us from the impending dangers threatening their very existence if we continue to usurp their water resources.

We are already staring at dark times for having tried to play God, should we survive the economic disaster after this pandemic, we must redistribute our energy towards rebuilding our harmonious co-existence with mother Nature.

Efficient conservation of natural resources has often been advocated, but, has vehemently been ignored as well. Despite the fact that we all know that due to paucity of water resources, the human race had perished in several parts of the world during different centuries, we still continue to ignore the warning signs that portray a bleak future for our current youth.

While, some of us will be proud of the material wealth we have amassed and will potentially bequeath to our children, however, we shall still turn in our graves considering how poorly we managed our generation managed the available natural resources.

Only half a century after my birth, I yearn to breathe that fresh air in those extensive & pristine meadows with their free flowing streams of clear water. We grew up in an open landscape and had the freedom to pick and eat fruits sometimes right from the trees and often drink water from any of the flowing rivers without an iota of doubt.

If you were wondering, if the present pandemic was from a purely natural phenomenon, that is a small pathogen has somehow invaded into a new domain by an accident that could occur maybe once in a 1000 year, how come the human race survived, when we never had such an elaborate medical infrastructure, just ponder, what have we done to our lifestyle.

Today, within the confines of the strangulated air, we have not only imprisoned our children in glass cages, but have also robbed them of their immunity to fight some of the commonly found pathogens.

Even after connecting the dots, we often overlook an important connection between our diminishing immunity and the quality of water available to our generation. While most of the water bodies in India have been usurped under the guise of development, the remaining are reduced to a mere conveyance or custodians of the deadly cocktail of pathogens we discharge daily into our gutters with a great sense of impunity.

Hidden away from our sight the contaminant is our water cycle have not only crept deep into our environment but also into the microcosm; if Darwin was darn right, the earliest occupants of this planet, the so called pathogens, are fighting their fight back for their own survival.

If enhanced resilience to bacteria and the evolution of these new strains of viruses are any indication, the virility of the invisible enemy is something dread more than the deadliest of the nuclear arsenal. Having seen the strongest of the superpowers cow down in sheer abjection in wake of this pandemic, a wake call is in order of the day and a sense sobriety a natural conclusion.

Having lived in a country blessed with natural resources and a bountiful shower ever monsoon season, we have witnessed the nature heal itself automatically and the heat devastated landscape revive to its green glory year after year, no wonder, our traditional wisdom emanated from the principal of peaceful co-existence with all sorts of micro organisms and animals in form of an ecological harmony.

While the debate on vegan living will drive our discussion into another domain, restrain from consumption of certain animal or even plant products has been advocated not without a reason in different scriptures, religion or communities. In wake of globalisation, we have often ignored the regional influences on our lifestyle, food and health.

Our body is essentially made up of pure water is known to almost all of us, whether we went to school or not, because most of the water purification appliance manufacturers have spared no effort to drive this point home. The more we heard about the perils lurking out of pathogens in our drinking water, we dug our heads deeper in sand and like an ostrich caught in middle of a storm, we are left almost defenceless today!

Going back to the main subject, the rain brings an unparalleled opportunity to resurrect our environment without any of the great costs. The key to a healthier ecosystem stems from the ground devoid of the effluents and fed with cleaner water, the shower from the sky is only able to a part of this job, the rest of the rejuvenation of our ecosystem must come from our own initiatives.

The good thing about the nature is that the water, by itself, hasn’t ever changed its character over several centuries of its evolution on this planet, as it can be polluted but not altered chemically under any influence.

The life of the pure rain drop, however, can be a couple of minutes or an eternity, all depending on the ground where falls and or the quality of the submergence it gets into while traversing the land, rivers or the seas.

True, that every year the rains bring back the purer quality water back in our hands devoid all the pollutants we had assimilated earlier in the cycle, it is distressing that at the end of process, we have been transporting a lot of toxins into our food cycle and thus no wonder we have a diminished potential to fight the diseases now.

Having known that rains are becoming infrequent and even lesser in volume, we have woefully done almost nothing to prevent this change, what is more appalling that we have still not learnt to appreciate the real value this pure elixir from the skies brings to our lives. Year after year, when our storm-water drains overflow and clog the roads, we are also culpable of having impregnated sewage and industrial toxins into our ecosystems.

If you have ever seen any water logged road, a clogged drain, polluted pond, stinking river or a sea vomiting plastic, you are a part of the crime scene and thus you must plead guilty of having usurped the opportunity to be born from a generation succeeding your own grandchildren.

If you believe that this prophecy of an apocalypse is too preposterous, take a short break and go down the memory lanes, relieve your childhood days and compare it with all the mess we are going to leave behind for our progeny.

If you aren’t moved even now, do nothing, feel no guilt, don’t bother to read further, however, if you do feel that something needs to be done, just join the company, pickup the spade, dig a hole, trench or a swale and make way for the water to go back to the trove where it can still feel safe and be available for another couple of generations not only for us.

I know, if you can read this on your computer, you had invested in an efficient water purifier machine already, think again, if all of the humanity turns to membrane filtration technologies what happens to the salinity we are bound to increase in our wastewater systems and will you still like to play with the immunity loss we are bound have drinking demineralised RO water all the time?