SAVE WATER! SAVE THE WORLD! - General conversation

John : Now, I’d like to invite our District Collector to preside over the meeting. (The gathering cheered. After the invocation to Goddess Tamil and the address of welcome, Malick was invited to speak first.)

Malick : Respected President, dear friends, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to speak on the prevalence of water. Water is everywhere.

A lady from the crowd : But it is not in our street tap. (The whole crowd plunged into laughter.)

Malick : Water is the life-line of Mother Earth. It is the most common thing on earth. It covers 70 percent of the earth’s surface. About 97 percent of water is in the oceans. But it is salty and cannot be used for drinking and farming. Only about 3 percent of water is fresh. But most of it -about 70% of the fresh water - is frozen in glaciers and ice-caps.  About half a percent of fresh water is in .... (he pauses) Will any one of you tell me where it is?

A boy in the front row : It is confined to the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam. (Again the crowd enjoyed the boy’s wit.)

A girl in school uniform : It is under the ground, as ground water.

Malick : That’s correct. All living things - plants, flowers, trees, animals and humans - have water in themselves. Our human body has about two - thirds of water. There is three - fourths of water in a chicken and four - fifths in a pineapple. The human body requires about 3 litres of water a day. We can live without food for a month. But we cannot live
without water for more than 5 to 6 days.

An old lady : In that case, we people at the Varuna street are almost half dead. We are without water for the past three days! (Meanwhile Arumugam has started addressing the gathering.)

Arumugam : ...........Why is water scarce nowadays? This is because our need for water is becoming greater and greater. The population increases every year. Water is used in large quantities in our homes, fields and factories. Trees are being cut mercilessly.
Rainfall has become scanty. Ground water has drained too much. All our open wells and bore wells have become dry. Mother Earth looks sad and dry. She loses her dear ones like the palmyra, banyan, neem and tamarind and the ever smiling daisy, lotus and lily. We have to stop cutting down trees, avoid wastage of water and save rain water. Let us save
water, especially rain water in a bank, at our door steps - under the earth as ground water. Ground water is our Water Bank. (The audience were clapping their hands, when the district collector came up to the microphone.)

The District Collector : Ladies and gentlemen! Rain water is the only water resource for us. We should have water bank at our doorsteps. Rainwater harvesting is the only means that will serve the purpose, at this hour of great need. Thanks to our Government’s efforts, rainwater harvesting has become the ‘people’s movement’.
Every house is to have a structure for storing rainwater before the 31st of August 2003. Rainwater harvesting is nothing but storing rainwater in a sump or well or flowing it into the earth and saving it as ground water. Will you all save every drop of rain water?

The people : We will................ Now, Nature was lustily cheering her sons and daughters with rain, when the National Anthem was being sung.