Guilty of water wasting

Our affection for wastage is so high that if we were ashamed of our personal arrogance in dripping it away, it would, as an awakening, be well deserved. But, we will not wake up. We will continue to pretend that it is not our problem, that the Water and Electricity departments will cover for us for that’s their job. Right? Wrong. Most of us living in the UAE are probably not aware of this but in January of last year several initiatives were taken to combat water wastage in the Emirates but, then of course, that does not concern us. After all, if we want to wash our car with a hose  and not risk hurting our backs using a bucket and a mop how is it your business…we pay our bills, don’t we? What’s 200 litres loss, a mere drop in the ocean, do you know what my salary is, do you know who I am? Prince or pauper, wasting water is a crime. By the same token so what if we keep the tap running on full when we brush our teeth or shave, what’s it to you? And if my wife wants to have a twenty minute shower or soak in the tub, get off my case, it’s not as if I was asking you to share the cost. How many of us save 20 per cent of a flush by placing a bottle in the tank despite a whole campaign on the concept. So what exactly is the result? Millions of litres of precious water going literally down the drain. Only because we have not matured in our civic sense or ever realized how much effort and expense goes into getting us potable water in a world where 40 per cent of the global population does not have access to safe water. Even fewer of us are freighted with any sense of responsibility when it comes to conservation despite an avalanche of advice designed to underscore our flirtation with danger. And danger it is, for the world is drying up and potable water is now dramatically in short supply. The irony is that we could save 30 per cent of our daily intake of water or as much as 400 billion litres of water in the UAE alone, which is enough water to launch an aircraft carrier or fill as many as 150,000 Olympic sized pools. Go figure that one out. “But we do not do it. By some fracture of our sense of logic and the equation between waste and self-esteem, we have this psychological barrier that saving habits are not for us. We use up gallons of fresh water keeping our gardens green but won’t invest a small percentage of that in boring a well. The grand irony is that if you, as an individual, could change three daily habits with regard to how you use water you could save 1000 litres a month and imagine a family of five doing that and saving 5000 litres and then the building’s residents, then the neighbourhood, then the emirate, in ever increasing circles of common sense making a liquid asset in more ways than one. There is no argument that we all understand the problem and much of the commentary is stating the obvious. The hard part is coming to terms with our indifference and the misplaced pride inherent in the fact that we can afford to waste. “On the contrary, it is up to the more privileged section of society to set the standard and one of the simple ways in which they can make a significant contribution.”