NYT > Business Day

Friday, April 3, 2009

Rivers, Lakes, Seas, Water




After a mighty snow storm in Denver, CO...15 inches of snow in 8 hours, i was sitting outside, examining my Toyota Camry (my silent partner in crime)... there is a dent on the rear bumper, caused by a fender-bender from the rear.

It happened in the afternoon while driving alongside Preeth "FNU" KP and Sekar "Chandee" Ramakrishnan. Heavy snow was falling.. I was driving with extra caution... stopped for the extra second at the Big RED STOP sign at the nearby Safeway Store and bang came a sound from the rear!! I got out, took a look at the rear bumper, tried to collect my thoughts, sequencing all the 4-letter words I could use and out came an 18-year old girl, she looked bewildered and shell-shocked.. her car had just skidded on fresh snow..

I could not blame her, no, not for this. We exchanged insurance details and promised to get in touch.... driving back home, I realized it was the weather and the snow, the clouds, the rain, the water..

As I come to think about it further, i feel the blame lies with no one, so to speak. 


Snow, rain and water are what our land badly needs now. The snow in central Colorado feeds 75% of the Colorado river, which covers 7 south-western states and helps 30 million people with water. The water-level in this 1400-mile long river has dwindled to half in the past 8 years!! This winter was one of the driest in the last few years and big snow brought the totals to average numbers. A proponent of rivers, lakes and their conservation, always thought developed nations looked after their invaluable natural resources. 

The state of water depletion has reached unnerving proportions in the developed world. It leaves us to imagine the precarious condition of water bodies in the developing world, such as Ganges in India and Amazon in Brazil. Waterways have been the cornerstone of all major civilizations and need to be preserved using sustainable and coherent human action.
With depletion at this rate, we will soon reach a stage when its effects are irreversible. Will we need to be reminded how precious a resource it is before we can take simple steps? The least we can do it to attach value to water and use it with respect. Every drop saved is every drop conserved. Let's do our bit for our streams, our lakes, our rivers and our water..

1 comment:

vsquare said...

I am sure all those four letter words and more would have come out if it was not a good looking 18 year old female that came out of that other car! You took one look at her and started blaming Nature...I am surprised you didn't end up telling her it was your fault,or wait, did you?