Not AvailableWater, a unique resource on the planet earth, is essential for sustaining all forms of life, food production, economic development, and for general well being of the life on the planet. The importance of water could be gauged from the fact that while looking for life on other planets, presence of water is first examined as an indicator of the presence of life on the planet. Although our earth is called the ‘Blue Planet’ as 70% of the earth is covered by water, yet only 2.5% of the world’s water is fresh, while 97.5% is saline being oceans. Of this small percentage of freshwater, only 0.3% is available in rivers, lakes and reservoirs, 30% is ground water, while the rest is stored in distant glaciers, ice sheets, mountainous areas and places that we can hardly access. Civilizations have been developed along the rivers. Yet, it would not be an exaggeration of the fact that civilizations doomed not because the water was not available but because the water was misused resulting in unsustainable use of the resource. Current example is the Aral Sea Basin, where large-scale mismanagement of water has played havoc on agriculture, environment and the life.
Water has always been scarce and people by habit have been mismanaging the resource resulting in wastage and severe pollution of the water bodies. If it had not been so then - Rahim ji would not have said "Rahiman pani rakhiye, bin Pani sab soon, Pani gaye na ubre, moti, manush chun". Lord Krishna as revealed through the Episode on 'Kaliya Mardan' tried to sensitize the people on pollution of surface water bodies. Our elders, even today, ask their children to throw some coins in the river/water resource as a copper coin would help to purify the water as well as sensitize the child towards upkeep of the precious resource. The practice has become a mere ritual today because people throw any coin that is available in their pockets and not a copper coin, which is a water purifying metal.Not Availabl
