Water in our culture

Marking safe source of water

People sometimes use phrases like "water drags downward" and "water takes shape of the container it is kept in". They try to mean by the former one that the people with low profiles get punishment while those with high profiles remain untouched by committing the same offences, and by the latter phrase, people sometimes want to mean that the children learn whatever they see in their surroundings. These statements may be either true or controversial, but they exist in our day-to-day culture.

As we live in a delta, we estimate that Bangladesh has abundant underground and surface water reserve. This is also true that the Bangladesh has the second largest fresh water reserve, larger than Canada does. But it is the irony of fate that Bangladesh suffers the shortage of fresh water during winter while Canada experiences no shortage of fresh water. As the supply is abundant, sometimes people compare this abundance with extravagant habit. They sometimes comment that the person is spending or squandering money like water. The way water is being polluted, will it be possible to be proud of spending rather wasting our fresh water reserve, as we say?

It is our social culture to entertain guests at home with snacks along with a lot of water and provide glassful of water even before meals are served in the restaurants. So far experiences go, at least 50 per cent of total water so supplied gets wasted as it is not served in response to the guests' or customers' requirement. The reason is that water is free in our country. Wasting water is also a part of our culture. Therefore, would it be wrong if guests or customers are asked about the amount of water to be served? In the European countries, water is served on demand and its price is not less than that of Coca-Cola.

Even today, people tend to say that goods are being sold in the price of water as if water is much cheaper than anything. Is this statement true now-a-days? The price of a litre of water is almost the same as that of a litre of diesel. The phrase "more water more crops" has been changed to a rather judicial phrase "more crops per drop". Here water is rather being addressed as a scarce resource.

Sometimes amateur singers address themselves as bathroom singers. We usually start singing in bathroom when water starts pouring on our head through the showers without bothering for the scale and rhythm of song but feeling good. The feeling is nothing but the comfort of having bath with abundant supply of fresh water. In most cases, songs get stuck if the supply runs short or the water contains either iron or bad odour. Can we say that we have enough good water?

Similar situation prevails when we start shaving in the morning. We usually do not turn off water taps until we complete our shaving. Can we imagine how much water is wasted everyday? There are many reasons that we have to be afraid of wasting water while kitchen associates start washing cookeries. Do they follow "stop and start" of taps while washing? What happens while flushing toilets? We usually flush toilets with as much as 10 litres of fresh water (provision is kept in most cases as such) irrespective of requirement. Sometimes, stickers on walls warn users to pour sufficient water in commodes and urinals. WASA bills the same amount for the water used and flushed. Of course, they might have rationales. But even then the impression is that water is cheap and abundant for use. Consciousness of judicious or careful use of water is absent everywhere. In the developed countries, water for toilet flushing, water for washing and cleaning, and water for drinking are of different permissible graded qualities considering it a scarce resource. Do we use water considering it a scarce resource? Do we use water judiciously at home?

Water in many religions have been emphasised as a symbol of sanctity and holiness but not emphasised as a scarce resource. Water cleans body and by extension purifies it, and these two qualities confer a high symbolic even sacred status to water (GWP publication: Water and Religion). Water entails holiness to shopkeepers first opening their shops. They sprinkle water on the cash-box and the premises considering it a thing of weal. Farmers pray for water for their crops and there are many rituals to draw the attention of Almighty for being kind enough to pour water down on the earth. Farmers apprehend drought, as an imprecation of the Almighty to human beings for doing bad things in this temporal world. There are even beliefs that water with some whiffs through uttering of some religious or esoteric words by exorcists can be good cure for diseases. Water is, therefore, treated as a key element of purity and salvation in our religious cultures and rituals.

In Buddhism, water is indispensable in funerals. It is poured overflowing into a bowl placed before the monks and the dead body. In Christianity, water is intrinsically linked to baptism. When baptized, one is fully or partially immersed in water, or at least sprinkled with drops of water. Water symbolises purification, the rejection of original sin. In the New Testament, "the living water" or "water for life" represents the spirit of God, that is, eternal life. In Hinduism, water is imbued with powers of spiritual purification for morning cleaning with water is an everyday obligation. All temples are located near a water source and followers must bathe before entering the temple. The conjunction of two or three rivers is often believed particularly sacred. Funeral rites are always held near rivers. The ashes of the deceased collected three days after cremation are thrown into the flowing water of river for salvation. Every year, hundreds and thousands of devotees get bathed in the river Ganges and Brahmaputra with the belief of dispelling of moral lapses accumulated over the past year. Here the priority is sacredness of water.

In Islam, water serves all for purification. They follow three sorts of ablutions. The most important one involves purifying the whole body with water following due Islamic rules of sanctification before touching the holy Quran and entering into the mosque. Before each of the five prayers, the Muslims must wash their foreheads, hands, forearms and feet. All mosques are provided with water for this ablution. In Judaism, the Jews use water for ritual cleaning to restore or maintain a state of purity. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, presents the story of Creation and of the great flood. To punish humans for their disobedience, God sent a torrential rain down upon the Earth that caused flood. The flood washed away the sins of the world so that it could be reborn, free from impurity. Shinto is Japan's indigenous religion based on the veneration of the Kami, innumerable deities believed to inhabit nature. Worship of the Kami must always begin by a ritual of purification with water. This act restores order and balance between nature, humans and deities. Waterfalls are considered sacred in Shinto. In Zoroastrianism, founded by Zorathushtra, purity and pollution are central to belief: pollution is considered evil, and clean water sacred. It is forbidden to spit, urinate and wash one's hands in rivers, for fear of blemishing the sacredness of water.

Different literatures reveal that only 0.35 per cent of total water in the universe is fresh and that can be extracted for use by humankind. But still the exploration technology is inadequate to extract all of 0.35 per cent fresh water for human use. The human beings have admired water as sacred but not warned for its judicious use and abstaining from polluting it. Nor in our daily use of water, do we give strong attention to save fresh water. Water is still thought as abundant and therefore, nobody cares. But to avoid any future conflict over limited fresh water sources, each of us in all spheres of our life and livelihood ought to be very careful about conserving our fresh water.

Santosh C Sarker, a water professional, is working with PROSHIKA as Deputy Director, Programmes.