Whenever we count essential things for our living, we never forget to add water in that list. It’s one of the most basic things that we require and we can’t live without it. Potable water and water for sanitation are recognized as one of the most basic human rights and there are certain laws about it too like – no hotel or restaurant can refuse to provide water according to India Sarais Act, 1867.

The country that uses most amount of water is China (362 trillion gallons) followed by USA (216 trillion gallons), Brazil (95 trillion gallons), Russia (71 trillion gallons), Mexico (53 trillion gallons) and then comes India (30 trillion gallons). This huge amount of water is used in industries like tanning, clothing, food, manufacturing, servicing, for washing, cooling, testing; in quarrying and mining; in primary sector like agriculture, horticulture, maricultural, fishing etc. And most importantly it used for drinking.

The most prominent use of water, after industries that uses twice the amount, is in the field of agriculture. With urbanization and population increase, there was a huge demand of water throughout the world, specifically speaking, of potable water. But quantity of water on earth is same, so various water treatment plants were setup for the purpose of drinking as well as for discharging too. And this improved the conditions of various places along with import/export facility.

Countries like Kuwait, Malta, Netherlands, Bahrain and Belgium are dependent on water imports as they don’t have any source, and if they have a source, water production is not up to the mark. More than 80% of water is imported only. The water footprint per capita is highest in countries like United States, Greece, Malaysia, Italy and Thailand.

Freshwater source for every country is different. Poor countries like Uganda mostly rely on river and other water bodies; developing countries like India get their water from almost all the type of sources like river, pond, groundwater, through municipality and other ways; developed countries like USA, UK, etc either buy water in packages or they get from regional office after registration. Then comes the last list of countries like Kuwait and other Middle Eastern countries that imports their water.

But there are still some countries which don’t even have the access to basic amount of water even. These countries are Western Sahara, Somalia, Uganda, Eritrea, etc. Major reasons are poverty, lack of access, no import, lack of resources and lack of technology like osmosis/reverse osmosis.

So what lesson we could learn from this, so that every human being on this earth can get water living throughout the world. We must take pledge and bear in mind that water shouldn’t be wasted. We ought to protect it like we protect our gems. Its worth is even more than a gem. Either we can save it for the future or we can bring new technology to convert all the waste water and oceanic water into distilled water. Sustainable practices and cautious use of water can guarantee this.

Save Water, Save Earth!