"WHEN WATER TAKES A “BREAK”

“The day, WATER, sun, moon, night -- I do not have to purchase these things with money.”…these words by the Roman comic poet Platus would have only been a “read and laugh” line when he had written it. But its high time that we start to think about these words twice?? All of Nature’s resources were like taken for granted from time known. Man has been using it… or rather misusing it to some extent, without knowing how priceless these are.. its only when he faces a shortage that he realizes how important these resources are..

Our city faced an acute water shortage like never before, last week .The reason for it is what surprised me.. there was a leakage in the main pipeline from Aruvikara which provides water to the whole city.. well.. most of it. It had been weeks since it started, and the authorities were ignorant as usual.. At last it was brought to their notice.. and the hunt for the leak spot started.. it continued for almost 3 days. .but they failed to detect it.. the reason being that this was one of the oldest pipelines in the city and with time, tons and tons of soil had deposited over it.. over two storeys of hard soil.. Unearthing it was no simple task.. the leak didn’t show up for 3 days.. The wastage of water seemed to dawn upon the “authorities” all of a sudden.. and they STOPPED PUMPING ..Which meant simply NO WATER FOR THE CITY.. it happened so suddenly that night.. without any prior notice.. that no buckets in the city would have been kept filled.. The next day morning of not many would have been “good” ..you wouldn’t want pipes to growl and blow air at you when you are looking for water for something “urgent”.. would you??The next 3 days saw the “city”zens going crazy for water..
For some, it was a “climb up look down process”.. the overhead storage tanks now constantly got some attention.. and for some others it was a “look down pull up process”.. the pulleys at wells were now working overtime.. this continued for 2 days.. water level was going down. .and people were getting anxious.. they were unsure what to do next.. many even predicted the seemingly impossible, yet inevitable ..”Purchasing water for money”.. Nowadays this phrase is not something strange.. all of us are used to the packaged drinking water culture.. but for an average urban family, that too in Gods own country where water scarcity is scarce ,buying water for daily use was something which could never be foreseen. .
The situation would have slowly gone out of hand and most of the 4 member families would have started turning into a KRA CC 4.. thanks to the effort of the government to provide free drinking water to its people.. the water tankers were going in all directions looking for colorful buckets and eager faces.. I was one of those.. waiting by the side of the road .. standing anxiously in the queue.. and getting “social”. … it was worth an experience..I realized that water could raise the question of survival..and in the process I saw that Darwin’s “Survival of the fittest “ was no joke.. except some who were helping out everyone so that all get an equal share of what was left in those tankers, most of them were trying to fill as many buckets as possible..But no one can blame them..it was a question of survival..Once their quota was received ,they too joined the “help” group..Its true that Tough times bring people together...To be frank, I saw and met many of my neighbors for the first time that day.. Man is a social animal.. thats true.. but his social circle of interest is becoming smaller day by day.. unless of course at these tough times ..

All the colorful buckets were filled and all dull faces lightened up.. at least most of them..and the huge tanker “angels” returned to heaven..and to the relief of all,the leak had been detected by the authorities …it all happened in a day..
The first news that came from the radios which sprang into life the next day early morning was that pumping will restart by that day afternoon...It seemed that sun made a projectile from east to west slower that day.. and it sure saw the whole city celebrating from over the top ..rejoiced seeing water making a rush from their taps..ok ok..”coming like a thread”…whatever..Reports say, that the leakage was due to cracks in the pipeline which was in turn due to weight of the soil crushing it from above..whatever be the reason..it made the people aware of how important water was..that is, I think more important..they had their lesson..atleast hope so..but time will make man forget things..and next time it will be nature itself who will take the toll….so better BEWARE…..