Monday, January 3, 2011

Borrowing from future generations

[Every once in awhile, I get into a despondent mood, and rant. This is one of them.]

A city of twenty million, all the water we use is transported from lakes hundreds of kilometers away. The lucky few get water in their taps, the rest have to buy it from tankers. With water getting scarce, you would think people would converse, but they don't. Rainwater is allowed to drain away, taps leak (including the ones in my house), and fountains are the latest status-symbol.


Taps are running dry, even in cities. We are borrowing water from future generations, with no intention of paying back. When the world runs dry, would we have anyone to blame but ourselves?
_____
drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rayna - Rant away! Some of the narrow-minded, short-sighted things people do just astound me. Where I live, I admit, there is easy access to water. However, I live in wildfire country where water is a precious resource. And yet, with plenty of public swimming pools and the beach just 10km away, so many people have large swimming pools...

Southpaw said...

I use to live in a drought area. I remember one summer they would fine anyone funning there sprinklers. I cringe when I see this kind of waste and most of it is an easy fix - take a wrench and twist.

Anonymous said...

Rant away! In Australia where there is always a water shortage, they use the water from their dishwashers and washing machines to water their gardens.

Danette said...

We live in a world where water shortages are increasingly more common and it is going to be a political issue. In Mozambique they are running away from flooded lands... in other places in Africa there is not enough water to live on and the powerful own the water. Water is not a small issue- it's life or death. Civilizations were once built on the main waterways- today we act as though it's no big deal to waste water. It is.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

The only way for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing - rant away!

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

Even as a youngster the teachers warned us of wasting water. Someday water will be a bigger currency than oil because it is a "must have" to survive.
Rant on!

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Definitely rant-worthy. We have droughts here in the South and the police drive around and ticket people who flaunt their water wasting. Sometimes it's the only way to get through to people...

L. Diane Wolfe said...

That is a waste! I used to live in NM, too, so I understand how precious water can be.

Unknown said...

Water is easy to waste when you have it - it slides down the drain so seemlessly.

kjmckendry said...

Sometimes ranting is the only way to make change. I collect rain water for my indoor plants, but I really need to take shorter showers. Hot water on my face is my morning coffee.

Sue said...

Rant on. Perfectly valid frustration. Somehow we need to raise awareness and make changes. (perhaps oh, I don't know, but band together somehow? guest rants??)

Jemi Fraser said...

Waste drives me batty too. I live in an area with a lot of water but that doesn't make it any better - we've got to learn!

Deb and Barbara said...

I think this subject is very worth a rant! Keep asking the questions.
B
The Middle Ages

Jan Morrison said...

tonight at dinner Ron and I and Felix (our 17 yr.old exchange student) were talking about something - oh climate change or something and I said "Oh by the way, sorry about the world we've left you. Just didn't think. Turn the lights out when you leave." and we all laughed but...

Unknown said...

How scary! I think it's happening here in Mexico as well. Today brown water came from my tap and yet people will wash their sidewalks everyday.
CD

dipali said...

Actual and potential water shortages are terrifying. And yet, there is sheer callousness regarding this precious resource at many levels.

Natasha said...

@ Margot - it is really sad when people waste water. To me, it is as bad as wasting money- worse because money at least enters the money economy.
Can never understand why anyone would want a personal pool.

@ Holly - it is so sad when there is waste of this magnitude of something so precious.

@ Fiona - that is a great idea.

@ Danette - in Bombay, during the rains, water flows into the sea- why can't it be harvested systematically?

@ Alex - so true.

@ Mary - we can find alternatives for oil, but not for water.

@ Elizabeth - if we tried that in India, people would just bribe their way otu of it. That's the biggest tragedy of my country.

@ Karen - how can people who live in dry areas waste water? Beyond me!

@ Diane - water is so precious, but so few seem to want to do anything about it.

@ Elaine - so true. And so sad.

@ kmckendry - collecting rain water for plants is great- wonder how I can do that too.

@ Sue - guest rants- that is a great one. I have a whoel bunch of pet peeves.

@ Jemi - true, when the water table is falling everywhere, we just have to conserve what we do have.

@ Barbara - I will. And we can do guest rants too, can't we?

@ Jan - I keep telling my kids that.

@ Clarissa - such a huge waste.

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