Water not just a way of life, it's a religion, says NCA member at Environment Fest

Expressing concerns over the world heading towards a major water crisis, a member of Narmada Control Authority said development and environment must be integrated to avoid water wars. Afroz Ahmad made the statement while speaking at the inaugural function of the second edition of India Environment Festival (IEF) 2018. According to him, the need of the hour is development but it must go hand-in-hand with environment to make it sustainable.

"Water is not just a way of life, it is dharma (religion)," Ahmad said while speaking about the importance of water. "While environment is in the concurrent list of the Government of India, water is a state subject. Is water not an important component of environment? I have submitted many policy papers to the government seeking inclusion of water in their concurrent so that people's approach towards water changes.

"Ages ago, people lived in beautiful harmonious landscapes, however, in present times, this has changed. The country is divided into 20 river basins and 35% of people live in these spaces. Fifty percent of ground water has been confined to the basins of Ganga and Brahmaputra and the rest of the ground water has been kept in reserves. There are many countries which are suffering from environmental issues as they have exploited ground water. In the 1950's, 16,000 cubic metre water per capita per annum was available across the world, and today, it has come down to 5,000 cubic metre per capita per annum. In the next ten years, it will further drop to 1,000 cubic metre per capita per annum."

Speaking about water conflicts prevailing in other countries, Ahmad said, "Syria and Iraq are against Turkey on water conflict. Israel has put up censors in their rivers because they do not want to give water to Jordan. Water is also a matter of conflict between East and West Thailand. There are five such conflicts going on in the world right now.

"There is a need to develop ecological philosophy called ecosophy. Ecology and economics need to marry each other. Villages used to have lakes that would store water and balance ground water, but urbanisation has destroyed them all. We need to revive them."

The inaugural session was also attended by Mahesh Singh, Chief Conservator of Forest Gujarat Forest Department, HP Uniyal, Advisor, State Planning Commission, Uttarakhand, Dr Sara Ahmed, Lead Curator, Living Waters Museum, Abid Surti, Founder of Drop Dead Foundation and Actor Rajshri Deshpande.