(Have I been reading too many classics lately?)
Perhaps.
Anyway, possibly one of my biggest pet peeves is the waste of water. It can take many forms: a leaky tap with no bucket under it, or wanton overflow from an overhead tank.
The inspiration for this rant comes from a water tank located in Goa. My parents are staying in a house that is a part of a large society. Luckily the tenants of the houses have their own water tanks, so when the water decides to do a disappearing act, we still have the tank supply to bear us out.
(I am still unclear as to whether the supply runs out because the municipality turns off the supply, or the fiendish individuals who are in charge in the society.)
(I can't believe I actually used 'fiendish' in a blog post. I am so full of it, aren't I?)
There is a block of flats bang opposite the house, and daily there is an overflow from the water tank. Water cascades from the top of the building, only to come crashing down uselessly onto the paved surface. There isn't even the saving grace of a plant bed or a few trees to absorb the precious fluid.
Before my comments are bombarded with admonishments to get off my ass and do something about it, let me tell you, we have tried.
Firstly, my mother has raked the fiendish individual mentioned before, fore and aft. All that is required is a replacement to the valves, and the water will fill the tanks without spilling a drop. (Ok, that maybe an exaggeration.) The guy, delighting in the name Anwar, refuses to do anything about it. He even had the gall to tell my mother to cease watering the garden because of a water crunch.
Sometimes, I don't really appreciate my mother's aggressive streak, but I am so pleased that she wiped the floor with this particular specimen. He slunk away, tail between his legs, the weaselly man that he is. Subsequently, he deals with just my father, and steers clear of the militant female members of the house.
And the second thing is that there is no one to complain to - we tried the security guards. Their vapid responses echoed each other, "How will we know when the tank is filled, if there is no overflow?"
Huh?!?!
(My loquaciousness failed me when I heard that for the first time.)
All we do now, is watch in helpless fury as the water continues to cascade every single day. I am open to suggestions, as to how to right this atrocity so don't hold back.
(I've even considered putting a tub of some sort to catch the water, but falling from such a height, I doubt the tub would be able to withstand the force.)
I hate it when water is wasted. HATE IT. It generates feelings of boiling rage, especially since I know how important water is for day to day survival.
Back in I2IT, I have lived for a month, along with my fellow hostelmates, with water in taps for a mere hour every morning. We had to brush our teeth, have baths, use the bathrooms, and wash clothes in a matter of an hour. We kept buckets filled in the bathrooms for the other times of the day that we would need to wash our hands or use the toilets. So best to finish off as much as humanly feasible during that one hour. I was lucky enough to have only one roommate. Imagine the poor sods who had two or three others. (The rooms were huge, so that wasn't a hardship.)
Living without clean water for one day is incomprehensible. Those who don't value this precious resource should try it.
Yes, I really care that much.
