Availability of life-supporting resources in abundance and accessing them virtually effortlessly by people everywhere witness their consumption marked by unchecked profligacy until both these features show signs of scarcity. One resource that qualifies to be at the top of the multitude of such resources and talked about more than acted upon is water, the elixir of life. Air, in a certain sense and to a certain extent keeps august company with water, as the recent happening in the national capital of the country where people had to resort to using canisters of safe-to-breathe air serves as an unmistakable example. Some food articles too are figuring lately in the scenario of their supply not keeping pace with need of people triggering rise in price to unprecedented levels, even causing panic in society. Both pulses and onion have played havoc on the people at large. These can be accessed at exorbitant cost only by those whose pockets are jingling with cash, but they too have to join the cash-starved sections when water sources play truant, particularly in the months between two monsoons.
The imperatives of scaling down the quantity in use of water for different purposes have already loomed large, calling for action by every citizen, both individually and collectively. While encroaching land areas of water bodies is not showing signs of abating, other avenues of adopting the habit of frugal use of water needs only a change in mindset. That change is long overdue.
