Tackling the Water Crisis in Nepal

Aarna Wadhawan-Kathmandu : Water Crisis is a pressing concern for many countries in the world and it is very easily seen that Nepal stands quite high in the effects of this crisis. The people of the region are having severe shortage of drinking water. Because of the growing population and shortage of clean water bodies, performing basic every-day activities too is becoming a problem in their day to day life.

The problem seen at this point is that even though Nepal, being a water-abundant state, has no lack of water, however, over the years, the water has been contaminated to such an extent that it is no longer fit for human use, hence creating nation-wide water shortages. That is why, the people start using contaminated water for use.

Seeing this, a young environmentalist, Aarna Wadhawan, decided that she wanted to make some attempt to make the people aware about what kind of water they should consume and to find simple ways to consume clean water.She has already planted 7000 trees in various states of India and across the world with her Environmentalist Army.

With the volunteers of the Human Harmony NGO in Nepal, she attempted to create water literacy in the nation. Alongside she also made people aware about what harms they are creating to their own sources of water. She says that it is only when people become aware of what they are facing in their surroundings would they be able to act upon them properly.

An estimated 44,000 children die every year in Nepal from waterborne diseases. Nepal is observing rapid urbanisation and various infrastructure development projects. As a result, there has been increasing water pollution in an enormous rate inside Kathmandu Valley and other areas of the country. The tap water and river water in Nepal is unsafe to drink. Nepal has plenty of water from annual monsoon rains and rivers fed by melting glaciers in the Himalayas. Yet every year, the capital, Kathmandu, suffers from an increasingly acute water shortage.

To look through the problems here is what Aarna believes should be done.” We can not reverse the damages already made, but we can prevent those that are to come. It is shameful that we as humans look at a problem and side-line it as immediately as possible after seeing a video or two on social media. What is to be done about the problem is apparently only the authorities’s problem.”

“The need to give the people water literacy is that they should know that an environmental crisis waits ahead of them; something so big that even human resources cannot save them anymore. Nepal, the land of 6,000 rivers, is facing a water crisis that has residents queueing for hours to buy water. And even then, it’s not always safe to drink.

People use muddy and contaminated water to cook, clean, bathe and at times, even drink.”As a young environmentalist, she is deeply horrified by the passiveness of the people. The people who will bear the consequences. She hopes that at least some, as responsible citizens can take simple and responsible actions to do something to protect their own world which might not even exist for their future.