Feature

Learning from the sound of water…

Sharmin Ahmed

IT happened in the semester that I took Ecology as a course. A course that brings all kinds of bad news of climate change, depleting natural resources' and human vice. I remember our lecturer telling us with a sarcastic smile drawn across his face; that we should try to do the least we can to 'conserve', especially about not letting the 'taps run wild'.

It was that semester when the water pump in our house gave way and we had to go twelve days without water supply. Those were difficult days; when being the only one with the big problem made it harder to bear.

Coming back from classes and having to fetch water from the reservoir which was opened only once a day for an hour was the worst part of the ordeals. Buckets had to be filled and carried four stories up and that too until there was enough water to suffice until 8:00 pm the next day. Having a family of seven members did not make it things any easier.

At night when tossing and turning with the back-ache that was stronger than my weariness, the sound of overflowing water from the tanks on the roof of an ignorant neighbor would wreck havoc with my nerves. But it is not their fault our pump gave out on us right? Isn't it what the big polluters say when the impact of their CO2 emissions results in holes in our ozone layers and poisonous clouds and smog that have travelled over half a world away to clog our lungs? It's not their skies. Besides they are more efficient, after all the big polluters are also the big producers…my neighbor's pump is more efficient; it overflows the tank with water that surpasses the roof top and onto the streets. The streets filled with blocked drains containing all the rubbish in the water. Wasn't there a poem; 'water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink'…

Who exactly wrote it? Maybe that is how the nights were passed, trying to find the creator of that rhyme, well so did the semester and then came another course called 'Development Studies' which taught; 'developing countries follow policies that are crisis-driven'… nowadays my ears prick up at the sound of flowing water. No matter what I am doing, I will always catch a tap running wild.

At times I contemplate, sleepless some nights due to the sound of the same ignorant neighbors' over flowing water tank. Hoping someday his pump will bail out on him and he will eventually learn to manage his water resources driven by the knowledge that nothing lasts forever.

Is it ironic really? Or is it just life's lessons; like 'tiny drops of dew makes an ocean', a singular problem makes a world calamity. Because one day the big producers would also find the bigger holes over their skies and it would be too late to act.

We could do better, looking at the greater picture first, by scrutinizing the tiny details we could have better conscience, be more considerate, not sarcastic. Then maybe 'World peace' would not be dismissed as a bad joke, cooked up at the grand finale of a beauty pageant.

(Student of the Department of Economics, East West University)