WATER IS LIFE Water is the one thing the world cannot survive without, without water it is impossible that a planet be inhabited, for example 70% the planet earth is covered in water thus it is thriving with living creatures, whereas mars the closest planet to earth; mars is a dead planet, it has no plants, no animals, all because of the absence of the life giving force that is water.
Wherever we have water we find life, even the smallest of ponds can support life, grass will grow around it animals no matter what their size will be attracted to it because of the food supply that will be there, for smaller animals plants and for the larger ones small animals ! As proof that water indeed is a great life giving force we can see that the first ever living creatures were tiny aquatic organisms. Water also is the means by which human beings are able to survive.
We humans, like animals also need a constant supply of food and water, so naturally when hundreds and thousands of years ago people started building settlements and also started agriculture they looked for fertile lands with plenty of food sources. Thus the settled along rivers, lakes, and seas we can still see that today almost all of the oldest cities (Multan, London, Kabul ,Dublin etc) were built near rivers, and today these cities are still flourishing. Water is also plays a very important role in religions around the world.
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism and many other religions have this one thing in common, water signifying spiritual purity being used in ablutions for prayers, worship (and in Christianity to accept a new convert into the religion). Some religions (such as the Hindus) hold rivers to be sacred and even gods/goddesses in their earthly form, the Hindus believe that the river Ganges is the goddess ganga and the ancient Egyptians used to believe that the river Nile was actually the god hapy.
As the acclaimed Hungarian physicist, and discoverer of the vitamin c said “water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium, there is no life without water”. Water has many other uses than just drinking and using it for irrigation, in fact water has many uses such as: washing and extinguishing fire etc. water has a very valuable property, it exists in all three states of matter solid (as ice) liquid (as water) and gas (as vapors) all three of these states of water have many uses; ice can be used for cooling drinks, for preserving food etc, while water vapors are used for many medicinal reasons and they also form louds. Although water is a precious resource and is required in plentiful amounts, of the 70% water on earth only a surprisingly tiny amount is safe drinkable (potable) water. Water and life are inexorably linked; water affects life and living things affect water. Water as (explained above) has influenced the course of human history. Humans however have always taken water for granted and ever since the world has started to industrialize clean water has been severely affected.
At the start of the industrial age factories were built unplanned, their waste dumped in a slapdash fashion into clean rivers and lakes. In 1746 Benjamin Franklin in his book ‘poor Richards almanac’ stated prophetically “When the well is dry, we know the worth of water. ” Now when clean water supply is only open to a limited amount of the population of earth that the people have started to recognize the danger of such a situation and have started a worldwide campaign to increase water supply and to plan factories beforehand so that they do not pollute the water system.
Another threat to the water system is agriculture, pesticides and fertilizers are usually washed into rivers, canals etc. this not only pollutes the water making it unsafe for drinking but it also becomes uninhabitable for other aquatic life. What may seem unlikely to be a threat to the supply of pure water but actually does pose a huge threat is the careless and more than necessary use of water in washing, bathing, and even brushing your teeth is also affecting the water.
Rivers have (as said above) changed the history of the world, and rivers have helped create nations as well the Egypt rose from the banks of Nile and flourished into highly successful state but probably the most important nation to have risen between rivers (the Tigris and the Euphrates) called Mesopotamia (literally: the land between rivers) this area also called the fertile crescent and the cradle of civilization is the birthplace of writing, mathematics, astrology and agriculture. Without doubt Water is life. Abdul Rehman Qadir Chaudhary
