WATER ''THE LAST DROP'' WISHES

LAST year, Cape Town warded off what was known as ''Day Zero'' for the city, or the day when it would run out of water, by launching a mass campaign to reconsider how we use water.

The bitter and sad truth is that the entire Developing World is totally unable to provide the majority of its people with safe drinking water, and are all set to become scarce just beyond 2025.

Most of these countries are already rated as being water stressed, with insufficient water to meet the needs of its rapidly growing population both in urban centres and other other locations..

The rapid depletion of aquifers is a key factor in the the risks these countries run of running dry in the very near future. In the case of Proud Pakistan it is 2025.

The year 2025 is not far away. It will fall within the lifetime of most of us alive today.

It is therefore imperative that we draw the attention of the people towards the water crisis, the need to preserve and conserve water and to put in place policies to clean up water resources which have become poisoned as a consequence industrial waste, pesticides and and other toxins leaching into them.

The high arsenic and fluoride content in some parts of these countries add to the risk factors for large sections of the population.

We need to create the awareness that  we need to adopt necessary conservation measures and policies aimed at making water safer or utilizing reserves that currently go waste due to mismanagement.

In Karachi, Pakistan, we have already seen gang wars break out  over the most precious of  commodities. In time, these could widen, creating potential chaos across the country.

Urgent measures to be taken and taken now. There is no longer time to wait. The Developing World has waited too long and the result is looming catastrophe

The World Students Society thanks the editorial staff of The News.