When talking about water, most people will say that water is the most essential thing in life. But do we really know how essential water is in our life?
A human needs about five liters of drinking water and 30 liters of water for sanitation each day. Not only that, water also plays an important role in the human body`s metabolism such as the digestive process, nutrition and oxygen distribution in blood, carbon dioxide distribution to lungs and controlling the body`s temperature.
Literally, water is a chemical substance which contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by a chemical bond. We can find water in the ground without any problems because 70.9 percent of the earth consists of water. Although we can find water easily in the ground, we need to make efforts to economize on the use of water for life.
With the global population that has reached more than seven billions this year, the provision of clean water for urban dwellers, especially, is already a major challenge for the health and well-being of a large part of humanity. Moreover, according to data from the United Nations Information Center, 50 percent of citizens in the world are concentrated in big cities.
For that reason, an innovation to approach water management will be needed more than ever, said Hubert Gijzen, director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)`s Jakarta office.
"Water is life but it is going to kill us if we don`t manage it well. We need to urgently and radically change the way we deal with water in crisis," Gijzen said.
Meanwhile, a professor from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said that the management of water cannot only be done by exercising conservative way because there was no consciousness to preserve drinking water.
"Conventional water management can`t cope with the current crisis, because it is based only on an engineering approach," Prof. Dr. Lukman Hakim, a researcher at LIPI said here Tuesday.
Moreover, the professor said, the focus of the management should be on the hydrological cycle, the influence of the ecological process and also on the well-being of people.
Many things can be done on purpose to save water in the ground.. We can start from ourselves by applying eco-friendly daily habits like what is done by Felisitas Kanyamurti (24).
The marketing officer of Prasetya Mulia Jakarta said that she really supported the efforts to save water for a better life in the world.
"It is really important to save the provision of water in the world. Moreover, we know that water supply in many isolated parts of Indonesia is not much," she said here Tuesday.
Turning unused water faucet off could help the efforts to save water in the world, she said. If the water is kept running, it would make high electricity bill because the electric water pump had continuously worked, she said.
"I hate people who leave the restroom without turning off the tap or let the tap water keep running. Every time I see such a behavior, I must do something that someone else is supposed to do," she said.
Another person who cares about saving water, Nurul Intan (28), said that she had planted several big trees in her yard to keep the water supply inside the tree roots. Besides, she added, by spending as little time as possible when taking a bath could also save water in the ground.
"I usually take a bath for 10 to 15 minutes and spend about 20 water dippers during bathing process," she said.
Therefore, on the occasion of World Water Day 2011, we need to pay more attention to the management of water for saving its supply on earth. The benefits will be not only felt by the present generation, but also for the next decades.
The lives and health of millions of children and vulnerable citizens will depend on finding viable and equitable solutions to the urban water challenge, here in Indonesia as elsewhere in the world, El-Mostafa Benlamlih, the UN Resident Coordinator in Indonesia, said .
The punchline above does not mean that we must drink beer instead of water. However, it reminds us that our participation is really needed to save clean water in the world. If you can start for yourself, you must influence others to do so.(*)
KR-FNY/HAJM//H-YH
Reporter: Fransiska Ninditya
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
