Potable Water Crisis. Poem by Nabakishore Dash

Our grandfathers, grandmothers
were drinking water directly from
the streams, rivers and wells.
My father and his contemporaries
filtered the water with
a cotton cloth and some used
to boil water, cooled it before
drinking to avoid being unwell.

We used water filters with
candles even if Government
supplied treated water
for drinking.
Our sons and daughters
are using bottled mineral
water or water filtered
using ultra -violet rays
as water from
any direct source is stinking.

Our grandsons and daughters
may have to use all the
above mentioned methods
or any brand new method
to get water in encapsulated covers.
The business of selling
drinking water has been
a thriving and successful trade
only because of human blunders.

During the corona pandemic,
more than twenty five thousand
tons of garbages are
dumped into the oceans.
PPE kits, hand gloves, masks used
have been polluting their
water through three hundred
sixtynine rivers out of
one hundred ninety three nations.

We have polluted ground
and surface water, even the
vapor in the atmosphere
to cause acid rain.
Having albatross around
our necks,
still not conscious of
this vital aspect of
our lives to tide over
such predicament,
it may so happen
that our great grandsons
and daughters may
find this as tears of pain.
Statistics is from tertiary sources.