Threatened Lifelines: The Neglected Streams of our valley

The valley of Kashmir is surrounded by huge, beautiful mountains all around, and these mountains receive snowfall in the winter season and then intermittent snowfall throughout the year, which keeps them snow-laden all through the year. The snow melting makes the water flow through the streams which run through all parts of the valley, and the presence of snow on these mountains is the reason for these streams being perennial. The streams have been a significant source of water, not only for drinking or domestic purposes but also for irrigation. I have seen people using this water, and I myself have been using the water flowing through a stream very close to our house for both drinking and other purposes, and it was considered to be pure.

Now, with the advancement of society and the facilities that we have been provided by our government, like drinking water facilities that flow through pipelines, these streams have become insignificant to some extent for the common man. Now, when water is available at home without going to the stream, people have started ignoring them. In most parts of the valley where we don’t have sanitation facilities, like garbage collection facilities, people have found these streams to be the sink for all the trash that comes out of their homes, and they dump it near these streams because these streams are looked after by none. As a result, a huge amount of trash can be found all along the banks of these streams in most rural areas.

People have become so ignorant that they do not feel the importance of these streams and have started neglecting the significance of these streams and the needs they used to fulfil in the absence of domestic drinking water services. Earlier, this water was used not only for cleanliness purposes but also for drinking purposes, as it was pure and no impurity was added to it. It was not only because of its usefulness but also because it was considered to be a sin to add any impurity to water, and I still remember people used to say that if anyone added any impurity to the stream or any flowing water, he or she would be asked to remove that impurity from the water on the Day of Judgement. This made people more considerate about such things, but now, when people have lost faith in such beliefs, they have become ignorant and do not care about these matters.

I am so disheartened to see such a state of these streams right now, and now that it is enough, some people of the society have started caring about these things. Just a few days back, I came across a video on Facebook where I saw a person stopping another one while he was adding impurities to the water. He not only stopped him but reprimanded him and also exposed such activities on Facebook, which would have a good impact on society. I believe I myself am very considerate about it and have always been a strong opposer of such activities. I cannot imagine how people can be so ignorant regarding these things, as these streams have been a lifeline for us for centuries, and still the water that flows through these pipelines comes from these streams. We need to take care of these resources by ourselves, not only for our own safety but also for our future generations.

For the last couple of years, we have been experiencing a shortage of water in the peak summer days, and we need to rely upon the water tankers that the government supplies to us, and even after having a stream flowing just beside our house, we cannot use its water because of the huge number of impurities added to it all along. How hapless and unfortunate can we be? The government has also come forth to stop this manner of misuse, and new schemes and steps are being taken to prevent people from doing such activities to save our resources. Maybe we will be able in the coming years to make these streams clean and pure as they used to be long ago. We, as responsible citizens, must also be there to support our government and play our part in such great initiatives to make sure we don’t lose our resources and that these resources remain available for our future generations.

Thank you for going through my post. Have a great time ahead.