Today, I want to touch on one aspect of human
nature: wastefulness. We do like to waste, don’t we. No matter how we try to
deny it, admit it, we are wasteful. We never learn from past mistakes, we are
extravagant, we don’t think about the consequences of our action, we don’t
consider the impact on the environment.
I’m sure we all know that we’re going through a
phase of long drought. Dry, unbearable weather. Hot and humid conditions,
sweltering days and hot nights. It’s been going on for months now (last December
was one with the shortest number of rain days I can recall) and it doesn’t look
like it’ll improve anytime soon. And we’re not alone in facing this latest
trial: Thailand, the Philippines, India, some African countries like Malawi and
Ethiopia are all facing the effects of El Niño.
(By the way, I don’t know why the local media likes to say that Equinox is a phenomenon. Well, it isn’t, so stop saying that
it is! Go and re-learn your lower secondary Geography yea). Schools in some northern states have closed for a number of days due to the
hot weather and we hear about the declining water level in the dams around the
country. Even if we’re not tuned in to the current news, surely we can feel the
unbearable heat and see the browning of grass and lawns, the drying (and in
some cases, dying) trees and plants and failing crops.
And yet, and yet, we continue on to waste that
most precious resource of all: water. I observe this happening every day: at
prayer rooms, at pantries, at washrooms, at my neighbours’. We don’t need a lot
of water to perform ablutions, we don’t need to have the tap running while we
wash up or brush our teeth, and surely we can skip the long showers and take
shorter showers or better still, bathe from water stored in pails or buckets. We
don’t have to wash the car or porch every so often. We should know better than
watering the plant at noon or in the afternoon so turn off the sprinklers at
those times. Water your plants in early morning or in the evening when the sun
is down. Malaysians really need to start using less water. We consume a lot more
water than our neighbours and much more than that recommended by the United Nations.
In
many religions, water has a special meaning and is often at the beginning of
creation accounts. Most religions emerged in water-scarce areas (think Judaism,
Hindu, Christianity and Islam). In Islam, water as a precious gift of God has
an impact on how people handle water: I should esteem it and not waste it; if
it is a gift to me, then it is also a gift to my neighbour, and I should not
deprive him of access. The Quran as well as the hadith (written collections of
the words and deeds of Prophet Mohammed PBUH) make explicit statements on the
duty to use water economically, equitably, with consultation of all
stakeholders, and with respect for the environment. It is related that the
Prophet once passed by his companion Saad who was washing for prayer and asked,
‘What is this wastage, Saad?’ The companion asked, ‘Is there wastage even in
washing for prayer?’ and the Prophet responded, ‘Yes, even if you are by a flowing
river!’ And yet Muslims here use way too much excessive water to perform
ablutions!
As for me, I ‘recycle’ the water that I use to
soak my vegetables and fruit by watering some plants. I collect the water from
ablutions and use it to flush my toilet (you don’t need a lot of water for
flushing the toilet after you pee. If you notice, the smaller level on dual-flush
toilets for flushing liquid waste dispenses only minimal water). I collect water in a bucket to cool it down
(water from the tap can get too hot sometimes) and bathe from it. I never turn the tap on when I
brush my teeth. I collect dirty dishes and wash them together in one go instead
of washing as and when – this doesn’t mean my sink is overflowing with dirty
dishes (I hate having my sink full of dirty dishes anyway) but I wash a few
items together at one time and not piece by piece. There are a lot of ways
where we can play our part to cut back and conserve water, some are here but I’m
sure Mr Google has many more suggestions.
As hot as it gets, I try not to switch on the fan
unless absolutely necessary. I use handheld fan to fan myself. I have a pair of
good arms and hands and I am capable of that. This is part of my effort to conserve
electricity, indirectly playing my part to reduce global warming. After all,
everything is intertwined – energy use, fossil fuel-depletion, climate change,
global warming...
Happy Earth Day!
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