Anita, a 13-year-old, lives in north western state of India, Rajasthan. Anita loves going to school, however for the last two years she has not been able to attend school. Lack of water at home and pitiable state of sanitation has compelled her to spend around 3 hours every day in making sure that the household gets at least 6 liters of water from the nearest water source which is 2 miles away from her home. Water, as basic it may seem, is a luxury for families in this region. As soon as the child is old enough to carry water-load on their heads, they spend most of their time in ensuring water availability at home. Families do not have time and energy to invest in the future of their children as without appropriate water and sanitation, their everyday lives revolve around maintaining this basic need.

Water scarcity does not necessarily mean physical shortage of water, it can also indicate that the institutions responsible for water supply have failed in ensuring proper infrastructure in the area. Water scarcity is a reality that grapples every continent around the world and water use has been growing at twice the rate of population increase annually.

According to global water institute, 2013, 1.6 billion people in the world face economic water shortage which means that there is a dearth of necessary infrastructure to enable proper supply of water from water bodies, such as rivers and aquifers to the taps. Another staggering fact has been reported by UNESCO in 2012, by 2025, two thirds of the world population will be facing water bankruptcy which means that there will be absolute water scarcity in terms of available quantity. The recent water crisis in the South African city, Cape Town is a glaring example of water bankruptcy where water is a rationed commodity capped at 50 liters per person per day. This indicates how imminent the water bankruptcy is in the areas where water scarcity is the present-day condition.

What will be the impact of water bankruptcy on the people? Water insecurity will result in exacerbating the inequalities among people correlating water accessibility with monetary means. Also, this will fuel the unrest against the government institutions because of their lack of initiatives to handle the disaster. Water wars affect population on psychological level as water is among the most basic needs and inability to secure this necessity hurls human mind into an abyss of hopelessness.

On the other hand, water catastrophes at the extremities of continuum continue to occur each year with droughts and floods leading to lack of insights to fathom the course of action for maintaining the balance in the nature. Dry wells, disappearing livestock, disastrous harvests, migration of several species : all this indicates something is amiss in the dynamics between nature and mankind and we as a species have disrupted the equilibrium that is required for sustenance.

Water may seem like one of the natural resources available for human use nonetheless the grave reality is that it is a precious commodity which is traded, sold and even robbed. Lack of water leads to political wars, domestic abuse, social unrest and environmental degradation to say the least and it is high time we realized the significance of water in our lives. The responsibility of circumventing a waterless future for the coming generations lies squarely on all blocs of humanity: individuals, civic bodies, experts, activists, technologists and scientists.

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