by Prithvi Saravanabawan
People say, “ If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water”. Nevertheless, people being who they are, constantly think that they stand at the pinnacle of nature’s creation and naturally think that they are entitled to everything around us. This is an archetype that we have constructed for ourselves. This article does not aim at talking about how humans pollute or taint the water bodies. Instead, I aim at scrupulously yet briefly talking about different ways by which people strike water for its purpose.
Firstly, the primary notion that aids this archetype exists in “ borders”. Though borders between different countries play an integral role in social and economic causes, they ostracize the very concept of human existence, sharing. Nonetheless, the concept of borders is not necessarily wicked or sinful. Therefore, I simply wish to enumerate that though the idea of borders is paramount in the domain of politics and economics, but nonexistent for rivers, lakes, or oceans.
Secondly, when we view this “borders” paradigm from an emotional perspective, we can observe that the root of this problem lies in a peculiar emotion. This emotion is greed. However, make no mistake, by greed I do not mean corporate greed, industrial greed, or economical greed. I mean the greed for improvement. This mortal emotion drives people to improve everything within a particular border of confined land we call countries, states, etc. Furthermore, in the process of making borders, people hoard water bodies like lakes and rivers in an attempt to improve their land or even deteriorate others. Thus creating a situation that produces an unbalanced environmental and ecological state within the same country. For example, altering the natural passage of a river may cause irreversible environmental damages like the extinction of indigenous marine life, endangerment of the various array of terrestrial animals that use that particular river as their primary source of water, and the plausible destruction of local flora.
In conclusion, I think it is safe to say that water breathes life into everything it touches. Though we are aware of this fact, our hubris shields us from attaining perfect harmony with the environment that surrounds us. I believe that our hubris as humans is the very source that instigates us to conceptualize improvement which makes way for borders. However, regardless of the veracity of the previous statement, it is an irrefutable fact that we cannot live without boundaries. Ergo, the best possible solution I could come up with for the topic “borders and water” is to establish good relationships with ourselves, our neighbors, and most importantly, our environment.
Lakes of India 