Water is both a destroyer and a preserver. In worldly terms, water is like a wife. We can't live either with her or without her. The presence of water can kill us, and so can the absence of water. A tsunami comes not to nourish us. A drought teaches us how essential water is for our survival.

How many miles do women go on bare feet on hot sands to fetch a pail of water? While it is true that that period, short or long, gives them relief from their badgering mothers-in-law, it also makes thirsty mouths at home await their arrival with eager eyes.

Sir Philip Sydney, an English poet-critic and a warrior of the Elizabethan era, was once wounded on the battlefield, which proved fatal. His throat had gone dry, and his flagon held only a few sips of water. He raised the opened flagon to his lips when his eyes fell upon a moaning soldier. He thought that the soldier's need was greater than his. Therefore, despite his rank, he dragged himself towards the dying soldier, giving him the last few drops he had. Sydney saved the soldier and thereby saved himself from the clutches of death. This anecdote may be the best illustration for an old Tamil adage: "Neer koduthor uyir koduthorei", which in English translation would read somewhat like this: "He who gives water saves life."

Rain gives water. It is from the sky. Some call rain manna from the Heavens. Water is in the rain-bearing clouds. Water is beneath our feet. It is there to our left and to our right in trees and plants sucked from the ground to suckle their leaves. It is there in every one of us, moving around in our blood, and it is said that each living cell is mostly water. Such is our relationship with water.

All mobile tribes established their civilisations not far from the sources of water. And ours pass for river valley civilisation. From their good old days, Egyptians depended on the River Nile. Punjab is the land of five rivers. Mesopotamia means the land between two rivers, and Mesopotamians flourished between the Tigris and the Euphrates. If the Ganga and the Yamuna nourish the people in the northern part of our country, the Kaveri and the Pennai nourish the south.

When civilisation took the upper hand, people started quitting caves. They found shelter in houses of their own make. Have a roof over your head, a garment on your body to cover your nakedness, and find food so as not to go hungry. This adage is as old as man. Man's struggle for food, garments, and shelter existed in every age. It continues to haunt everyone who wants to make their sojourn on Planet Earth comfortable. But man is not an animal or creature that would be content with what it gets.

Man clamoured for more. He wanted everything to be available in his house. He wanted trees to fan him all day and night. He wanted fruits and flowers to reach home. Therefore, he planted trees in his house. He wanted water to be available at his dwelling place. So he dug the earth and made a well. Environmentalists call it water management.

Three decades ago, almost every house in Pondicherry was blessed with a well in its backyard. That was when we Pondicherrians lived in tiled houses and enjoyed the unpolluted breeze from lush green trees and flowering plants in the front yard and the backyard. We bathed and washed our clothes and utensils by bailing out fresh and chilled water from our wells. But not a drop went to waste, as the used water found its way to both gardens.

Times changed. Concrete constructions mushroomed, and the tiled houses disappeared. Along with those houses vanished the well and the gardens. People had no choice but to rely on corporation water and pay a price for it. To store water, they installed overhead tanks on their terrace. But the pressure level is always so low that every tank needs a pumping motor. The law forbids people from pumping water directly from the corporation's pipes. So, a sump also became mandatory. Had we retained our wells, things would have been different.

In the name of modernisation, we have lost our home water resources. Our only saviour is the overhead tank. We switch on the pump and forget. Imagine how much water goes to waste if we forget to switch off when the tank overflows. Time is not far when we will seek the help of the sea for a few bottles of drinking water. It won't be new to us then. We are already buying water.