ShareLast week I wrote about the national celebrations and predicted that water will be sprayed in the streets, which is a negative phenomenon. The national celebrations have turned into a water festival. What is the connection between the two? Nothing!
It is shameful that we celebrated in this fashion a national occasion in which many families remember their loved ones who sacrificed their lives for the nation to protect its land. But now the memory of those heroic martyrs no longer exists, except for reports about water guns, quarrels and the terrible congestion in the streets. The question remains - what is the wisdom of all this? And what have we learned and how much have we lost?
We have lost the opportunity to teach our kids why we are celebrating the national and liberation days. How should we think about this issue for the future? Isn't water a blessing? I don't think any of these ideas have been mentioned during the national days.
The ministry of electricity and water issued a statement in the press that water consumption during the celebrations reached 17 million imperial gallons, equivalent to the daily consumption of 17,000 houses, each consisting of 10 members. This is a loss of KD 170,000 to the state budget, at a time when the government is calling for reducing water and energy consumption.
The problem is not in the abundance or lack of water, but how to present the concept to the minds of our children, which stresses the importance of maintaining water as a blessing we need to preserve. Water wasted this year confirms that this negative phenomenon is expanding and getting worse. The interior ministry worked hard on this occasion against violators of traffic laws, with 1,800 ticketed for frivolity, recklessness and blocking traffic. Also, 45 brawls almost lead to loss of life or bloodshed.
The conditions were not good at the municipality as well. An official source said that its members seized 23 'machineguns' loaded with water from street vendors, in addition to lifting 34 tons of garbage from the main celebration sites in the capital alone. It is necessary to prevent the abuse of water just the way the law prohibited the use of foam sprays.
The ministry of electricity and water does not have a law that punishes consumers if water is wasted for any reason. Even when water is wasted by washing cars, it can only issue a warning and alert the owner, but nothing more.
Water is a great blessing, as people are dying of thirst in areas nearby. These young people will never understand the importance of respecting the grace in which they live as they're not going to learn the meaning of National Day except that it is a water festival. We in Kuwait do not have rivers or lakes - we get water from the Gulf after desalinating it, which costs a lot of money to the state, and we are responsible for this extravagance. The national holidays must be an occasion to think, thank and learn.
By Muna Al-Fuzai
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