It was a wonderful morning yesterday; started with drizzling which later graduated to heavy downpour with thunder and lightning. I could see through my windows, Seethama, our domestic helper rushing with two empty cans to the Nestle truck to buy new ones.

While flipping through the pages of DT News, I couldn’t control my laughter seeing Aidan Payne, my colleague and sports reporter standing in a pool of water in the middle of the road. I really thought of giving him a ring and pass an alert, not to open the drainage cover, as it would be disastrous if the drainage overflows, even through our toilet seats!

I tasted a few drops of rainwater, it was an awesome feeling. Undoubtedly, there are definite differences in the mineral content but 40pc of the all the water that is bottled and sold is simply ‘purified tap water’.

The worldwide growth in bottled water sales leapfrogged sales of fruit juices in 1993, coffee in 2003 and milk in 2005. Now, only beer and carbonated drinks sell more. Out of the 30 billion plastic water bottles produced each year, only one in five are recycled, whereas,  pumping, purifying and transporting a bottle of water needs twice as much water required to fill the bottle itself.

One can of bottled water costs almost 600 fills. Hence, it is beyond any measuring to estimate the gallons of showers unsaved during the last two days in Bahrain. It is high time Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries seriously consider ‘rainwater harvesting.’

In 1945, a British medical journal observed that adults should consume 2.5 litres of water daily but specified that ‘most of the quantity is extracted from the food consumed’. However, in the 60 years since, the important final clause seems to have fallen by the wayside. A normal diet contains enough embedded water for us, theoretically no need to drink anything at all! Too much water, on the other hand, can be lethal as excess water is expelled from the blood into other cells, which, then, expand and rupture – leading to nausea, headaches, disorientation and eventually death.

Even in developed countries, it is not uncommon for the water drained from the bathtub to return  in the form of drinking water.  Some of the great water conservationists have even advised to urinate in the shower which can effectively save approximately 2,500 litres of water per year. Again, not flushing frequently with every toilet visit can obviously lengthen our pockets.

One can neither find modern methods for ‘rainwater harvesting’ nor can reduce the intake of water. But one can’t claim that there are no solutions, as we can either reduce the volume flushed out, ignore the expiry date in the bottled water or simply request everyone to urinate in the shower! Now, please decide, choice is yours!