If you
were the mayor of a city and your city is facing the dilemma of water scarcity,
how would you solve the problem?
Would you drill
the land for wells to extract the underground water until the water is drying
out and the land is subsiding? Or would you spend tons of money and large
amount of electricity to desalinize the sea water? Would you take great pains
to use pipes hundreds of miles long to transfer water from the South to the North?
Or would you employ high salary scientists to study for the water making techniques?
Actually,
there is a simple and sustainable solution that – is – falling – down – from –
the – sky.
Keeping the Rainwater
Rainwater is the most ignored water resource
in our daily life. Every time when it rains, the rainwater comes and goes hastily,
no one cares or pays attention to it.
When the rain comes down, the tough and
unyielding concrete and asphalt would not let it enters the soil. As a result
of this, rainwater is either causing flood or running straight to the ocean and
becomes salty water. When most of the rainwater runs straight to the ocean,
while the underground water is being overly extracted, as a result, not only
the land becomes more and more dry and its surface weight is reduced, the sea
level is rising up and the sea bed is bearing increased weight, this may cause
changes in crustal structure, thus triggering earthquakes or tsunami like the
2004 ones. Besides, when rainwater falls on the impermeable road, it carries
along many contaminants to the lakes, rivers and oceans.
Therefore, we ought to “cherish”, “keep” and “use”
the rainwater. When the rainwater has chance to enter the soil, not only it can
go through the natural filtering and cleansing process, it can also recharge
the underground water. Actually, rainwater is a type of soft water, which is
better for the plants than the faucet water. Moreover, using the clean faucet
water that has gone through a complex process of “filtering/disinfecting/treatment”
to water the plants and flush the toilet? It does not seem to make sense!
Rainwater “Piggy Bank”
Taiwan has abundant of rainfall, but globally it is also the country that
ranked 18th in terms of water scarcity. This is because the population is increasing
while the rainwater is running off. Now Taiwan begins to actively implementing “keeping
the rainwater”; households and communities set up simple and useful Rainwater “Piggy
Bank”, saving drops of rainwater.
Even the apartment without yard can also set up Rainwater “Piggy Bank” on
the balcony or roof top. Rainwater “Piggy Bank” is the beautiful name for “Rain
Barrel”, its material is not limited to plastic barrel, it can also be a
stainless steel container, bricks masonry tank, etc.. Through simple piping
construction, the rainwater falls on the roof is led to the Rainwater “Piggy Bank”,
and just turn on the faucet at the container when need to use water.
Other than the Rainwater “Piggy Bank”, there are many more creative ways
to collect rainwater, such as: “Rain Garden”, “Green Roof” and “Pervious
Concrete” or “Permeable Pavement”, etc.. “Rain Garden” gathers rainwater from
the surrounding and keeps the rainwater like a shallow bowl; it requires less
watering and thus it is more water conserved and nicer looking than the grassy
field. “Green Roof” is the roof top of a building that is planting Sedum type
of short plants; it absorbs the rainwater like a sponge and reduces the CO2 and
“Heat Island Effect” in the cities. “Pervious Concrete” replaces the hard
asphalts with pavement that is consisting primarily of gravels and secondary of
cement, which allows the instant infiltration of the rainwater.
Rainwater Collecting Ditches
Is there any hope for those areas that are having very little rain?
Hiware Bazar at the west part of India is called the “Miracle Water
Village”. The preconditions of “Miracle Water Village” are not better than
those surrounded villages. Just like other villages, it has scanty rain; but
while other villages are as dry & desolate as the deserts, the “Miracle
Water Village” has greeneries everywhere and has abundant of crops -- Why?
The answer is: The residents at “Miracle Water Village” work hand in
hand to capture the rainwater and to use water wisely.
“Miracle
Water Village”used to
suffer from draught just like other villages. Then a wise leader from the
village led the villagers to dig many contour rainwater collecting “ditches”
and “basins”, and started to plant trees. Every time when it rains, the ditches
and basins catch the scarce rainwater, so that it can infiltrate the ground,
and the roots of trees can prevent mud-sliding. Gradually, the land is turning
from barren to fertile……
Keeping the Precious
things
Just like the rainwater, we often ignore many precious things in life.
There was a scene in the book of John: In the middle of a hot day, a
Samaritan woman went to a well to draw water. She met Jesus, and they started a
conversation……
The Samaritan woman chose the hottest time in a day to draw water when
there was nobody there, may be she wanted to stay away from those town people
who talked behind her, as she had changed one partner after another. Jesus who
was being understanding and discerning, knew that she was actually seeking for
the true meaning of life, love and satisfaction, but she was lost in the midst
of this……
That woman stood in front of Jesus, not knowing that she was facing the one
true God of the whole universe who can quench the thirst in her soul. Only
until Jesus revealed his identity to her that she came to her realization.
Forgot about her shame, that woman ran excitedly back to the town people to
proclaim the good news……
This was what Jesus had told that woman, and at the same time also an invitation
to each of us, “Everyone who drinks this (well) water
will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the (living) water I give them will
never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.”
“The wonder at the basketball field”, Jeremy Lin, also used the example
of the Samaritan woman when he shared his testimony at Good TV. He said that in
the past when he was still sitting and waiting at the bench, the most desirable
thing he wanted was to be able to bring out his talent on the basketball court
and to achieve good scores. However, even though now that his dream comes true
and he has climbed up to the peak of his life, he felt an Inexplicable void in
his heart that nothing in this world could fill up. This thought process have brought
Jeremy to a realization that: It is truly only Jesus Christ can bring him the
ultimate and eternal satisfaction…..
For the problem of environmental water scarcity, God gives us the
rainwater falling down from the sky.
For the need of a thirsty and arid heart, God grants us the living water
came down from heaven.
The key is: Do you keep both of
them?
Hui-Zhi
( Chinese version was published in the “Shepherd” section of Nanyang
Siang Pau on 2013.9.30 )
