Problem of Water Sources Decrease in My Village

The small village where I live is controlled by the state of Gujarat in India. The village does not receive the support of the government, and our water sources decreases as the days go by. My neighbors, Barot and Mehta, mentioned that "no source' villages, that is, villages which do not have a dependable water source of drinking water,” (297) have led the government to add our village to the list of ‘no source’ villages. Since we lack the water necessary to meet our needs, villagers have been fighting over the possible solutions for water distribution among us.

Our community was in an urge to find someone or something that will bring water to cover the needs of our small village.

According to grandma, women in our community were lucky because she had read an article mentioning that “women [in Ghana] have to travel longer distances to collect [water]” (Archer 386). We, women, are lucky enough that our village depends of the water gather in the ponds during raining seasons.

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However, the neighbors mentioned that “by the end of the winter the quality of pond water would decline, turning saline due to sea water intrusion" (Barot & Mehta 299). According to my aunt Bouwer, the communities were having hard times getting water that "the mainstream press has begun to run stories about the world's water crisis” (393), including Gujarat communities. Thanks to the press the government started to help the communities through building a dam. The village rejoiced when we received such good news, but the truth is that it was only good news for the villages in the village's surroundings.

The people in these villages will lose everything from history to their lands because, “Nearly 1.5 million people residents-city dwellers and farmers- must be relocated”according to my aunts Childs-Johnson and Sullivan. Besides, the government lacks the money to help the communities being relocated, which will leave many people unemployed. Our community will soon break apart with the construction of the dam, and the villagers will be left with nothing but tears. The construction of the dam will bring a negative change to many villages and the environment. Some may argue that the construction of a damwill mean communities will have access to water, and energy.

Some may argue that the dam will reduce our dependence on nuclear energy, and the energy produced through the damwill reduce the damage nuclear plants cause to the environment. A dam will indeed bring benefits to the communities, however, the idea of a damis as good as bad for the communities being relocated. The construction of the dam comes with a high price. According to my aunts Childs-Johnson and Sullivan, a dam with a price not only worth capital, but that is also worth time and change to the communities under the governmental management of Gujarat because it “will require at least 13 more years to build the dam, at a cost recently estimated at US$75 billion."

Some may argue that the dam will be beneficial to the prosperity of the country. Others may argue that the dam will bring tourism, and less dependence on fuels. However, the truth is that the dam will bring a negative impact to the villagers, and the communitythat is being relocated. A town will disappear in a matter of days, and leaving villagers with nothing as the government does not have "enough money to relocate the 1.4 million people who will be displaced by the flooding, let alone address salvage archaeology” according to my aunts Child Johnson and Sullivan.A dam that will take away lands that had been homenot only to us, but home to a different culture.

The separation of a community results in the extinction of dialects and cultures. For example, some of my friends will be living in the United States, and they have told me their cousins; which grew up in America, do not know a word in our dialect as their parents; which they do speak our language, wants to assimilated them to their new community. Besides, a dam will cause a negative impact in the structure and history of the land in which is being built on. For example, our history and archeological sites will disappear with the construction of a dam as thesame thing happened in China according to my aunts Child-Johnson and Sullivan,“The fate of archeology in the Three Gorges area is perilous, if not fatal, due to the intention to flood the middle Yangzi within a mere ten years.”

While it is true that the site might not play an important role to history books, the place might hold a gold mine for knowledge. However, the Government and the citizens of Gujarat might not find archeological sites important, not more important than the dam. A dam that will be artificially formed, and that will affect the many species of wildlife in our community. A dam that will not only relocate us villagers, but also the many wildlife species that lives in our surroundings. For that reason, a dam has a negative impact to the land in which is being built on. The dam relocates not only its villagers, but also the many kind of wildlife species. A dam is not the best option to meet the needs of humans through alteration, and destruction.

The dam will cost history, the extinction of cultures and animal species. A dam is artificially made by human hands, and anything made by human hands tends to highly affect nature in a negative way. However, a dam not only destroys nature alone, but also through extinguishing the flora we destroy ourselves as we depend of the air flora produces. Again, a dam that will cost more than capital, it will cost history and time. A dam that increases poverty, and government spending the maintenance of such dam.

Works Cited

1. Archer, Emily. "The Wells Are Drying Up: Water & Women in Ghana.” The Water and Culture Reader. Ed. Matthias Schubnell et.al. Southlake, TX: Fountainhead, 2013. 385-92. Print.
2. Barot, Nafisa, and Mehta, Salil. “Women and Water Harvesting.” The Water and Culture Reader. Ed. Matthias Schubnell et.al.Southlake, TX: Fountainhead, 2013. 297-306. Print.
3. Bouwer, Karen. "Women and Water.” The Water and Culture Reader. Ed. Matthias Schubnell et.al. Southlake, TX: Fountainhead, 2013. 393-96. Print.
4. Childs-Johnson, Elizabeth, and Lawrence R. Sullivan. "The Three Gorges Dam and The Fate of China's Southern Heritage." Composition II. Blackboard. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.