The Quranic Verse 50 of Surah (25) Al-Furqan states that “And We have distributed The (water) amongst them, in order that they may celebrate (Our) praises, but most men Are averse (to ought) but (Rank) ingratitude,” the above verse clearly brings out that the water provided to us by rains, snow melt and glaciers as also ground water is a blessing of Allah Almighty not to be wasted except by those who are guilty of (Rank) ingratitude. We as a nation ought to ponder over the gross wastage of 60 maf of annual rainwater and let it flow into the sea unutilized due to absence of water reservoirs.
The nation is being inflicted by destructive floods each year on a colossal scale but we fail to harness the rain water which is below Tarbela. As such in a way we are suffering a collective punishment by the Providence. Our rulers are completely oblivious of the curse of wastage of rain water year after year due to our provincial biases against building water storage reservoirs. As such the nation is inflicted with the curse of our (Rank) ingratitude that we scarcely realise.
DR. MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI,
Lahore, August 5.