28/10/2021
10678 times read
28/10/2021
10678 times read
A majority of the devotees perform their religious rituals often without much concern for what is around them, the requirements of the environment, the preservation of natural resources, and other complexities of the modern era and they are not to blame for that because a vast majority believes that what is important is the performance of rituals and obligations and other things do not mean much.
In fact, people, including Muslims are the children of their environment wherever they are. The environment in early Islam was simple, with no traffic, no air pollution, no noise, no mountains of garbage, and none of the diseases of the era or the phenomena accompanying industrial progress, for example, and therefore environmental issues did not receive much attention in our countries.
About two weeks ago, I contacted one of the officials of the Endowment Secretariat, the body that keeps large sums of money dedicated to charity work, and I told him that the world may be tired of repeating the topics and areas of spending on charity work, and limiting them to digging wells, hiring preachers, and printing books, and perhaps it is time to get out of this cocoon, and stop spending ‘the billions’ that are spent on other than modern education, because this is a waste, because those who spent millions on education are themselves still ignorant, backward and sick.
I also told him that it is necessary to go out to areas of goodness that are broader and more beneficial, such as caring for the environment. The amount of water that is wasted, for example, in thousands of mosques, schools and government departments, is a matter that cannot be tolerated and how it is possible to save more than 70% of water waste in these places by installing sensor faucets, a project that will not cost much compared to its great benefits. In fact, the official’s response was nice, and we are writing to remind him of his good promise.
Because of the low price of drinking water, Kuwait is the highest in the Gulf in per capita consumption, reaching 440 liters per day. Can any sane person imagine this frightening figure, and the extent of its danger to the state’s income and the environment?
Water is distilled from the sea, and this process needs millions of tons of oil, and refining produces highly toxic pollutants in the sea and in the air, and every reduction in consumption positively affects public money and the health of the citizen. Is the person who sets the curricula or who runs the schools, mosques and public places aware, understands, or wants to understand these facts and examine these numbers, I doubt that very much?
It costs between 8 to 9 dinars to produce 1000 gallons of water, and it is sold to individuals at 800 fils, and to the tanker owner at only 500 fils.
Also, a large proportion of the distilled water is stolen or gets seeped into the ground, and there is not much interest in dealing with this terrible waste.
On a personal initiative to reduce water consumption in the home and office, I installed sensor faucets. I also put a kilogram of gravel into the water containers in each toilet, to reduce waste. And I expect that the savings, after only a year, from one house, will be close to twenty thousand liters.
e-mail: [email protected]
By Ahmad alsarraf