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The Death of Drinking Water in a Water-Rich Land

There was a time in Kashmir when thirst had direction. You did not open a tap. You walked to a spring.

Every settlement had a naag, every orchard its channel, every path a place where a passerby could cup his hands and drink without hesitation. Water was not a commodity, not a supply, not even a resource – it was an assumption. A civilization rests on such assumptions. The most dangerous moment for any society is not when something disappears, but when it still exists and yet stops being trusted.

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Kashmir today is approaching that moment.

The rivers still flow. Snow still falls. The valley remains one of the most water-endowed landscapes in the subcontinent. Yet across towns and villages, a quiet behavioural shift is underway. People increasingly hesitate before drinking from traditional sources. Guests are no longer offered water drawn from a nearby spring; they are handed filtered water, boiled water, or increasingly, bottled water. The change appears trivial – almost modern – but it marks a profound civilisational fracture: the separation of a people from the water beneath their own soil.

This is not a story of water scarcity. It is a story of potable water erosion.

The decline began invisibly. Settlements expanded without hydrological planning. Septic seepage moved slowly into recharge zones. Streams that once carried meltwater began carrying detergent. Agricultural chemicals reached channels that had flowed clean for centuries. Urban drains, designed temporarily, became permanent........

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