We recently commemorated World Consumer Rights Day, observed every year on March 15. This day serves as a reminder of the importance of consumer rights and their protection. World Consumer Rights Day was first observed in 1983, and the date was chosen to commemorate U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s address to the U.S. Congress on March 15, 1962, in which he formally recognized these rights. He was the world’s first leader to do so.

This year’s theme for World Consumer Rights Day 2025 was “A Just Transition to Sustainable Lifestyles.” This theme clearly reflects the importance of making sustainable and healthy lifestyle choices accessible and available to all consumers, including access to safe drinking water.

Soon after commemorating Consumer Rights Day, people across the world, including J&K, celebrated International Water Day on March 22. This year’s theme for the occasion was glacier preservation. After writing on both these issues recently, I found a close relationship between water and consumer rights, which led me to write this piece for public awareness and to sensitize the government about this critical issue.

When we talk about consumer rights, people in the Indian subcontinent—especially in Jammu & Kashmir—hardly imagine that access to clean drinking water is also a consumer right. This is because Jammu & Kashmir has been blessed with numerous fresh drinking water sources, and we never anticipated a time when most of these sources would become polluted, forcing us to rely on packaged drinking water.

There was a time, 20 to 30 years ago, when we drank water directly from rivers and streams. Even the water of Dal Lake was used for drinking purposes just 30 to 40 years ago. The transition to tap water occurred between the 1960s........

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