By M M Special Correspondent
New Delhi: On the occasion of International Water Day, Islamic Relief India organized a discussion in association with Volunteers of Change and OFFER on the theme “Islamic Guidance on Water Consumption and Our Responsibilities” Friday at Mushawarat Hall, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi. Professor in environmental engineering at Jamia Millia Islamia Dr Sirajuddin Ahmad chaired the program whereas well known environmental expert Abdul Rashid Agwan was its key speaker.
Sibghatullah Ahmad, head Islamic Relief India and Aslam Naved management consultant also expressed their views.
The program began with the recitation by a research scholar ZA Hashmi. Then, the program organizer Aslam Naved briefed about the theme and presented key findings of a survey conducted by him on awareness of local society on environmental issues. He informed that 60% of the respondents said that they know that Islam gives guidance on water consumption but only few could quote the same. He also told that most of those who are using ROs don’t use the gray water discharged three times more than what is purified in the process.
Sibghatullah briefed the audience about the engagement of his organization on the issue of climate change which has not only organized an international convention of Muslim countries on climate change in Istanbul in 2015 and since then working on sustainable development goals in about 40 countries including India. Islamic Relief is working on the development of a Certificate Course in Islamic Consumption and Production and working on such projects as green mosque, green Ramadan, etc, he told.
Abdul Rashid Agwan, the Convener of Volunteers of Change and environmental activist, highlighted the 10 green commandments of Islam and pointed that the blue planet our earth seems the rarest place to have life, mainly due to the existence of water on it. He remarked that Allah says in the Quran that He created every living thing from water and provides water on the earth in a regulated way and man should take it as a precious gift from the heavens and must neither waste nor pollute it. After quoting several sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, Agwan stressed that there is a ceiling in the quantity of water used for such religious acts as ablution and bath for which the maximum use of respectively 1 and 5 liters of water is allowed. This denotes that Muslims should be even more careful in other fields of water consumption, he said.
In his presidential remarks, Sirajuddin Ahmad informed that his department conducted a study of water use at the central mosque of Jamia Millia Islamia some time back and found that average 4.5 liters of water per person had been used for ablution whereas the permissible limit remains to be between 700 ml to one liter only. He also briefed about his plan for water harvesting and recycling of water discharged from the mosque through recharge pits.
At the close of the program, participants took a pledge to adopt judicious ways of water use in life.