On hearing the loud sirens outside, I put on the clothes that protected me from dust storms, picked up the water can and left the house. After one more alarm went off, they would begin distributing water to the people. But the place where the vehicle came with the water would be flooded with people even before that happened. A tank with water arrived in our area under strict police observation. The police struggled to control the crowd. After quite some time of trying to calm the people, they began to distribute the water. An hour had passed by the time it was my turn. After a government-appointed officer checked my ID, they began entering details into a government computer. He informed me that the water allotted for my household that had only five members was ten litres for the week. As each litre of water flickered on the reader of the water tank, I thought of how similar this was to petrol pumps back in the day.
Most people only ventured out of their homes once a week. Due to the changes in the climate, people could not spend much time outside without proper protection.
Once I got home, I took out a glass tumbler and carefully poured out water without wasting even a single drop, since I would only get more water next week. After that, I filled the bottles that had the names of the people who lived with me labelled on them. Only the government had the power to store and distribute drinking water.
After I had wet my throat just a little, I turned on the television only to see every channel talk about the declining availability of water across the world. If what they said on the news was true, almost every river in the world had dried up and about sixty percent of all animal and plant life had gone extinct, severely affecting earth’s ecosystem and climate. Every nation spent a fortune of their own wealth trying to turn seawater into drinking water. People had begun dying from the lack of water in several countries. And since the water available to most people was already so little, there was a deluge of health problems as well. The very existence of human beings on Earth was under threat. Many countries had begun warring with other countries that had even just a little water, so that they could take over their water supply and send it back home. Many countries of the world were now part of the wars fought over water. Many people and animals continued falling to their deaths with each passing day.
Everybody knew that this violence would someday take over the entire world, yet nobody tried to escape or save themselve-and the reason for that was only that there was no place on Earth anyone could go.
Fully believing that there was no possibility of a good future, and with a mind having lost all its hope, I went to my room. As though darkness itself was entering it, my eyes slowly began to close, my mind and body demanding a long sleep.
When I opened my eyes, I could tell that morning had just arrived. But when I heard birds on the tree branches outside, I leapt out of bed. I opened the window, and looked everywhere, wondering how it could be. Yet, there was no dust storm. Nobody was wearing protective clothing. The sky was filled with white clouds. So was all of that just a dream? When I checked my phone it was indeed 2023. An unimaginable happiness overcame me. I went into the dining room and opened the fridge to find a bottle of water inside. The bottle had water droplets sticking to it, and I eagerly extended my hand towards it. It felt as though every single drop of water was travelling through my body. And without even realizing it, I spoke out loud: 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬!
