PARABLE OF THE WATER TANK

Sometimes, it takes a mishap or a crisis to make us pause for a while and assess how we get ourselves bogged down knee-deep in trouble.

A city-wide 3-day water service interruption got me thinking. Although bulletins and notices had been posted as early as two weeks back, only a few actually bothered to read them. And fewer still who prepared for the water cut-off. So when the taps eventually went dry Sunday morning, thousands were caught unprepared.

Driving around my neighborhood, I noted 3 classes of households:

• Those who have water tanks and filled them up ;
• Those who have water tanks but were left half-filled ; and
• Those who have no water tanks at all

Those who have water tanks and heeded the bulletins and filled up their tanks should have no problem surviving this 3-day dry spell.

Those who have water tanks but were not aware or totally disregarded the bulletins, and left their water tanks half-filled, will probably need to cut back drastically on their consumption and pray they have enough water left to last 3 days.

Woe to those who did not have water tanks at all! Whether they were aware of the crisis or not did not really matter. As soon as the taps ran dry, they were immediately adversely affected.

As this is a parable (a brief story used to teach a lesson), you can draw your own analogies. But the lesson here is this: The best way to survive a crisis is to steer clear of the crisis. It pays to be wary of what's going on around you, to listen to signs and warnings, and to prepare well ahead of any crisis.