There are two main themes in this poem. The poet, Imtiaz Dharker, sees water as a gift from God. Throughout the poem she tries to indicate the preciousness of water. Further, she understands that "Scarcity gives appreciation" - how people take water for granted in some places saddens her. So, she wrote this poem to prompt us that we should treasure God's gift to us, especially when the gift, water, is in short supply.

The poem is set in a hot country, where people live in huts, giving us a feeling of poverty and aridity. When "the municipal pipe bursts", the poet describes the flow of water as "silver" crashing to the ground, showing she values water as much as silver. She also describes people with "frantic hands" when they were crowding for water. The people were hysterical at that time, since they were living in a hot...