Froth belongs inside our washing machines. So, what is it doing there on the surface of our water bodies?
Water molecules prefer their own company, so they tend to stick together in drops. We call it surface tension. To make water wash better, we have to reduce its surface tension. The surfactants, that is, the surface active agents in detergents do the job.
The Han meets the Yamuna river and tells her how even she can flow and flourish in peace.
Han smiled and hugged Yamuna. For a moment, Yamuna forgot the toxic filled surrounding she lived in. Yamuna lowered her eyes and began opening up to Han. “Look where I live Han. I cannot breathe; move my arms or even my feet. Every day, the drains add more filth into the river and the people of the city for whom I travel from so far, do not even throw a glance at me. For them, I am a stinky black drain.”
When the rain gods do not send water for irrigation, farmers look downwards, at groundwater, for help. But, years of groundwater exploitation and lack of recharging, has led to a fall in the water tables. For instance, in north and central Gujarat, water tables have dropped to 20m per decade since 1974, as per a study by the Central Ground Water Board. If this continues, extracting groundwater will get more expensive because we have to dig deeper, or worse, groundwater will be only a myth for future generations.
Wetlands purify water through natural processes where aquatic plants act as bio-filters. Plants absorb phosphates and nitrates from the water and roots help to put back oxygen into the water.
Constructed wetlands are a cost-effective method of treating wastewater and polluted water bodies. These are low cost solutions and can be easily made or replicated.
How the life around the Yamuna River changed with time and people
Tributaries of the Yamuna flowed through the city and several rulers tapped the streams and fed the water through massive sluices into tanks, to provide water for their people. Today, these tributaries have dried up and become cemented tunnels underneath the city that carry sewage to the Yamuna.
Every monsoon the incidences of caving in increases. Nature or human activities–who is to blame?
Why is the Indian monsoon so slippery?
The monsoon of the Indian subcontinent is also shaped by the heating of the Tibetan plateau, the shape of continents and mountains, Eurasian snow cover, temperature difference between eastern and western flanks of the Indian ocean, and, arguably the most important, El Niño (“little boy” in Spanish as this event occurs around Christmas), a weather event triggered by a greater heating of the eastern Pacific near Ecuador than its western counterpart. A strong El Niño, more often than not, implies a weak monsoon. In the last 100 years, 19 out of 43 deficient monsoon years were linked to a strong El Niño, while six went against the dominant pattern. This is one of the many irregularities characteristic of the monsoon that makes long-range forecasting extremely difficult.
A few kids were tracking their paper boat in a river. Who was to say they would discover dirty truths.
During heavy rains, they overflow and flood courtyards. These become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Open defecation near these drains causes the faecal matter to flow into households. The poorly designed toilet pits don't help either, he had explained. Pushpa was jolted when she heard the bell ringing and was swarmed into her class by the excited students.
Can we control the ongoing water crisis all by ourselves? It's not about whose responsibility it is, but what we are doing about it.
“When water became a commodity, I lost my freedom. More importantly, it put a financial burden on those who couldn’t afford to buy it. Today, water companies sell drinking water and advertise it being rich in minerals and full of vitamins. Big corporates such as soda companies have been buying rivers for industrial purpose and farmers have no water to irrigate their fields. As the rivers dry up, animals also start wandering and enter villages in search of water, with a threat of getting trapped or killed.
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Children have taken it upon themselves to clean the historic ponds in the holy city of Varanasi
A group of students have come together to address their water worries
The aqueducts connecting the roof to the ground have been aesthetically designed as a part of the building through tiled wall depressions rather than pipes. The rainwater collected from the roof directly recharges the percolation pits. Even inside the building, there are open courtyards with steps for the water to move down and recharge the groundwater. Our sole aim as of now is to recharge the groundwater aquifer, which is a problem in a city like Gurugram, which suffers from alarming drop in groundwater levels. It is due to this, that we are privileged to support well developed green spaces without consuming the city water supply.
A Kolkata man has taken it upon himself to document life and livelihoods along the river Ganga
[The Ganga] is dying. Pollution from the factories and farms of the fastest-growing large economy in the world . . . has turned its waters toxic—BBC The Ganges, India’s holy river, is also one of the most polluted in the world . . . There are many causes of Ganges river pollution—English Online
