Desilting Tank Design by Manohar Khushalani

After the harvested water is brought down from the catchment area this tank is used to remove the silt from the water.  Dimensions are indicative. The size will vary depending on the amount of water coming in through the inlet pipe. more than one tank can be used in series if the first tank does not remove all the impurities. The Desilting tank should be cleaned in the dry season every year. Water outlet from the last desilting tank in the series will be sent to the Recharge Pit

For details of Recharge Pit with inbuilt filter :

Water Harvesting: High Capacity Recharge Pit | Manohar Khushalani

SOURCES AND CLASSIFICATION OF WATER POLLUTANTS

Dr(Smt) Shanti Vaidya

Senior Research Officer, Chemistry Division,

CW&PRS, Khadakwasla R.S. PUNE, India 411024

WATER is essential for our existence. GOOD and ADEQUATE water is essential for the comfortable and happy living.

The national building code (NBC) as well as the Indian Standards (IS-1172)  assume the requirement of water per person per day to be 135 ltrs. (about 9 buckets) for hygienic living.  The NBC reckons a family to be made up of 5 members on an average. Of this total requirement of 135 ltrs., the quantum needed for cooking and drinking purposes is only about 10 – 15 ltrs.; a substantial portion (about 40 – 45 ltrs.)  goes for flushing the water closets. The rest goes for bathing (30 ltrs.), washing of clothes (15 – 20ltrs), vessels (10 – 15ltrs.), floors (5 ltrs), etc. The portion needed for cooking and drinking at least has to be absolutely free of any pollution.

Of the four Metropolitan cities, viz., New Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, only the capital city is able to supply the requisite per captia quantity of treated water. Bombay falls a little short, whereas in Calcutta and Madras, the supply is woefully inadequate, with the Madras Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (MMWSSB) itself admitting to a supply of only 78ltrs. per captia which is the smallest quantity supplied in any metropolitan town or city in India.

What is water pollution ?

To pollute is to “make unfit for or harmful to living things, especially by the addition of waste matter”.

1. a) Any Physical or Chemical change in water that can adversely affect humans and organisms.
2. b) Any departure from purity. Better expressed, any  departure from normalcy.
3. c) The addition to water of an excess of material or heat that is harmful to humans, animals, desirable aquatic life or otherwise causes significant  departure   from   normal activities  of various living communities in or near a  water body.

Ever-increasing population and the consequent urbanization and industrialization have mounted serious environmental pressures on these ecosystems and have affected them to such an extent that their benefits have declined significantly. This is particularly grave for water resources. e.g in Bangalore city, studies revealed a nearly 35% decrease in the number of bodies of water during 1973 to 1996. Thus, water the most precious natural resource is the most  USED  and ABUSED resource.

For a suitable restoration action plan, recycling, reuse, recharge are the key words. The knowledge about the characterization of the type and source of pollutants entering the ecosystem can help us device a good restoration plan.  Investigation of the physico-chemical and biological parameters in this regard helps in assessing the status, which is required for evolving appropriate restoration methods towards conservation and management.

Water pollution : How ?  From where i.e. Sources:

Many natural processes like sedimentation, growth of pathogenic organisms, leaching cause water pollution. An  excess of natural processes like tsunami left near-coast lands saline. But the most effective and continuous phenomenon are human activities that cause pollution of all types of waterbodies like  rivers,  lakes,  marshes,  ground  water  and  coastal waters. Pollution then becomes an issue of intensity, the quantity and quality of the pollutant being more important than whether it was generated by natural processes or industrial processes.  Discharging various  wastes in and near a waterbody  causes  pollution of  that waterbody. Wastes   from   following operations cause pollution.

• Domestic waste
• Sewage
• Mining
• Agriculture : This sector uses 70% of total water use in India.
• Stock Breeding
• Fisheries
• Forestry
• Urban human activities
• Construction works
• Industries : This sector uses 8% to 50% of total water use.

Which water is pure water ?

Varied beneficial uses of water require different levels  of  minimum  purity.  Water is suitable for  certain  designated use  if it complies certain crieteria.  Classes A to E are defined by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 1991.

Tolerance Limits For Inland Surface Water

Class A : For Domestic  Supply  After   Disinfection

Class  B : For Outdoor  Bathing

Class  C : For Domestic Supply After Conventional Treatment  And Disinfection

Class D : For Wild Life And Fisheries

Class  E : For Irrigation, Industrial Cooling,  Controlled  Waste  Disposal

Water Quality Parameters

Which substances can be called pollutant ?

As  per definitions above, any excess of material or heat,  thus  following are some such pollutants:

• Gases CO₂, O₂, N₂
• Dust suspension
• Metals
• Bacteria
• Heat
• Organic substances
• Inorganic substances

A report of CPCB study conducted in 1984 concluded that 75%  pollution  of  rivers is caused  by  discharge  of  UNTREATED  MUNICIPAL  WASTE/SEWAGE  from  large  and  medium towns.  Remaining 25% is due to discharge of partly treated  or untreated EFFLUENTS from INDUSTRY. This certainly is not very encouraging.

Classification of water pollutants

1) Depending on nature of polluting activity:

1. a) Natural surface water run off.
2. b) Dissolved chemical that percolates through soil, causes ground water pollution –
3. c) Human sources like agriculture,  mining,  construction, industry, homes and business – all cause water pollution –

2) Depending upon the pattern of entry :

1. a) Point source which is identifiable and hence comparatively easy to control. e.g. Sewage, storm-water, Industrial effluent, animal feed-lots.
2. b) Non-point source which is widely spread out, diffused and hence difficult to identify and to control. e.g. agricultural run-off, Sediment run offs from natural or human caused forest fire, construction, logging, drainage of acids, minerals, sediments from   active/abandoned mines, oil-spills or spills of other hazardous material.

3) Depending upon the degradability or reactivity:

1. a) Biodegradable: Degraded by microbes in reasonable time say up to 1 month. These pollutants become a problem when added to the environment faster than they can decompose.

Biodegradable pollutants are of two types, rapidly degradable and slowly degradable. Rapidly degradable pollutants are ‘natural’, we put them somewhere until they degrade to non-toxic levels. Slowly degradable pollutants are materials that either do not decompose or decompose slowly in the natural environment. Once contamination occurs, it is difficult or impossible to remove these pollutants from the environment. E.g. synthetic compounds which resemble nothing natural, such as dichloro diphenyl trichloro ethane (DDT), dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and radioactive materials. They can reach dangerous levels of accumulation as they are passed, up the food chain into the bodies of progressively larger animals, e.g., molecules of toxic compounds may collect on the surface of aquatic plants without doing much damage to the plants. A small fish that grazes on these plants accumulates a high concentration of the toxin. Larger fish or other carnivores that eat the small fish will accumulate even greater, and possibly life-threatening, concentrations of the compound. This process is known as bioaccumulation. Such very slowly degradable pollutants are more problematic; we try to put them some place forever, because they will not degrade to non-toxic levels in a reasonable period of time.  Ultimately they seep back into the environment and create much havoc. Some special measures like advance oxidation systems are required to remove slowly degradable pollutants from wastewater. They are often difficult and expensive.

1. b) Non degradable pollutants are bacteria, virus, salts of metals, sediment fractions, heavy metals and the last PLASTICS. They are conservative like heat, a form of energy but certainly a pollutant.

4) Depending upon the effect intensity:

1. a) Acute : Such pollutants have an immediate and intense effect on the consumer.
2. b) Chronic or Long term : Such pollutants have slow but long term effects on consumers.

5) To Systematise more, the water pollutants are classified into nine categories:

1. Oxygen-demanding wastes
2. Disease causing agents
3. Plant nutrients
4. Synthetic organic compounds.
5. Oil
6. Inorganic chemicals and mineral substances
7. Sediments
8. Radioactive material
9. Heat (Thermal pollution)

1. Oxygen-demanding wastes: They are degradable by bacterial activity or strong acids/chemicals. Hence, cause depletion of dissolved oxygen. Most of them,  primarily   organic materials  hence,  get oxidized to CO₂ & H₂O. If degraded in anaerobic condition, give out foul odour and decrease  the usable  & recreational value of waterbodies. This process may cause fish kills & danger to other aquatic life, also affect colour, odour, taste of water.

Typically such pollutants come from sewage (domestic and animal), and industrial wastes.  The amount of such substances is estimated in water by quantity called Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD).

2. Disease causing agents: 75% – 80% infant deaths are caused by water borne diseases. Water has been a potential carrier of pathogens hence, causing epidemics of typhoid, para-typhoid, dysentery, cholera. Water also transmits diseases like polio and hepatitis. Modern disinfection and treatment plants have greatly reduced this danger in cities. Sewage and such discharge make the waterbody infected with such pathogens and that acts as source of this category of pollutants.

3. Plant Nutrients: For plant growth, nutrients are limiting factor. N  & P enter freshwater and lead to plant growth. When in excess, they cause eutrophication. They tend to accumulate in ground water. Excess concentration also renders water unsuitable for certain uses as they cause high BOD and disagreeable odours. Nutrient enrichment is a natural process (e.g. peat and muck soils or coal and oil deposits). Human activities hasten this leading to aging of lakes in shorter time.

N-P-K fertilizers applied in agriculture get into run off. Run off coefficient is a function of solubility of fertilizer, rate of absorption by plant, rate of decomposition. In the process excess nutrients flow to water and cause eutrophication.

4. Organic chemicals: Detergents (surfactant), pesticides, various industrial products, decomposition products. Some of them are toxic to fish at very low concentration, such as 1 ppm (phenol). Many are not biodegradable or very slowly degradable. Agrochemicals are some special chemicals which may be toxic to biota, human, extremely stable like DDT or have tendency to accumulate in animal and human body.

5. Oil : Production, distribution and use of huge quantities, result is contamination of water with oils. Some are accidental and some operational.

6. Inorganic chemical and mineral substances: Mineral acids, inorganic salts, metal compounds, which come through, smelting, metallurgical, chemical industries, mine drainage etc.. They may injure or kill fish and other aquatic life, may concentrate in food chain, e.g. Mercury. Inorganic mercury may be converted to methyl mercury CH₃Hg⁺ by certain anaerobic bacteria. This causes mercury poisoning.

Water draining to pyrite containing coal mines cause formation of acid (H₂SO₄).  This affects long stretches of streams, turns them acidic cause fish kills, corrosion of plumbing systems, boats, piers, related  structures  and  agricultural crop damage.

7. Sediments: There are soil and mineral particles, washed from land to waters, from croplands, unprotected forest soils, overgrazed pastures, strip mines roads and bulldozed urban areas. Sediments are able to:

• fill stream, channels and reservoirs.
• erode power turbines and pumping equipment
• cause turbidity hence perturb sunlight
• plug water filters
• blanket fish nests, spawn, food supplies to fish and shell fish.

Natural process of erosion causes sediments and its extent is a function of type of soil, geology, topography, precipitation and vegetation cover.

8. Radioactive materials: Wastes of Uranium and Thorium²³⁰ and Radium²²⁶ mining, refining from nuclear power plants, industrial, medical and scientific utlisation of radioactive material  cause  the   pollution. The  effects are lethal or mutagenic. Nuclear weapon tests also cause radio isotopes to come to air & soil and then in water.

The dust and debris of radioactive materials do not settle quickly after explosion hence, can contaminate air for long time. Hence, there is a proposal of Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Accidental explosion of Chernobyl nuclear power plant caused such pollution.

Strontium⁹⁰ (Sr) (half life 28 years) is chemically similar to calcium. Hence, absorbed by plants and  passed  to  animals,  deposited  in  bones.  This may cause anemia or serious disorders. Cesium¹³⁷ (CS) is chemically similar to K. Hence, its contamination with leafy vegetable, grains cause disorders.

Type of pollutants caused by nuclear power generating plants:

1. Low level radioactive liquid wastes.
2. Heat.
3. Liquids and gaseous wastes from fuel.
4. Fission products within 1-3 years.
5. Heat :

Cooling water from power plants is released in river which  cause  risk  to fish life and other biota. This leads to starvation of newly spawned population, decreased density and viscosity of water, increase settling rate of suspended sediments, evaporation hence higher salinity and less DO. Today  70%  water  used in industries  is  used  as  cooling medium.

An additional threat  to aquatic life is  created  by  the common practice of chlorinating coolant water prior to use.  This is done to prevent bacterial growth that clog pipes.

What can we as individuals do?

1. a) We, as consumers, need to realise the value of water in the city and put in our whole hearted efforts to conserve and utilise available water very carefully.
2. b) We also need to avoid as much as possible the paving of the open areas around our flats to help percolation of rain water into the ground and replenishment of the water table.

In a huge move, Home Minister Amit Shah on August 5, 2019, announced scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution that provides special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. With it was also laid to rest the highly discriminatory provision of the state that penalized a woman for marrying an outsider but protected a male in similar circumstances.
Article 370 and 35A – as introduced in the Indian Constitution for granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir, were a fundamental breach of women’s fundamental rights as Indian citizens. A glorious tradition that believes in

Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra Devata,
yatraitaastu na pujyante sarvaastatrafalaah kriyaah

“Where Women are honoured, divinity blossoms there, and where women are dishonored, all action no matter how noble it may be, remains unfruitful”,

the state of J&K deprived its daughters their basic right if they married an outsider. In Jammu and Kashmir, citizenship was unequal among men and women. The irony was never lost on the daughters when the entire country thronged to the most revered shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi, yet the same state displayed an unsavory bias against its girls.

What an anomaly. If a woman from J&K married a foreigner she would lose her right to inherit, own or buy immovable property in the state, whereas no such law affected a male in a similar situation. Consider this, if a boy from the state married a girl from outside, his wife not only became a state-subject (the certificate that confers special privileges on the state residents), but their children enjoyed the status by default. Whereas, if that boy had a sister and she also chose to marry an outsider, she stood to lose her state-subject and all the related rights. Her husband would never be welcomed as a traditional ‘Jamai’ in the state. Their children were aliens. All because of her gender!

You might exclaim, “Are you joking!” Yet, that’s exactly what it was. A poor joke played by the state on its own daughters.

An interesting example is the well-known family of Farooq Abdullah himself. Farooq Abdullah married a British woman and their son Omar Abdullah got to become the Chief Minister of the state. Omar’s wife was also not from the state, yet it did not impact his rights. On the other hand, Omar’s sister when she married an outsider she lost all rights as a state subject.

On October 7, 2002, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court overturned the established legal position. The court ruled that by marrying an outsider, a J&K woman did not lose her permanent-resident status. The decision was contested by the state’s political parties, who drafted a bill known as the Daughters Bill or the Permanent

Residents’ (Disqualification) Bill stripping a woman of permanent resident-status if she married a foreigner. Although the bill was not passed, a similar bill was introduced in March 2010. This bill was also not passed. It, however, had considerable political support

The 2002 ruling came after a bunch of women went to court to fight against the discriminatory nature of the law. The battle, however, was only partially won. Women marrying outside the state could inherit their parental property, but the rider was they still could not pass it on to their children.

Women have had to fight for their rights through history. However, in a modern India that enshrines equal rights to its women in the Constitution, the state of Jammu and Kashmir continued to practice the anachronistic denial of fundamental rights on the basis of gender.

August 5, 2019, spelt a historic victory for the women of the state. August 15 is India’s Independence Day, but in my opinion women of J&K could herald their independence 10 days in advance. By one fell well-deliberated swoop, Home Minister Amit Shah set the anomaly right. The Damocles sword was lifted from the neck of many a woman of the state who had inherited property, but by virtue of having married an outsider could not pass it on to her children. They always feared losing the property.

Besides other political and geographical implications of the August 5, 2019 move by the Home Minister under the aegis of PM Narendra Modi, it is a big day for the women of the state who now feel on par with men in their citizenship rights.

“I am a woman with thoughts and questions and shit to say. I say if I’m beautiful. I say if I’m strong. You will not determine my story–I will.” -Amy Schumer

Greenland ice sheet ‘rapidly melting’ as Europe heatwave moves north

A heatwave that last week gripped Europe and sent the mercury soaring, causing record temperatures in several countries, has now settled in Greenland and the results are startling.

When one thinks of Greenland, images of an icebound, harsh and forbidding landscape probably come to mind, not a landscape of ice pocked with melt ponds and streams transformed into raging rivers. And almost certainly not one that features wildfires.

Yet the latter description is exactly what Greenland looks like today, according to imagery shared on social media, scientists on the ground and data from satellites.

An extraordinary melt event that began earlier this week continues on Thursday on the Greenland ice sheet, and there are signs that about 60% of the expansive ice cover has seen detectable surface melting, including at higher elevations that only rarely see temperatures climb above freezing.

Read more……

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/watch-greenland-ice-sheet-turns-into-10-billion-tonnes-of-water-in-hours-2079180

Naliya is the extreme western part of the country. Kutch district is the least rainy pocket right from Naliya, Mandvi to Bhuj. The entire Kutch district is an arid region and is surrounded by the Gulf of Kutch. In the past 24 hours, Bhuj and Naliya recorded 38 mm and 102 mm of rains, respectively.

According to meteorologists at Skymet, Kutch will now witness light rains with moderate spells in between for next two to three days. With the arrival of the new system which is very likely to brew in the Bay of Bengal will act as a catalyst and would then give torrential rains over the region.

Read on …

https://www.skymetweather.com/content/weather-news-and-analysis/with-a-whopping-206-mm-of-rains-naliya-surpasses-july-average-rainfall/

Real Address – Where Distinction Devotee , Prophet and Lord Vanishes

You ask me how to know my real address . In the scriptural language I might say , ” My address shall be known to you when you have realised yourself . ” But I shall prefer to reply it as , ” When you become only myself . ” That means you must begin seeing me in you automatically , not purposely ; or when the very same condition gets created in you , then alone shall you be able to know my real address . All this shall come to pass through the practice of meditation .
You ask me to tell you about the natural state of mind , matter and spirit .
Herein the devotee , the prophet and the Lord do not come into cognition and the trinity vanishes altogether .

Complete Works of Ram Chandra Volume II
P. 133 – 135
Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur

In a quiet little village of Thally there is a revolution in the making. Mapletree Farm is literally ‘plot’ting and framing farming ideas and processes that are ethical, sustainable and to’Thally game changing in the long run (sorry but I had to begin with a pun).

Thally is near the town of Hosur in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu, India and the produce of the farm is marketed in the neighboring state of Karnataka.

When I first heard about Mapletree farm on social media, it automatically brought visions of Canada and I was puzzled as to what its produce was doing in the land of Kannada 😀

Well that is a mystery I have not really solved and though such things are terribly important to me 😀 I will not dwell on it now because I have a lot of other exciting and fascinating information about this organic farm which I want to share with you.

Mapletree farm has rapidly risen to considerable proportions in a short span of 3 years and plans not to stop until it conquers the entire country with its principles and converts as much of the land as possible, into ethically farmed regions, which as we all know, is definitely the need of the hour.

Read on….

https://currylines.com/maple-tree-farm/

Ground water is one of the important sources of water in urban areas. With increasing urbanization, underground water has been indiscriminately exploited, causing depletion in water table and water availability. It is very evident from the number of failing borewells/Open wells that it is unsustainable to pump out water from wells without recharging the same from the rain water. To reverse the trend or to reduce the effect of over exploitation, ground water recharge needs to be taken up on a large scale at residential and institutional buildings.

There are many methods of ground water recharge. Following are few methods for recharging groundwater using rain water from rooftop of buildings and other sources:

https://jalamjeevam.telangana.gov.in/rain-water-harvesting/how-to-construcrt/

Ahead of the World Environment Day, experts say that traditional knowledge methods seems to be the only way to counter the approaching national water emergency
Large number of water bodies built by women include step-wells, tanks and even ponds such as the world heritage site of Queens Step-well (Rani Ki Vav) in Patan, Gujarat, and the Rani and Padam Sagar in Jodhpur. There is the mention in a Kaifiyat (an early colonial document on land holdings) of a Devadasi building a tank in Yagati, and Nagamandala in Karnataka adds Navina Jafa in Hindu

Read on….

https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/art/drops-of-wisdom/article27298044.ece

The iconic Minar which is the attraction known to most of the people across the globe, for which people come to Delhi and the one that is known as Qutub Minar came into existence towards the end of the twelfth century.

The foundations were laid by Qutubuddin Aibak, however, the construction was interrupted by his death. Soon to be known worldwide, this iconic landmark was then completed by Iltutmish in A.D. 1230. However, it again got damaged by lightning, therefore, got some repairs from Firoz Shah Tugluq in A.D. 1351-88. Sikandar Lodi also administered some repairs on the tower in A.D. 1503. Standing tall at 72.5m the Minar has Arabic inscriptions and also some Brahmi inscriptions.

Monuments in the Qutub Complex :

• The Tomb of Iltutmish. (Lies north-west to the Quwwatu’l Islam Mosque.)
• Ala’i-Darwaza. (One of the gateways(southern gateway) among four gates constructed by Alau’d-Din-Khalji who also extended the Quwwatu’l Islam Mosque.)
• Ala’i Minar. (Its an incomplete tower started by Alau’d-Din-Khalji who wanted to make it double the size of the Qutub Minar.)
• Tomb of Imam Zamin. (Located to the immediate east of Ala’i Darwaza.)
• Serai. (Located at the eastern entrance gateway of Qutub Complex.)
• There is a Mughal garden in the north of the complex, and a mosque is there in the westside.
• Sanderson’s Sundial and Major Smith’s Cupola. (Located south-east of the Qutub Minar.)

One can reach Qutub Minar by metro or by bus although it is more convenient by Metro only. A single ticket can be bought for Rs. 40 for Indian nationals, however, the price is different for foreign tourists.

Address:
Mehrauli, New Delhi, Delhi 110030