Save precious water - Tankas in Gujarat

Hi all,

I am posting this article to show how our forefathers were more humane than we are in terms of understanding nature. The article is about old tankas in Ahmedabad and other parts Gujarat. I am sure there will be same or differetnt ways, in other parts of the country, to save water. Though 71% of earth is covered with water, most of it is in sea which cannot be used directly. This way water is very very precious.

Our forefathers had built 'tanka' to harvest rain water around 150 to 200 years back, which can hold as much as 80,000 liters of water. That is not all, the tankas are so perfect that the water remains clean for years. I have seen one of the tankas in my friend's home. They were cleaning it so I went inside and I felt like standing in a big room. There are number of other old but efficient ways to conserve water and other natural resources, which we have put aside in the name of modern development. So we need to revive those ways to save our environment.

The blistering summer does not bother Ashutosh Bhatt. As the state shudders at the thought of a dry summer, this resident of Khadia in Ahmedabad can fall back on history to tide over the crisis - the over half-acentury-old 'tanka'in his home in old Ahmedabad that can store water for his entire family.

Bhatt is one of the residents of nearly 1,500 homes in the area where summer brings no worries, with a constant supply of sweet water from these underground tanks built by their ancestors to fight perennial water crisis.

If Bhatt is content, so is Kavita Dhamecha, a housewife in Porbandar. She is getting the 'tanka'in the backyard of her house cleaned. And, far away from this Saurashtra town, it is the 150-year-old 'tanka'that keeps the Jambusarwala family going in Bharuch.

"I have a 26-ft-deep tank which has a capacity of 80,000 litres. The tank water is sweet and prevents any digestive and skin disorders. Underground tanks are also the best way of conserving water. The civic body should help people with cleaning of tanks to promote this concept," says Bhatt, co-ordinator of Khadia Itihas Samiti. Of the 10,000 houses in the area that have 'tankas', about 1,500 are still used.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's heritage cell in association with the samiti had undertaken a pilot project a couple of years ago to clean and revive some 10 tanks in Khadia. It also undertook research and documentation of various aspects related to the 'tanka'technology. "The exercise was to create a model that could be adopted by civic bodies," says heritage cell co-ordinator Debashish Naik.

This report is being used by the Porbandar Nagarpalika to understand how underground water tanks can be cleaned. And, fire brigade staff is working overnight to clean nearly 2,500 underground water tanks in the coastal town.

"Cleaning 'Tankas'is a costly affair but, with the municipality stepping in, more 'tankas'in this town can now be made functional," says Yogesh Pathak, a doctor in Porbandar, who has been using a 'tanka'since 1950. "Corporate houses should also help in restoring tankas. This way, the efforts by civic bodies can be supplemented," says Rohinton Jambusarwala, a resident of Bharuch.

"Those using 'tankas'should be given tax breaks like in Japan, Germany and some places in the US for helping in water conservation," says Ushir Shah, a resident of Satellite area in Ahmedabad, who has built an underground tank inspired by the 'tanka.'

Regards,

Amish@IMDR

Now Indian Railways Join the bandwagon

Hello all,

I read an article in The Times of India about Railways introducing eco-friendly toilets. Recently there were allegations that Railways is not taking any step to fight ecological and environmental problems as it consumes a lot of fossil fuels and generates a lot of waste. So this step to launch eco-friendly is in the direction making the railways cleaner and commuter friendly.

Eco-friendly zero discharge toilets are all set to be introduced in trains across the country. Some of them have already been installed on an experimental basis in trains in the south.

The toilets jointly developed by IIT Kanpur, Research Designs and Standard Organisation, Lucknow and a private agency in Chennai, ensure that all liquid discharges are converted into "pure water" which can be used as re-cycled water to flush and clean toilets and sanitary fittings.

The solid waste is converted into odour free paste by certain bio-chemicals or additives applied at the departing terminal. This can be stored for 15 days in a tank and can easily be emptied at the destination point through 'pressurised evacuation,' V Carmelus, Chief Mechanical Engineer of Southern Railways said.

The odourless solid waste could yield revenue since the paste would an excellent manure after being dried in the sun. After some more trial runs and studies the scheme would be a permanent feature in Indian Railways, he said.

Presently the system has been installed in trains running between Chennai and Jammu Tawi and Chennai-Lucknow, he said.

Dams - Everything We do has a price

Hi all,
I recently came to know about dams affecting our ecological system. We think that by building dams we can reduce the use of fossil fuels. Yes, it is true that we are producing hydro electricity, but there are other bigger problems that are created by building bigger and bigger dams. We are not only damaging the ecological system of rivers but we are also damaging the land around the dams.

When 1964 American Nobel Prizing-winning physicist Charles Townes down-played his break-out laser technology with reporters he demurred, "When I hear that kind of thing, it reminds me of what the beaver told the rabbit as they stood at the base of Hoover Dam: 'No, I didn't build it myself, but it's based on an idea of mine.'"

In the 1960's, the age without limits, this telling remark reflects how little was known and understood about the natural world and the accumulative impacts of dams. Since the idea of the beaver wasn't to dam major rivers but build small organic dams on its many tributaries. And then these temporary ecosystems evolved and produced abundant life. They reduced flooding and erosion, enhanced groundwater penetration, created the valley's precious topsoil and fed a radiant food web including decomposing bacteria, amphibians, fisheries, insects, birds, herbivores and carnivores. Comparing a beaver to Hoover Dam is like comparing life to death. Aldo Leopold, the legendary and visionary U.S. Forest Service land manager of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s said dams make the land sick and provide only a temporary prosperity followed by tremendous vulnerability. This ecological reality is incontrovertible - all dams have an end date.

California leads the list with dams near self-cancellation. Within the next generation, 85 percent of all U.S. dams will have degenerated to the point of exhausting their operational lifespan of fifty years requiring decommissioning or massive repairs and upgrades. Now consider that every sweet spot in every geologically sane canyon that might reasonably hold a dam already has an aging dam, what then?

Let's pause for just a moment and ask some relevant questions. What will it cost to maintain, repair, upgrade, and build new dams to replace those that fail or are decommissioned, and restore dysfunctional watersheds impacted by dams? Let me proffer a worldwide estimate to maintain the current population of 6.7 billion without any further additions.

Factoring ecological restoration, maintenance, repair, decommissioning, and replacement cost of the world's developed water infrastructure as it's currently engineered would likely be a cost greater than all the energy expended on all engineering projects from the beginning of civilization and this cost would recur every fifty years or so. Now factor in a population adding 1 billion every thirteen years?

Is it even possible at this stage of civilization to convince people to care about a time on earth that many will not have to live in?

These statistics and trajectories have no caution value to a species front-row seated as the primary agent of geologic change on Earth. For example, in three long lifespans, Europeans have altered a continuous American wilderness into a networked, layered, and interwoven mass of asphalt-spreading, carbon-coughing, concrete-lining, pipeshed-connecting, aqueduct-flowing, levee-bunkering, grid-generating, wireless-transmitting, urban-sprawling, mall-cloning, river-damming, and resource-consuming experiment in human unconsciousness.

Dams provide that tempting illusion of prosperity whose short-term gains literally vandalize the future of civilization and natural terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity. This reality remains an abstraction to a developed and developing world breast-fed on cheap energy, cheap water, and unconscious consumption of finite resources.

The tenant of the economic element states clearly that the natural state of soil, rainfall, creeks and streams, forests, valleys, wetlands, deserts, mountains, etc. have no intrinsic value in and of themselves. And only those aspects that can be justified as an economic benefit to mankind first (logging, mining, damming, intensive agricultural production, urban development, or recreation) are redeemable and can be supported in so far as they produce artificial wealth through income generation. Commodification of elements cycling and recycling from the basement of time, as its sole recognized value displays an arrogance not intended by nature or nature's god.

If the current growing population of 6.7 billion is considered a benefit to mankind, than dams are beneficial. If the vulnerability of dense populations downstream of dams is a benefit to mankind, than dams are beneficial. If agricultural production on arid lands that require large volumes of water that salinate the soil and demand large inputs of fossil-fuel based fertilizers and pesticides that runoff and pollute groundwater is considered a benefit to mankind, than dams are beneficial. If the displacement of 80 million people from their homelands to accommodate dams is a benefit to mankind, than dams are beneficial. If the destruction of life-supporting ecosystems and fishery resources is a benefit to mankind, than dams are beneficial. If the inequitable sharing of benefits and costs is a benefit to mankind, than dams are beneficial. If debt burden, cost overruns, deferred maintenance costs and the impoverishment of people is a benefit to mankind, than dams are the most beneficial engineering endeavor of human history second only to nuclear weapons. If that's the guess then God help us, because common sense hasn't.

http://www.truthout.org/article/we-pay-price-decades-relentless-dam-building

Indian experts find bacteria to beat global heat

In a major breakthrough that could help in the fight against global warming, a team of five Indian scientists from four institutes of the country have discovered a naturally occurring bacteria which converts carbon dioxide(CO2) into a compound found in limestone and chalk. When used as an enzyme — biomolecules that speed up a chemical reaction — the bacteria has been found to transform CO2 into calcium carbonate(CaCO3), which can fetch minerals of economic value, said Dr Anjana Sharma from the biosciences department of RD University, Jabalpur, who was part of the Rs 98.6 lakh project sponsored by the department of biotechnology CO2 is a greenhouse gas produced in the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial activities. The rising emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere is chiefly responsible for global warming. Reducing CO2 levels is the single most important strategy to fight global warming and the resulting effects of climate change. "The enzyme can be put to work in any situation, like in a chamber fitted inside a factory chimney through which CO2 would pass before being emitted into the atmosphere, and it would convert the greenhouse gas into calcium carbonate,’’ Dr Sadhana Rayalu, the project coordinator who is from the National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, told TOI on phone from Nagpur. This potentially means that the bacteria — extracted from a number of places including brick kilns in Satna, Madhya Pradesh — can be used to take out CO2 from its sources of emission itself. Rayalu said the chemical reactions involved in the process have been successfully established while its economic viability, cloning, expression and single-step purification are under study. The team has published its findings in the Indian Journal of Microbiology and its paper has been accepted for publication in the World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology. Sharma said the breakthrough was the result of marathon research work spanning more than three years. Other members of the team are Dr K Krishnamurty from NEERI, Dr T Satyanarayana from Delhi University and Dr A K Tripathi from Banaras Hindu University. "Interestingly, it is nature that has come to the rescue of the human race from harmful effects of global warming. Investigators of the team have discovered as many as seven such micro-organisms that have the tendency to convert carbon dioxide into calcium carbonate at different natural locations,’’ said Sharma, who was on a visit to Allahabad. (DBT) under the Union science and technology ministry.

Tamilnadu on the way to become a green state

Hi all,
I recently read an article about Tamilnadu achieving 33% forest cover for the state. It's a very good news among all the bad news that come about global warming. I think all the states should follow the footsteps and fight the devil of global warming.

Tamil Nadu has almost achieved 33% 'tree cover' and also mitigated the impact of global warming and climate change to some extent, forests minister, N Selvaraj said.
As against the decrease of India's forest cover by 728 sq km, Tamil Nadu's cover has increased by 41 sq km, Selvaraj said in his address on the concluding day of 'International Congress on Global Warming on biodiversity of insects: Management and conservation'.

Chief minister M Karunanidhi had launched a scheme called 'tree cultivation in private land,' in 2007-08 and under the programme, one crore saplings were being planted every year, he said.

Due to this, forest and tree cover in Tamil Nadu has gone up considerably, Selvaraj said, adding as against the reduction of tree cover from 3.05 to 2.79% in India, it had increased in Tamil Nadu from 3.66% to 4.26%, he said.

Increase in temperature would have severe impact on the global hydrological system, sea levels, forest ecosystems, crop production and related processes. The effect of global warming would be very severe in tropical countries like India and other developing countries, he said.

Source : The Times of India - 12th Feb..

Nature's answer to Man's irresponsibility

Hi all,

I received this e-mail about the Australian fire that broke, due to once in a century heat-wave, a week ago. I can safely term it as nature’s answer to our thoughtless activities that have created global warming. It is a very small example how nature can be hard-hitting when it comes to giving punishment.

THE SHEER horror and devastation of the forest fires in the Australian state of Victoria is contained in news that over 300 people probably died in the blazes, thousands were injured and some 7,000 are homeless. An estimated 865,000 acres were affected and nearly 1,000 homes destroyed in four towns and dozens of villages. Attention is now turning to why this happened and what should be done in future to prevent it recurring.

Climate change, hazard reduction burning are but some of the issues involved.

A fire truck moves away from out of control flames from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest near the township of Tonimbuk, 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the sunburned country's worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century.

Flames and smoke rise from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest west of Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009.

A Country Fire Authority (CFA) Sector Commander looks up at a giant fire raging in the Bunyip State Park near Labertouche, Australia, on February 7, 2009. More than 40 blazes raged across two states as a once-in-a-century heatwave pushed the mercury as high as 46 degrees Celsius (115 Fahrenheit) with fire bans in place across much of the south-east.

A general view of the devastation from the Peats Ridge Valley bushfire on February 9, 2009 in Peats Ridge, Australia.

A firefighter tries to contain a bushfire approaching the town of Peats Ridge, north of Sydney, on February 8, 2009.

Small acreage is burned out in Kinglake, northeast of Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009.

Senior Wildlife Officer Geoff McClure looks over the destruction in the main street of Marysville, some 100 kilometres northeast of Melbourne on February 9, 2009. The wildfires have become the deadliest in Australia's history, destroying entire towns and wiping out families and amid the heartache there was also anger as police revealed they suspected some of the fires were started by arsonists.

Family members react after learning that their parents Bill and Faye Walker and disabled brother Geoffrey were killed in wildfires in Marysville, north of Melbourne, Monday, Feb. 9, 2009.

A burnt out house is seen following the bushfires that swept through the region on February 9, 2009 in Christmas Hills, Australia.

The remains of a properties destroyed by bushfires are seen in the town of Kinglake, 55km (34 miles) northeast of Melbourne February 8, 2009.

A bushfire burns through a forest on the outskirts of Labertouche, 90km (56 miles) east of Melbourne February 7, 2009.

Craig Kidd looks at the melted metal of alloy wheels from his burnt out vehicles after a bushfire swept through his property on February 9, 2009 in Bendigo, 160 km from Melbourne, Australia.

A burnt out camera is seen on the ground, following bushfires that swept through the region on February 9, 2009 in Christmas Hills, Australia. Does high cost Materialistic things matter to nature.?

The remains of St. Andrew's church are scattered after it was destroyed by fire in the community of Kinglake, northeast of Melbourne on February 9, 2009. There's no mercy for anything when it comes to punishment in the court of nature.

A single burnt out tree remains standing after a bushfire swept through on February 9, 2009 in Bendigo, 160 km from Melbourne, Australia.

A man surveys the remains of a property after a bushfire swept through it on February 9, 2009 in Bendigo, 160 km north of Melbourne, Australia.

The burnt remains of a house are left standing in the aftermath of a bushfire on February 3, 2009 in Boolarra, approximately 200 kms southeast of Melbourne, Australia.