Pictures of Terbala Dam and Chasma Barrage

Terbala Reservior

Terbala Spillway

Terbala Lake

Sediment Boat

My Friends doing Sediment study of Terabla Reservior

Spillway

Chasma Barrage

other view of Chasma

Chasma

Indexing inhumanity, Indian style

It took minutes for the top guns to swing into action when the Sensex fell by several hundred points. But no Minister came forward to calm the nation when India hit the 94th rank in the Global Hunger Index.

It all happened around the same time. The day the Sensex crossed 19,000, India clocked in 94th in the Global Hunger Index — behind Ethiopia. Both stories did make it to the front page (in one daily at least). But, of course, the GHI ranking was mostly buried inside or not carried at all that day. The joy over the stunning rise of the media’s most loved index held on for a bit the next day. The same day, India clocked in as the leading nation in the number of women dying in childbirth. In this list, the second, third and fourth worst countries put together just about matched India’s 1.17 lakh deaths of women in childbirth. This story appeared in single column just beneath the Sensex surge.

Next came the fall of several hundred points in the Sensex. That is, barely a couple of days later. It took minutes for the top guns to swing into action. Fingers were in every dyke. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram lost no time in reassuring worried investors via the media. Other top officials were all over television, doing the same. “FM soothes the Market’s nerves” ran the ticker. The barrage — both media and official — kept up through the day. The panels of experts convened to celebrate the 19K summit were reconvened to explain why they’d tripped off the cliff. They then droned on about the merits of P-Notes, regulation and the future. What stood out, of course, was the swiftness of both government and media response to each twitch in the index.

No Minister came forward to calm the nation when India hit the 94th rank in the Global Hunger Index. That’s out of 118 countries. The daily, DNA, though, did capture the essence of the story with its report: “Ethiopians manage hunger better than us.” For indeed, they do these days. At least by the measure of the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Global Hunger Index. Ethiopia ranks a notch above us at 93. Draw the baseline anywhere in the 1990s, and you’ll find Ethiopia worked better at reducing hunger than we did. Pakistan ranks ahead of us, too, at 88. China logs in at 47. All our South Asian neighbours do better than us on this index, except Bangladesh. And who knows when it will overtake us? None of the countries boasts an economy growing at 9 per cent a year.

You’d think it was an issue worth some attention. But it was hard to find panels debating this on television. Or any editorials in the newspapers doing the same. No Ministers or top babus soothing the nerves of the hungry. No experts with furrowed brows warning that the trends could continue, even worsen.

The GHI is by no means the only measure of what’s happening. The United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organisation put it simply in 2006. Its State of Food Insecurity in the World report confirmed yet again that we have the largest number of undernourished people in the globe. The 2004 edition of the report had shown that India had added more people to the “newly hungry” in the planet than the rest of the world together. There, too, nations much worse off had done far better. Between the years 1995-97 and 2000-02, hunger grew in India at a time when it fell in Ethiopia.

There was also another link begging to be made. Not just between the Sensex and hunger stories. Let’s revert to the latest maternal mortality figures released by the WHO and others. Some 536,000 women died in childbirth in 2005. Of these, every fifth one of them, at least, was an Indian. That is, 117,000 of them. A total that could only be matched by Nigeria, Afghanistan and Congo together. Almost 99 per cent of all these deaths worldwide occurred in developing countries. Much of this, again, is amongst the poorer sections of the population.

If we were to look at specific groups or communities, this would be even clearer. Let alone on the hunger index, India’s rank in the U.N.’s Human Development Index is anyway dismal. There, at 126, we are below Bolivia, Guatemala and Gabon. Yet even that rank does not tell the full story. If we were to isolate the rich and the better off as a group, they might enter the top 10 nations. Efforts last year to look at adivasis as a group led pretty much in the reverse direction. One study found that if we were to derive the HDI for our tribes only, they would rank in the worst off 25 nations of the world.

That’s quite easy to believe. Canada has always been among the top 10 nations of the world in HDI rankings. In fact, it occupied the top slot for some years. Yet, a survey of its native or indigenous people towards the end of the last decade placed them at rank 63. That is, all those natives living on “reservations.” Across the world, tribal people mostly have a poor HDI profile.

And so it is in India, too, where they are pretty much at the bottom. The study that found their HDI to rank amongst the bottom 25 nations of the world, also found things to be worse by the region. The tribes of Orissa, it reports, fall below even the low end of the HDI of sub-Saharan African nations. This is by no means the only study to tell us how India’s tribes are doing. There are tons of official data to show us that in great detail. But there’s no rush to debate their survival in expert panels. They mostly get covered when they resist displacement. Often with loss of life. They make up just eight per cent of the population. But account for over 45 per cent of those losing their lands to projects.

The furore now on the import of wheat is welcome. At least the media have begun to look at the issue. But surely, it is also worth discussing how we came to import wheat in the first place. And how a nation with so many in hunger ended up exporting millions of tonnes of grain this decade. That too, at prices lower than those we offer to millions of poor people in this country.

New heights of misery

And no matter how the Sensex is doing, the misery index for the poor scales new heights in one sector after another. Health costs still mount. They push people into debt even faster than before. A study done for the WHO in six Indian States found that 16 per cent of households it looked at were pushed below the poverty line by heavy medical costs. Nearly 10,000 families from lower income groups were covered by the survey for the years 2002-05. Some 12 per cent had to sell their assets to meet health expenses. Over 43 per cent had to resort to loans for the same reasons.

Our answer to this has been: more of the same. More privatisation. Less and less of a public health system. In Mumbai, extortion by hospitals has become so frequent as to actually find mention in the media. But journalists do not get to make the link between the gutting of public services and the public’s misery. Much less can they track this in terms of private profiteering. That would go against the publication or channel’s stand of privatisation as a cure for all ills.

More than once this year, the Bombay High Court has warned hospitals against the cruel practice of holding back the body of a patient — demanding lakhs of rupees from the family before returning it. It still happens, though. Now even at government hospitals leased out to private managements. So a low income family is suddenly told it owes the hospital a huge sum of money. And that the body of its five-year-old girl will be released only when that sum is paid. A fine example of public-private partnership as it works today.

In fact, it would be good to devise a health index spanning the reform years. One that looks at how both rich and poor have done health-wise. How many years of life, for instance, are taken away from you by ill-health if you are one of India’s less well off citizens? In the world of the media, though, only one index matters: the Sensex. Watching which has spawned a whole little industry in itself. The numbers who pronounce on and debate it (in the media, anyway) are impressive. The oracles reading equity’s entrails for omens. Maybe we need a media relevance index. An MRI scan of mass-produced mediocrity.

11 Facts About Pollution in America

1. 40% of America’s rivers and 46% of America’s lakes are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.
2. The Mississippi River – which drains the lands of nearly 40% of the continental United Sates – carries an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution into the Gulf of Mexico each year. The resulting dead zone in the Gulf each summer is about the size of New Jersey.
3. 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, storm water, and industrial waste are discharged into US waters annually.
4. Polluted drinking waters are a problem for about half of the world’s population. Each year there are about 250 million cases of water-based diseases, resulting in roughly 5 to 10 million deaths.
5. Vehicle exhaust contributes roughly 60% of all carbon monoxide emissions nationwide, and up to 95% in cities.
6. Large hog farms emit hydrogen sulfide, a gas that most often causes flu-like symptoms in humans, but at high concentrations can lead to brain damage.
7. Each year, U.S. factories spew 3 million tons of toxic chemicals into the air, land, and water.
8. In the U.S. 41% of all insecticides are used on corn. Of these, 80% are used to treat a pest that could be controlled simply by rotating a different crop for just one year.
9. Every year, one American produces over 3,285 pounds of hazardous waste.
10. Over 80% of items in landfills can be recycled, but they’re not.
11. Americans generate 30 billion foam cups, 220 million tires, and 1.8 billion disposable diapers every year.

General Knowledge

The deepest cycling underwater is 66.5 m (218 ft 2.11 in) and was achieved by Vittorio Innocente (Italy) in Santa Margherita Ligure, Liguria, Italy, on 21 July 2008.

The border between Belgium and Netherlands goes through a restaurant in Baarle – Nassau

Skógafoss, Iceland
Skógafoss is a waterfall situated in the south ofIceland. It is one of the biggest waterfalls in the country with a width of 25 metres (82 feet) and a drop of 60 m (200 ft). Due to the amount ofspray the waterfall consistently produces, a single or double rainbow is normally visible on sunny days

The first law school in the world was built in Lebanon, in Downtown Beirut.

Claudia Mitchell - first woman to have a bionic arm -
a prosthetic limb that she controls with her mind.

WOW!!!.....Blue lagoon Galapagos island, Ecuador

Sink Holes←
In 2007, natural disasters create a depth of 300 feet
sinkhole swallowed a dozen homes in Guatemala–
killing 2 and causing thousands of people were
evacuated. The sinkhole was caused by rain and
underground waste stream.

Stone house in Portugal was built in 1973

The Three Sisters” - rock formation, Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia !!

Baatara gorge waterfall is a waterfall in the Tannourine, Lebanon.
The waterfall descends the Baatara Pothole, located on the Lebanon Mountain Trail. Discovered in 1952, the waterfall drops 255 m into a cave of jurassic limestone.
The cave is also known as the “Cave of the Three Bridges.”

Water Trivia Facts

1. Only 3% of Earth’s water is fresh water.
2. 97% of the water on Earth is salt water.
3. The water found at the Earth’s surface in lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, and swamps makes up only 0.3% of the world’s fresh water.
4. 68.7% of the fresh water on Earth is trapped in glaciers.
5. 30% of fresh water is in the ground.
6. 1.7% of the world’s water is frozen and therefore unusable.
7. Water covers 70.9% of the Earth’s surface.
8. Water can dissolve more substances than any other liquid including sulfuric acid.
9. More than 25% of bottled water comes from a municipal water supply, the same place that tap water comes from.
10. A ten meter rise in sea levels due to melting glaciers would flood 25% of the population of the United States. 
11. There is more fresh water in the atmosphere than in all of the rivers on the planet combined.
12. If all of the water vapor in the Earth’s atmosphere fell at once, distributed evenly, it would only cover the earth with about an inch of water. 
13. Water boils quicker in Denver, Colorado than in New York City. 
14. Approximately 400 billion gallons of water are used in the United States per day. 
15. Nearly one-half of the water used by Americans is used for thermoelectric power generation.
16. In one year, the average American residence uses over 100,000 gallons (indoors and outside).
17. It takes six and a half years for the average American residence to use the amount of water required to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool (660,000 gallons).
18. It takes seven and a half years for the average American residence to use the same amount of water that flows over the Niagara Falls in one second (750,000 gallons).
19. American residents use about 100 gallons of water per day.
20. Americans use more water each day by flushing the toilet than they do by showering or any other activity.
21. In 1900, 25,000 American’s died of typhoid. By 1960, thanks to the use of chlorine in water treatment, that number dropped to 20.
22. At 50 gallons per day, residential Europeans use about half of the water that residential Americans use.
23. Residents of sub-Saharan Africa use only 2-5 gallons of water per day.
24. The average faucet flows at a rate of 2 gallons per minute.  You can save up to four gallons of water every morning by turning off the faucet while you brush your teeth. 
25. Taking a bath requires up to 70 gallons of water.  A five-minute shower uses only 10 to 25 gallons.
26. A running toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water per day.
27. The New York City water supply system leaks 36 million gallons per day.
28. If you drink your daily recommended 8 glasses of water per day from the tap, it will cost you about 50 cents per year. If you choose to drink it from water bottles, it can cost you up to $1,400 dollars. 
29. There are approximately one million miles of water pipeline and aqueducts in the United States and Canada, enough to circle Earth 40 times.
30. The first water pipes in the US were made from wood (bored logs that were charred with fire). 
31. The first municipal water filtration works opened in Paisley, Scotland in 1832
32. A gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds.
33. A cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 pounds
34. An inch of water covering one acre (27,154 gallons) weighs 113 tons.
35. Water vaporizes at 212 degrees F, 100 degrees C.
36. It takes more water to manufacture a new car (39,090 gallons) than to fill an above ground swimming pool.
37. It takes more than ten gallons of water to produce one slice of bread.
38. Over 713 gallons of water go into the production of one cotton T-shirt. 
39. 1000 gallons of water are required to produce 1 gallon of milk.
40. Roughly 634 gallons of water go into the production of one hamburger.
41. Water is the only substance found on earth naturally in three forms: solid, liquid and gas.
42. At 1 drip per second, a faucet can leak 3,000 gallons per year.
43. Water makes up between 55-78% of a human’s body weight.

Water Pollution in India

Water pollution is becoming a huge problem which is faced by all of the human existence and as well as by every wild life species. According to present scales for pollution of water, 10 to 15 billion pounds full of waste materials like garbage is threw in different seas and rivers of the entire world. Not only had this, now, as per the latest records for water pollution in India; had 20 billion gallons of drinking water pollution also dumped in running rivers and seas. Water pollution is associated with the contamination of water bodies like lake, river, ocean and groundwater. It occurs when various pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly in water bodies without adequate treatment of the harmful waste substance or without the removal of harmful waste compounds. Water is typically referred to as polluted when it is impaired by anthropogenic contaminants and either does not support a human use or undergoes a marked shift in its ability to support its constituent biotic communities, such as fish.

A small quantity of a toxic chemical may have little impact if it is spilled into the ocean from a ship. But the same amount of the same chemical can have a much bigger impact pumped into a lake or river, where there is less clean water to disperse it. Surface water and groundwater have often been studied and managed as separate resources, although they are interrelated. Sources of surface water pollution are generally grouped into two categories based on their origin. They are i) point- source and ii) non- point source. Point source pollution refers to contaminants that enter a waterway through a discrete conveyance, such as a pipe or ditch. It mainly includes waste coming out from factories, industries, sewage treatment and city drains. Non- point source pollution refers to diffuse contamination that does not originate from single discrete sources. NPS pollution is often the cumulative effect of small amounts of contaminants gathered from a large area. The leaching out of nitrogen compounds from agricultural land which has been fertilized is a typical example.

Water pollution is caused mainly by toxic pollutants, organic substances (entry of manure and sewage), and use of pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers in agriculture, allowing cattle to graze near waterways often results in washing away of organic ways, it can be contaminated by radioactive waste material, improper disposal of hazardous chemicals drain toxic chemicals into water bodies, mild acid and bases also contribute in water pollution. Pathogens also enter in water bodies and contaminate it. Organic compounds such as volatile organic compounds, detergents, food processing waste, petroleum and hydrocarbons also severely affect the environment. Inorganic compounds include acidity, ammonia and chemical waste and heavy metals such as lead etc.

DO YOU KNOW>Water pollution has been suggested that it is the leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases, and that it accounts for the deaths of more than 14,000 people daily. An estimated 700 million Indians have no access to a proper toilet, and 1,000 Indian children die of diarrheal sickness every day. Some 90% of China's cities suffer from some degree of water pollution, and nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water. In addition to the acute problems of water pollution in developing countries, industrialized countries continue to struggle with pollution problems as well. In the most recent national report on water quality in the United States, 45 percent of assessed stream miles, 47 percent of assessed lake acres, and 32 percent of assessed bay and estuarine square miles were classified as polluted.

Water pollution has become indispensible part of our life and we can find its presence everywhere. It has many devastating effects on aquatic as well as on human life. It leads to eutrophication due to which marine life is severely affected. A number of waterborne diseases are produced by the pathogens present in polluted water, affecting humans and animals alike such as cholera or typhoid. Pollution affects the chemistry of water. The pollutants, including toxic chemicals, can alter the acidity, conductivity and temperature of water. As per the records, about 14000 people perish or incur various communicable diseases due to the consumption of contaminated drinking water. The concentration of bacteria and viruses in polluted water causes increase in solids suspended in the water body, which, in turn, leads to health problems. Marine life becomes deteriorated due to water pollution. Lethal killing of fish and aquatic plants in rivers, oceans and seas is an after effect of water contamination only. Diseases affecting the heart, poor circulation of blood and the nervous system and ailments like skin lesion, cholera and diarrhoea are often linked to the harmful effects of water pollution. Carcinogenic pollutants found in polluted water might cause cancer. Alteration in the chromosomal makeup of the future generation is foreseen, as a result of water pollution. Discharges from power stations reduce the availability of oxygen in the water body, in which they are dumped. The flora and fauna of rivers, sea and oceans is adversely affected by water pollution.

There are several steps that can be taken to help prevent water pollution from getting worse.

• Water pollution can be prevented by conservation of soil as soil erosion is one of the biggest causes of water pollution today. When we take initiative to conserve soil, we also conserve water and water life. Planting vegetative covers, strict erosion management and implementing beneficial farming methods are just a few of the many possible approaches to soil conservation.
• Utilization of a green infrastructure approach to improve stormwater management capacity throughout the system, and reduce the hydraulic overloading of the treatment plant is an effective way to conserve water.
• Repairing and replacement of leaking and malfunctioning equipment should be done to ensure proper working of machines up to their potential.
• Toxic chemicals should be properly disposed and there should be minimum use of volatile organic compounds (VOC).
• Minimal use of plastics should be done in order to prevent fresh extraction and mining.
• Awareness should be spread among the common people so that they can come forward to reduce water pollution.
• Limited use of fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides should be there in order to reduce the concentration of harmful pollutants in water sources.
• Industrial waste should be treated properly before it is discharged to the water bodies.

These steps may not look so effective but when a millions of people develop into a concerned citizen then surely they would be able to achieve control over water pollution.

Effects of Marine Pollution

The beauty of our earth is that its ecology is perfect for the growth and development of all forms of biological life. The major component of this ecology is land, air and water bodies of all kinds. Oceans make up the main part of water bodies on the earth and are also home to a large number and wide variety of species or life forms. Over the years and especially in modern times, surplus human activities have adversely affected the marine life. The most important ill effect has been pollution. Incidents of oil spills, industrial waste dumping, garbage disposal and accumulation of various toxic materials as wastes, from many processes has polluted almost all the major aquatic bodies around the globe.

Causes of Marine Pollution

Though, the causes of this serious state of marine bodies are many, there are those that stand out amongst the rest. Oil spills are becoming a major hazard as tankers and cargo ships discharge it either deliberately or accidentally. Poisonous materials like PCBs, mercury, PAHs and dioxins along with other radioactive wastes that are disposed into these bodies cause enormous marine pollution. In addition to these, the damage occurring due to the large scale and insensitive disposal of human wastes and sewage contents into oceans is unimaginable. Moreover, the dead organic matter that remains in the water causes further pollution that is very dangerous to the existing life forms.

Effects of Marine Pollution

The effects of the marine pollution are as huge and varied as the causes themselves. The oil pollution results in disruptions to the cycle of coral reefs, clogging of the gills of fishes thereby resulting in their death and hampering the process of photosynthesis of marine plants leading to their end. Oil pollution on a large scale also indirectly affects areas that may not have seen the spill. The disposal of toxic wastes has both direct and indirect effect on marine life and equally hazardous consequence on the human race as we are closely linked with aquatic life forms in many ways. Toxins along with garbage deplete the oxygen content of the water thus making it impossible for many life forms including bigger species like whales, dolphins, penguins, shark, iguana and seals to survive.

Some of these substances like the normal DDTs and pesticides accumulate in the fatty acids of animals and results in the failure of reproductive system of some of the species especially mammals.  Apart from these, activities like farming, forestry and mining if not done with care lead to sediments being deposited in the waters and impacts adversely both plant as well as animal life in the oceans.  Plastic debris, discarded fishing nets and other similar items that are there purely because of human negligence act as severe agents of marine pollution and have an effect that cannot be imagined unless witnessed. The large scale death of animals due to plastic consumption like the sea turtles who consume it thinking it to be jellyfish is an example.