attention... at high temperatures...Atoms disperse.. next year may have to wear an glue suit

Heat wave continues in Punjab, Haryana

Beware u may melt....on seeing the pity full sun outside

CHANDIGARH: Hisar recorded its hottest day in over a decade as it sizzled at 48 degree Celsius on Saturday with searing heat sweeping Haryana and Punjab.

The Haryana town was hotter by seven degrees than normal at 48 degree Celsius, the previous highest being 48.8 deg C on May 26, 1998.

As severe heat gripped the region, Ambala and Karnal also braved a hot day at 42 deg C and 43.6 deg C respectively, each up by four degrees.

Chandigarh had no relief from heat, with the maximum settling at 42 deg C, up by four degrees. Severe heat swept Punjab towns, with most places recording the season's highest maximum so far.

In Punjab, blistering heat swept Amritsar and Ludhiana which sizzled at 44.7 deg C and 44.5 deg C respectively, both recording an increase of six degrees above normal.

Water Conservation Methods

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RISHAV Requests all to SAVE WATER

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Water Conservation Methods / Conserving is No Longer an Option


Water conservation should not be considered an option any longer. Current circumstances require our full attention if we hope to thrive as a civilization. If these statements sound dramatic, it is because much of the world is currently suffering due to a lack of clean water.

Statistics around the reveal that our fresh water supply is practically nonexistent. That is why it is so important to seek out, find and start using all the innovative water conservation solutions andmethods that are available today.

Whether you live in Australia, India or China or the US, it is time to wake up and take responsiblity. It is easy to practice water conservation in the home, but there is more to be done. Our world needs help on a commercial level as well so that our waste can be controlled in such areas as agriculture and irrigation.

Water Conservation ideas are cropping up in exciting legislation. That's why our participation in the voting process is so important. Let's act now, so our kids will have a brighter, greener future.


Water Conservation Methods / The Stats


As the population of the world grows exponentially, our drinkable water supply remains at about 1 percent of the total water present on Earth.
-Photo to the left is by A.J. French.-
These statistics may not seem real to you if you are fortunate to live in an area that has the resources to supply your needs. But the truth is millions of living souls are suffering because of a lack of this vital resource.

Water consumption, whether it be in the household, through industry and manufacturing or in agriculture, must be given the consideration it deserves. And although special programs are conducted every year to increase the awareness of conservation, we as citizens of this planet, need to participate in water conserving activities if we hope to sustain our way of life.


Water Conservation Methods / For the Household 

Huge amounts of water are lost every year due to unattended faucet leaks, using outdated appliances, excessive clothes washing, showering, washing cars, gardening, and other everyday household activities.

Water Conservation Methods / What You Can Do 

• Turn off water while you are brushing your teeth and open it when you need to rinse your mouth.

• Take shallow baths and plug the drain before you run water. Keep showers short with pressure at low force. Re-use bath water to water your lawn or shrubs or for heavy cleaning jobs like floors or cars.

• Install Dual Flush toilets in the home... more on this below.

• Buy the washing machines or dishwashers that have AAA ratings and that are ranked as energy efficient.

• Get rain tanks and collect the rainwater in them. That water can be used for gardening and washing cars.

• Use mulch around the trees and plants in your lawn. This keeps in moisture longer so that use will need less water to keep your lawn and plants healthy.


Water Conservation Methods / The Matter of Irrigation
There is also a need to conserve water while irrigating land. Many people are still using obsolete methods for irrigation that waste huge amounts of water.

Some solutions to stop water loss in irrigation are:

• Buy improved irrigation hardware and equipment that is optimized for water conservation while covering larger areas at the same time. Pressurized systems, improved furrows and sprinklers can be used in farms to save huge amounts of water.

• Devise proper scheduling systems and improved water management techniques to irrigate depending upon the type of crops, predictions about the weather and type of land.

• Use better canal systems since they contribute towards water conservation. Saved water can be used later.

DROUGHT IN VIDARBHA

The colour of water 
Two years of drought has started to take its toll on the people of Vidarbha, with a failed crop leaving them with no income to tide over the crisis, writes P Sainath. 


02 May 2010 - He's a butcher out of business. "I want to shift to a town like Panderkauda," says Sarfaraz Qureshi in Yavatmal district. "I'm unable to sell any meat in the villages I work in." Qureshi is a small operator who carries as much meat as he can load on to his motorcycle to poor tribal villages on the forest edge. And there he sells at very low prices. "Yet my business has collapsed," he says. But why? Have people in those villages stopped consuming meat? Are they now unable to afford even his prices?

"These past months, they're eating more meat than ever before," says Qureshi. "Only, it's free. The forests are stone dry and the drought has seen many wild animals coming out these past months to the fields and farms in search of water - only to be trapped and eaten. So how can I sell any meat? I've made many trips and sold nothing." There is no aspect of life in Vidarbha that has not been impacted by the severe water scarcity.

Matter of life and death

In the village of Jaulkhed in Akola we meet a baby deer that strolled in with the goats returning from grazing. A sympathetic village has adopted the young creature, who seems at ease with his new world. Other wildlife has been less fortunate. Boar, deer and even peacocks coming out of the forest or woods for water have been eaten by hungry villagers. The desperate search for water is a matter of life and, literally, death.

Vidarbha is not a very low rainfall region. Some of its districts get 900 mm or more a year on average. But the last two years have been bad. Rainfall has either been very deficient or highly erratic in timing and intensity.

Across rural Amravati, Akola, Washim and Yavatmal, almost every human being you see between 6 and 10 a.m. in the morning (and often at other hours, too) is collecting or searching for water. If they're women or even tiny girls, they're carrying vessels, empty or full, on their heads. If men, they're riding some sort of cart or bicycle trying to collect as much water as they can find. This sometimes means fiddling with the valves of pipelines or just marauding any well they can. Wells that still have some water, that is.

One group talks to us while emptying such a well. "Look at this water," says one of them smiling, showing us a brownish liquid in his battered can. Meanwhile, some of Vidarbha's reservoirs are approaching or have arrived at dead storage levels. That is, at levels from which the water cannot be lifted or transported.

"In some of our villages," says Vasudev Ingle in Kinkhed in Akola district, "you can get water through the formal supply once in 10 or 12 days." Maya Ove of Dharel village, carrying three pots on her head, each atop the other, stops to agree. "This takes hours of our time every day." Even the livestock you see are searching for water. And wild animals are wandering into the farms or villages looking for it.

Vidarbha is not a very low rainfall region. Some of its districts get 900 mm or more a year on average. But the last two years have been bad. Rainfall has either been very deficient or highly erratic in timing and intensity. The drought of mid-2009 really took its toll on people from February and March this year. Had the 2009 crop not failed in the drought, the income from that would have come in fully in February and March. In single crop areas, which most of this region really is, crop failure means up to 24 months without income. Two successive failures could mean up to 34 months that way. A third is too awful to contemplate in a region already beset by crisis, farm suicides and man-made calamity.

Across rural Amravati, Akola, Washim and Yavatmal, almost every human being you see in the morning is collecting or searching for water.

"The water position is very serious," says Amravati Divisional Commissioner Dinesh Waghmere. Five of Vidarbha's six ?crisis' districts fall in this division which has had 3,465 of its villages declared as scarcity-hit. "Most reservoirs are running at levels of 8-10 per cent or even much less. In Yavatmal, there are some at dead storage level." At that stage, it serves only to keep the fish alive. In Pentakli in Buldhana district, for instance, the level is 0.98 per cent. In Arunavati in Yavatmal, it's at 3.21 per cent. In Bembla in the same district, it is almost dry.

Groundwater crisis

The groundwater crisis is no less acute. Over extraction, misuse and illegal "water mining" have combined with other factors to push the water table ever lower. In some talukas, says a geologist with the Groundwater Survey and Development Authority (GSDA), the depletion has been three metres in five years and eight since 2000. Lack of rain does not help an already poor recharge. Meteorological drought has combined with its hydrological counterpart to sharpen the problem. "For years, strengthening water sources and helping improve recharge - these vital things were never taken up in this region," says a senior official. "Now we're paying the price." And the effects of water-related projects under both Prime Minister's and Chief Minister's packages, if any, are invisible.

The heat is on, quite literally. Afternoon temperatures cross 45°C or worse. That 8 to 10 hour power cuts end up crossing 14 hours "unofficially", does little to improve tempers.

Administrators locally have stepped up the number of tankers carrying water to villagers. Yavatmal has over 200 functioning, Buldhana 61, Washim 55 and so on. The local administrations have also been requisitioning private wells for Rs.300 a day on average and supplying water from there to a desperate people. "Even those are running out," says one official. We can add more tankers, but where's the water?"

Some are counting the days to June 15 by which time they hope the rains arrive. Yavatmal Collector Sanjay Deshmukh is going to release water from what remains in a few days from now. "What's the point of holding on to it with people in such need of it?" he asks. "The amount there is, we will lose it anyway to evaporation. It's at such levels. Better people get to drink it than watch it dry up."

Meanwhile Qureshi, who has watched it dry up, is seeking renewal of his licence to operate in Panderkauda town. "I'm done with my old circuit," he says. "The villages are no place to sell meat."
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P Sainath 
02 May 2010

Union Budget 2010 should focus on environment

Amid the global focus on climate change and initiatives required to save the world from the environment crisis, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) submitted specific recommendations for the Union Budget 2010 aimed at the very same issue.

Considering the fact that installation of energy efficient technologies often involve signification costs along with the accelerated depreciation, which is provided currently currently, a tax credit should be provided equal to 150pc of expenditure incurred on cost and installation of energy saving technologies, CII said in its first suggestion.

For promoting installation of energy conservation or improvement technologies in the real estate sector, CII recommended a tax deductionto individuals for undertaking such investment in the house or property they are living in and also to builders who invest in these technologies while constructing green buildings.

Based on the observation that tax deduction has always stimulated individuals to save or invest more, CII recommended tax incentives to individuals for investing in companies engaged in generation of renewable energy or similar businesses resulting in water efficiency, carbon emission reduction, resulting in higher cash flow to these industries.

To encourage the use of environment-friendly petrol private cars with low emissions and high fuel efficiency, a higher rate of depreciation should be offered to buyers of environment-friendly petrol private cars, CII said in a statement released on Monday, Jan 18.

CII's fifth recommendation said that the benefits of tax holiday under section 80IA of the ITA could be extended to undertakings engaged in the manufacture of advanced energy efficient products, manufacturers of equipments used in solar, wind, and other environment friendly resources.

In its sixth recommendation, CII proposed tax credits to encourage water conservation through deduction in income tax and more.