Steam Center Blog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisalpur_Dam#/media/File:Bisalpur_Dam.jpg    A tremendous increase of human population has taken place over the last century leading to a water crisis in both urban and rural habitations. The present note addresses this issue. A special reference is made to Jaipur city in Northwestern India but much of the note has value for cities elsewhere too. We shall begin with some essential fundamentals about water and then suggest immediate short-term and long-term solutions to the water crisis. Fundamentals of Water Use Along with light and air, water is the basis for life. Poor water quality and inadequate availability of water severely compromises quality of life and living. Therefore, it must be the top most priority for any society and its government. There is no shortage of water on the planet for all life that dwells on it. What may however lack is its proper management and distribution. Thos...

Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_day_in_the_rural_life_in_India_2013.jpg Silver in Pot (SIP) Method I nfant mortality rates are some of the highest in India and other south Asian countries and a major cause of this is polluted water primarily for drinking and some for washing hands before meals, mouth wash, washing fruits and vegetables that are eaten raw. With increasing population, pollution of water bodies has increased. Use of outdoors as toilets has increased such pollution. As a result drinking water has become less than healthy in most areas. While the rich are able to use expensive devices to purify the water, the poor manage without any. For some, even boiling and cooling water for drinking is too expensive or too time consuming. The result is that health of all suffers and when it comes to the most vulnerable – infants and children - many die as a result of it. While an effort is needed on many fronts to improve the quality of wat...

   River Ganges in Rishikesh F or long those living in the shadows of Himalayas have heard and experienced that harmful microbes do not survive in the water of Ma Ganga or River Ganges and that water brought from the Ganges and stored at home does not spoil. This was even more true in earlier times when there were fewer dams and pollution on the river to change its quality in drastic ways. Could there be a scientific reason for that? The possible scientific reason is that some of the dissolved minerals in this water are silver (perhaps also copper). It would exist in the ores that lie in it path in the Himalayas and silver even in very microscopic quantities does that as proven by recent scientific studies. The principle is employed in some municipal towns in Mexico of ridding municipal supply of dangerous bacteria. See this note in a companion blog on silver and these studies, http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2015/06/antibiotic-of-gods-silver.html In ...

  With a huge population on the planet, increasing use of chemicals and pollution, good healthy drinking water is becoming increasingly rare and many humans are managing with less than the best of drinking water just as they are managing with less than the best of good air to breathe. While with the help of modern medical intervention one may increase compromised life spans, the best quality of life becomes a far cry when humans miss out on sunshine, pure air, water and food. Perhaps the only way for humans missing out on sunshine and good quality air is to change their life styles and place of living. The best quality food may be obtained when one prepares one’s food from basic ingredients (as opposed to factory processed food) that are organic or near organic and well washed in case of fruits and vegetables. It is also possible to get good quality drinking water if one knows how to. Just a few simple steps will do. That is the focus of the present note. It may be ment...

The lake at Nainital, a town in the Himalayas W ith a rising population on our planet, particularly in cities, ensuring fresh water supplies of a good quality is an issue facing many cities around the world. Cities derive their water from surface sources such as lakes and rivers or from underground sources. It seems that in India two thirds of fresh water requirements are met by ground water. With an increase in human activity both sources of water are getting depleted besides getting polluted. Surface water is polluted if waste water from cities and industries is dumped directly into natural lakes and rivers without treatment. Such pollution can be reduced if  water is first directed/dumped into artificial canals and lakes instead. From here it purifies slowly by bacterial action and the water that seeps into ground is purified by filtration through soil. However some pollutants such as nitrates from fertilizers that dissolve in water can reach ground reservoirs pollu...

Q. Will our cities become short of water with expansion? As cities expand a greater pressure is being put on water resources required to meet the needs of urban populations in cities around the world. There is a need to maintain adequate water supply as well as the quality of the water supplied so that health of urban dwellers does not deteriorate. It must be remembered that water for the most part is not destroyed by use. With proper recycling and management, urban dwellers need not suffer water shortage. This point needs to be highlighted before we proceed, With proper management and recycling, urban areas can avoid shortages and poor quality of water Q. What is the proper and inexpensive way to recycle water? There is a proper way to recycle water and an improper way. The proper way mimics natural processes through which water has been recycled on land for millions of year, which is collecting it in ponds where an initial purification takes place by aerobic and anaero...

Nainital Lake O ver the last century, human population has grown and along with it there has been a tremendous growth in cities. A direct consequence of this growth is that urban populations in many cities across the world are facing water shortages. Along with sunshine and fresh air, water is a primary requirement for life and any shortage in its supply spells a diminished quality of life. There are primarily three sources of water available to human populations – rain, surface water such as lakes and rivers and lastly ground water. The source of all three is rain that rises from the abundant oceans on the planet. However with increasing use and population growth, both surface and ground water is not only getting depleted but also getting polluted. Whenever water shortages occur there is often a cry to conserve water. One basic point is forgotten in this cry – WATER CANNOT BE DESTROYED – by most natural processes. It requires chemical and other possesses such as electrol...