Groundwater vanishing in north India, says NASA

Groundwater levels in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi are falling dramatically – by one foot a year – a trend that could lead to “extensive socio-economic stresses” for the region’s 114 million residents, says a scientific paper based on National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s satellite imagery.

A staggering 109 cubic km of groundwater has been lost in just six years (2002 to 2008) – a figure twice the capacity of India’s largest surface reservoir Upper Wainganga and “much more” than the government’s estimation, says the paper published in the latest issue of the international journal Nature.

The depletion owes entirely to human activity such as irrigation, and not natural climatic variability, concluded the study co-authored by Matthew Rodell, a hydrologist with NASA. Groundwater is being pumped out faster than it is being replenished.

The finding is based on images from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), a pair of satellites that senses changes in Earth’s gravity field and associated mass distribution, including water masses stored above or below the Earth’s surface.

Between August 2002 and October 2008, the region lost 109 cubic km of groundwater, almost triple the capacity of the largest manmade reservoir in the U.S., Lake Mead.

If measures are not taken to ensure sustainable groundwater use, consequences may include collapse of agricultural output and severe shortages of potable water, said Professor Rodell.

Depletion is likely to continue until effective measures are taken to curb groundwater demand which could propel severe shortages of potable water, reduced agricultural productivity, conflict and suffering, the research paper added. Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi are semi-arid or arid. The region has benefited from the Green Revolution “fuelled largely by increased production of groundwater for irrigation.”

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Caught up in samsara

What is the nature of people caught up in samsara? What characterizes them? They are those who do not know themselves, do not know god and know nothing about serving god.

There are those who have the means to be generous, but lack the generosity. There are others who have the willingness to give, but lack the means.

God, however, is one who can give and is also willing to give. But here too, there is a problem. If there is a giver, there must be a receiver.

God is willing to give, but we, caught up in samsaric bonds, are not ready to receive, said Kidambi Narayanan in a lecture.

So it is to make us see that He is a benevolent giver and to make us good recipients of His grace, that God took many avatars and lived in the midst of human beings.

But not all people recognize God even when He is in their midst.

The Vishnu Puranam gives an example to illustrate the ignorance and the self-satisfied nature of ‘samsaris,’ who are under the illusion that their lives will go on without any catastrophe. But no one can afford to be complacent.

When the rainy season ends, the lakes are full of water. Fish therein enjoy the abundance of water and become as fat as elephant calves. They are so stout that they can hardly move. They think this bounty will last forever, but before they know it the water dries up and they die.

Similarly, man thinks that his cosy life will last forever, and he has no thoughts of God. In fact, he has no time to spare for God.

He does not acknowledge that his relatives will be gone one day.

He forgets his own mortality. But loss is a part of life, and one day the man so engrossed in life will also die.

Should we not then think of the Atma, instead of being obsessed with life on this earth? But we are caught in the ocean of ‘samsara,’ and do not know how to get out. In fact, we don’t even try to get out.

That is why Periavachan Pillai said a person who is involved in samsaric life is one who leaves his body in the shade and his soul in the sun.

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Before you have a massage

If a person is looking for any sorts of massage, he or she has to follow the necessary conditions for physical well-being. One of the main steps is to consult with the physician, especially child, pregnancy women and ill persons. This aids to stick away from the unwanted side effects of massage practice. Also massage therapist can take a confidential medical history from you and have to sign necessary formalities. Your medical history can review deeply, and then they decide if massage is safe for you and then develop comprehensive treatment plan.

Also massage practitioner will give you of their particular technique and approach on massages. They are also supposed to ask what you can expect from a massage treatment. They will also inform that if you deserve any pain or discomfort, suddenly you should inform to them for better recovery of treatment. Massage is the relaxing method to relieve stress, pain and more. So the patient can also feel comfort with dress, atmosphere, and massage therapists. Thus he could enjoy the benefits of massage thoroughly. The patient can also overlook on the products to be imposed on the body like oil, lotions, and towel etc. it aids to stop skin allergies.

Massage can also performed by health care professionals such as physical therapists, occupational therapists, or massages practitioners. But one should always go beyond with well-trained therapists. It is generally safe to the patients. If it performed incorrectly, it is not good to your health. Get awareness of massage better before step in to massage sessions and enjoy the benefits.

But massage cannot enjoy by everyone. For some people, it may be dangerous. A person who had experience in any one the following health issues like a recent heart attack, cancer, severe osteoporosis, high fever, allergy to massage oils, unhealed fractures, deep vein thrombosis, unstable heart conditions, he is supposed to discuss with the doctors before making an appointment to massage parlors. Otherwise it can encourage internal bleeding, nerve damage, and temporary paralysis. You can talk to your massage therapists if you experience these disorders, they may put in better situations.

It is also essential to drink plenty of water before and after the massage sessions if you want a happy ending massage! It is best to engage the massage that suits for you and feel better. It is also best not to have eaten before a session. Consumption of alcohol should be also avoided. It is unreliable to be massaged on a burn, infected skin, herpes or cold sores, bruises, swellings or open cuts.

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Precipitation

Precipitation that falls on the land either evaporates, flows across the surface, or soaks into the ground. Water moving across the surface is called runoff. Water that moves across the land as a small body of running water is called stream. A stream drains an area of land known as the stream. A stream drains an area of land known as the stream drainage basin or watershed. The watershed of one stream is separated from the watershed of another by a line called a divide. Water that collects as a small body of standing water is called a pond, and a larger body is called a lake. A reservoir is a natural pond, a natural lake, or a lake or pond created by building a dam for water management or control. The water of streams, ponds, lakes, and reservoirs is collectively called surface water.

Precipitation that soaks into the ground percolates downward until it reaches a zone of saturation. Water from the saturated zone is called groundwater. The amount of water that a material will hold depends on its porosity, and how well the water can move through the material depends on its permeability. The surface of the zone of saturation is called the water table.

The ocean is the single, continuous body of salt water on the surface of the ocean with different characteristics. The dissolved materials in seawater are mostly the ions of six substances, but sodium ions and chlorine ions are the most abundant. Salinity is a measure of the mass of salts dissolved in 1,000 grams of seawater.

An ocean wave is a moving disturbance that travels across the surface of the ocean. In its simplest form a wave has a ridge called a crest and a depression called a trough. Waves have a characteristic wave height, wavelength, and wave period. The characteristics a of waves made by the wind depend on the wind speed, the time the wind blows, and the fetch. Regular groups of low-profile, long-wavelength waves are called swell. When swell approaches a shore, the time the wind blows, and the fetch. Regular groups of low-profile, long-wavelength waves are called swell. When swell approaches a shore, the waves so they approach the shore head-on. When the wave height becomes too steep, the top part breaks forward, forming breakers in the surf zone. Water accumulates at the shore from the breakers and returns to the sea as undertow, as longshore currents, or in rip currents.

Earthquakes or undersea landslides produce large, destructive waves called tsunamis. Tsunamis do not have a large wave height at open sea, but they can do tremendous damage when they reach a low coastal area. A tide moving in or out of a narrow bay can produce a wave called a tidal bore.

Ocean currents are streams of water that move through other seawater over large distances. Some ocean currents are density currents, which are caused by differences in water temperature, salinity, or suspended sediments. Each ocean has a great system of moving water called a gyre that is centered in mid-latitudes. Different parts of a gyre are given different names such as the Gulf Stream or the California Current.

The ocean floor is made up of the continental shelf, the continental slope, and the ocean basin. The ocean basin has two main parts, the abyssal plain and mountain chains called ridges.

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Water and the Atmosphere

Water exists on the earth in all three states: (1) as a liquid when the temperature is generally above the freezing point of 0 C (32F), (2) as a solid in the form of ice, snow, or hail when the temperature is generally below the freezing point, and (3) as the invisible, molecular form of water in the gaseous state, which is called water vapor.

Over 98 percent of all the water on the earth exists in the liquid state, mostly in the ocean, and only a small, variable amount of water vapor is in the atmosphere at any given time. Since so much water seems to falls as rain or snow at times, it may be a surprise that the overall atmosphere really does not contain very much water vapor. If the average amount of water vapor in the earth’s atmosphere were condensed to liquid form, the vapor and all the droplets present in clouds would form a uniform layer around the earth only 3 cm (about 1 in) thick. Nonetheless, it is this small amount of water vapor that is eventually responsible for (1) contributing to the greenhouse effect, which helps make the earth a warmer planet, (2) serving as one of the principal agents in the weathering and erosion of the land, which creates soils and sculptures the landscape, and (3) maintains life, for almost all plants and animals cannot survive without water. If is the ongoing cycling of water vapor into and out of the atmosphere that makes all this possible. Understanding this cycling possible. Understanding this cycling process and the energy exchanges involved is also closely related to understanding the earth’s weather patterns.

Water tends to undergo a liquid–to-gas or a gas-to-liquid phase change at any temperature. The temperature of liquid water and the temperature of water vapor are associated with the average kinetic energy of the water molecules. The word average implies that some of the molecules have a greater kinetic energy and some have less. If a molecule of water that has an exceptionally high kinetic energy is near the surface, and is headed in the right direction, it may overcome the attractive forces of the other water molecules and escape the liquid to become a gas. This is the process of evaporation. A supply of energy must be present to maintain the process of evaporation, and the water robs this energy from the surroundings. This explains why water at a higher temperature evaporates more rapidly than water at a lower temperature. More energy is a available at higher temperatures to maintain the process at a faster rate.

Water molecules that evaporate move about in all directions and some will strike the liquid surface. The same forces that it escaped from earlier now capture the molecule, returning it to the liquid state. This is called the process of condensation. Condensation is the opposite of evaporation. In evaporation, more molecules are leaving the liquid state than are returning. In condensation, more molecules are returning to the liquid state than are leaving. This is a dynamic, ongoing process with molecules leaving and returning continuously. If the air were perfectly dry and still, more molecules would leave (evaporate) the liquid state than would return (condense). Eventually, however, an equilibrium would be reached with as many molecules returning to the liquid state per unit of time as are leaving. An equilibrium condition between evaporation and condensation occurs in saturated as long as (1) the temperature remains constant and (2) the processes of evaporation and condensation remain balanced. Temperature influences the equilibrium condition of saturated air because increases or deceases in the temperature mean increases or decreases in the kinetic energy of water vapor molecules. Water vapor molecules. Water vapor molecules usually undergo condensation when attractive forces between the molecules can pull them together into the liquid state. Lower temperature means lower kinetic energies, and slow-moving water vapor molecules spend more time close to one another and close to the surface of liquid water. Spending more time close together means an increased likelihood of attractive forces pulling the molecules together. On the other hand, higher temperature means higher kinetic energies, and molecules with higher kinetic energy are less likely to be pulled together. As the temperature increases, there is therefore less tendency for water molecules to return to the liquid state. If the temperature is increased in an equilibrium condition, more water vapor must be added to the air to maintain the saturated condition. Warm air can therefore hold more water vapor than cooler air. In fact, warm air on a typical summer day can hold five times as much water vapor as cold air on a cold winter day.

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Water and child

Child development is closely related to water in all its aspects. At birth the total weight of the infant is 73% of fluids. Adult having 58% of fluids. Important of water in children:-

1. Children need more water than adults because of their large consumption of energy.
2. Young Infants do not require any addition food or water or any other drinks.
3. Breast milk alone is adequate to meet the hydration requirement even under the extremely hot & dry summer.
4. Infants easy to get dehydration because of infants rate of metabolism is increased that adult.
5. Introduction of semisolid foods during second half of the first year.
6. During this period given small amount of fluids if introduction of water to mix the weaning food & fruit juice.
7. Children should be encourage to drink water if they are not thirst.
8. Child health & development can be affected by contaminated drinking water.
9. Today many children bottled sodapopar soft drinks to be taken.
10. Soft drinks contain sugar & caffine, it leads to child dehydration.
11. If the children taking unhygienic & contaminated water to develop water- born infections disease.

Water Born Diseases:-
Bacterial infections:-
-Botalism
– Cholera, E- coil, Dysintery, Leptospirosis, Salmonellosis, Typhoid fever
Viral Infection:-
Gastro enteritis, SARS (CORONO VIRUS), Hepatitis A, Poliomyelitis
Protozol Infection:-
Amoebiasis, Giardiasis
PARASITI INFECTION:-
-Taeniasis – Ascariasis, Enterobiasis.

Preventive Measures:-
1. Advice the Parents 5-6 months of child’s to given exclusive breast feeding.

2. Explain the family members to be maintained clean environment.

3. Drinking water for the baby should be given boiled & cold water at least for the first year of life.

4. Advice the child to practice good hand washing technique after toileting and before eating.

5. Advice the mother stored water should be kept in covered pot & taken out with a long handle mug.

6. Advice the parents to be given immunization to prevent some of the water born infection e.g. polio, Typhoid, Hepatitis, A,

7. Advice the parents soft drinks can leads to diabetes, Obesity & Oestoporosis, to be avoid soft drinks given to the children.

8. Advice the Parents water is directly related to the prevention & Cure of child hood asthma with out medication.

So the children encourage to more amount of hygienic water taken.

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Get Sporty

* Sportswear-soft fabrics should only be used. Avoid bright shades as it increases the heat in the body.
* Shoes-comfortable shoes that is neither too big, nor too tight. Have enough room for your feel to breath.
* Water bottle-since you will be working out for a long hours, always carry a water bottle filled with water.
* Towels-Get nice absorbent towels.
* Instant pain-relievers (sprays and tablets)-Being a sports person, one will be prone to injurious and first Aid are very useful for it. Carrying a spray painkiller would be advisable to get quick relief.

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A tomato by other name?

Food safely experts agreed for the first time on the qualities defining a tomato, in a first step toward an international code on preventing fruit and vegetable contamination. Tomatoes are currently the focus of an investigation by U.S. health officials who are looking for the cause of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 922 people in at least 40 states.

World health organization(WHO) scientist peter Ben embarek said the classification of tomatoes based on their size,shape,color,firmness,and defects and accordant rules on tomato labeling, would facilitate trade and eventually make it easier for regulators to impose safety standards.

“now it is much clearer for every body what you call a class 1 tomato, for example, and what you can expect when you buy a class 1 tomato,” Ben embarek said at the end of a week-long meeting of the codex alimentarius commission, a food safety body.

“It is part of an effort of codex to improve the quality and safety of fruit and vegetables,” he said, adding that officials planned to later focus on leafy green vegetables and melon.

“Within a few years you will have safety standards for all these products, looking at where the contamination comes from,” he said, describing risks from soil, water, and wild animals that can result in health problems for consumers. The codex alimentarius, or food code, is a global reference point for producers, processors, regulators and ttraders.its limits for toxins, bacteria and other compounds in food are used by the world trade organization (WTO) as the public health benchmarks countries should be allowed to enforce with import rules. Measures requiring more stringent standards are considered unfair barriers that can be challenged in WTO court.

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Water-melon: minimum calories, maximum use

Most people fond of eating water-melon fruit for its amazing sweetness. It may be eaten in a variety of ways and watermelon rinds are also often used in pickles, candy and even fried dishes. There are number of medical uses of this fleshy fruit. It helps to keep the body cool up during summer. The fruit is loaded with potassium, micro nutrients, vitamin c, low in sodium, no cholesterol and only a small amount of fat. An average water melon has 92 percent of water and the rest being sugar.

Watermelon rinds are also edible and most people do not think much about watermelon rind. The rinds contain citruline they plays an important role in the human body. It is ‘cheap’ in price and can be given to guess that burgers and loaves. It is quite interesting to hear the recipe of water melon ice cream and not everyone knows about it. If you are supposed to see water melon, crab and eat it for various purposes.

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Healthy living by drinking water

Water is one of the world’s most precious resources. It is essential to maintain the right levels of water in our bodies that help to promote good health and stay away from certain diseases. Study says that our body needs 79 percent of water. Drinking more water is the main key in living a healthy life. One should drink 8-10 glasses of water daily. One of the most important benefits of drinking water is keeping the entire body hydrated. Thus helps to function the internal organs properly. It also keeps you young and fresh. It can also increase your energy. Drinking more water can help to flush out the toxins from the body and keep you healthy.

Water is also considered as a ‘weight-loss drug’. It is true that can keep you away from obesity. If a person experience head aches, suddenly he could go with either tea or coffee and pills. But it is unhealthy. He may try out drinking water to cure head ache. Really, it works well. We are supposed to lose fluids from our body daily. It is mandatory to replace it by drinking water. Regular intake of water can keep a strong immune system which protects from a common illness. It will also curb the appetite and help to eat less. You can drink more water to protect your health and well-being. Hydration helps to promote better heath.

Most of the health experts recommend to drink eight glasses of water each day. It aids to tone the body, weight-loss, healthy living and much more. There are many myths and truths about water that the people should know and make use of it. The skin and nails will become fresher by taking large amounts of water. Water loses out from the body through the urinary function and sweat. Drinking water is safe to possess a healthy body. But it is best drink a right kind of water. Today, people are more aware and concentrated more on their drinking water.

Persons with diabetics should consult with their health care providers about their amount of drinking water. Some expert says that it is not healthy to drink more water in the part of diabeticians. It is reliable to drink more water during travel, especially women. It helps to quench your thirsty and healthy too. It also boosts the metabolism and helps to improve digestion. It keeps you fit and strong. It is not fair to dehydrate the body. Dehydration may experience flushed face, severe thirst, impaired concentration, weakness, dark yellow urine, water retention, and dizziness. Now it is a time to drink more water, if you experience any one of these causes. Drink more water during the day time as it will get more energy but take less water during the night time.

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