Distribution of Water and Land

The continental land masses extend in a north-south direction, with

the greatest percentage of land in the Northern Hemisphere (table 3),
and there is a more or less antipodal arrangement of land- and watercovered areas. The North Polar Sea surrounding the North Pole is
opposite to the continent of Antarctica, which is centered on the South
Pole, and the continental land masses represented by Europe, Asia,
and part of Africa are antipodal to the great oceanic area of the South
Pacific. The ocean waters are continuous around Antarctica and extend
northward in three large gulfs between the continents, on the basis
of which three oceans are recognized. The Atlantic Ocean extends from
Antarctica northward and includes the North Polar Sea. It is separated
from the Pacific Ocean by the line forming the shortest distance from
Cape Horn (70W) to the South Shetland Islands, and the boundary
between the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans is placed at the meridian
of the Cape of Good Hope (20E). The boundary between the Pacific
and the Indian Oceans follows the line from the Malay Peninsula
through Sumatra, Java, Timor, Australia (Cape Londonderry), and
Tasmania, and follows the meridian of 147E to Antarctica. In the
north the limit between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans is placed in
Bering Strait, which is only 58 km wide and has a maximum depth of
55 m. Unless otherwise stated, the oceans as defined above are
considered to include the semi-enclosed adjacent seas that connect
with them.
Generally speaking, only three oceans are recognized, but it is
sometimes desirable to make a further division. The waters
surrounding

Distribution of Rainfall in India

Rainfall is the important element of Indian economy. Although the monsoons
effect most part of India, the amount of rainfall varies from heavy to scanty
on different parts. There is great regional and temporal variation in the
distribution of rainfall. Over 80% of the annual rainfall is received in the four
rainy months of June to September. The average annual rainfall is about 125
cm, but it has great spatial variations.
a. Areas of Heavy Rainfall (Over 200cm) : The highest rainfall occurs in
west costs, on the western Ghats as well as the Sub-Himalayan areas

in North East and Meghalaya Hills. Assam, West Bengal, West Coast
and Southern slopes of eastern Himalayas.
b. Areas of Moderately Heavy Rainfall (100-200 cm) : This rainfall occurs
in Southern Parts of Gujarat, East Tamil Nadu, North-eastern
Peninsular, Western Ghats, eastern Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,
Orrisa, the middle Ganga valley.
c. Areas of Less Rainfall (50-100 cm) : Upper Ganga valley, eastern
Rajasthan, Punjab, Southern Plateau of Karnataka, Andhra Pradessh
and Tamil Nadu.
d. Areas of Scanty Rainfall (Less than 50 cm) : Northern part of Kashmir,
Western Rajasthan, Punjab and Deccan Plateau. The two significant
features of India's rainfall is that
i. in the north India, rainfall decreases westwards and ii. in
Peninsular India, except Tamil Nadu, it decreases eastward.

Decision Support Systems for Large Dam

Planning and Operation
The author: Matthew P. McCartney is a Senior Researcher specializing in hydrology and
wetland
utilization at the subregional office for Nile Basin and East Africa of the International
Water
Management Institute (IWMI) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Acknowledgements: This paper is a contribution to a research project entitled
Improved planning
of large dam operation: using decision support systems to optimize livelihood benefits,
safeguard
health and protect the environment. This study is funded by the Challenge Program on
Water
and Food, an initiative of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR).

I am grateful to Yilma Seleshi and Dereje Hailu of Addis Ababa University, Jackie King of
Southern
Waters and Seleshi Bekele, Head of the subregional office for Nile Basin and East Africa
of IWMI,
for comments received on earlier versions. I am also grateful to Rebecca Tharme,
Researcher at
IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka, for her review of the document.

What is Water Pollution?

Water they say is life, and indeed they were right. With about 70% of the
earths cover being water, it undeniably becomes one of our greatest
resources. As young students, we learned about the various ways to conserve
water; coming to think of it, water is used in almost every important human
chores and processes. It is an important element in both domestic as well as
industrial purposes. However a closer inspection of our water resources
today, give us a rude shock.

Causes of Water Pollution

Let us now study the causes of water pollution.
1. Industrial waste: Industries produce huge amount of waste which contains
toxic chemicals and pollutants which can cause air pollution and damage to us
and our environment. They contain pollutants such as lead, mercury, sulphur,
asbestos, nitrates and many other harmful chemicals. Many industries do not
have proper waste management system and drain the waste in the fresh
water which goes into rivers, canals and later in to sea. The toxic chemicals
have the capability to change the color of water, increase the amount of
minerals, also known as Eutrophication, change the temperature of water and
pose serious hazard to water organisms.

- See more at:

Water conservation encompasses the policies, strategies and activities to
manage fresh water as a sustainable resource, to protect the water
environment, and to meet current and future human demand. Population,
household size and growth and affluence all affect how much water is used.
Factors such as climate change will increase pressures on natural water
resources especially in manufacturing and agricultural irrigation
Water purification is the process of removing undesirable chemicals,
biological contaminants, suspended solids and gases from contaminated
water. The goal of this process is to produce water fit for a specific purpose.
Most water is disinfected for human consumption (drinking water) but water
purification may also be designed for a variety of other purposes, including
meeting the requirements of medical, pharmacological, chemical and
industrial applications. In general the methods used include physical
processes such as filtration, sedimentation, and distillation, biological
processes such as slow sand filters or biologically active carbon, chemical
processes
such
as flocculation and chlorination and
the
use
of
electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light.

Wastewater Treatment Process

The task of designing and constructing facilities for treating
wastewaters falls to environmental engineers. They employ a variety
of engineered and natural systems to get the job done, using
physical, chemical, biological, and sludge treatment methods.
The features of wastewater treatment systems are determined by (1)
the nature of the municipal and industrial wastes that are conveyed
to them by sewers, and (2) the amount of treatment required to
preserve and/or improve the quality of the receiving bodies of water.

Discharges from treatment plants usually are disposed by dilution in

rivers, lakes, or estuaries . They also may

Water scarcity s the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet the
demands of water usage within a region. It already affects every continent and
around 2.8 billion people around the world at least one month out of every
year. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water.[1]
Water scarcity involves water stress, water shortage or deficits, and water
crisis. While the concept of water stress is relatively new, it is the difficulty of
obtaining sources of fresh water for use during a period of time and may result
in further depletion and deterioration of available water resources.[2] Water
shortages may be caused by climate change, such as altered weather
patterns including droughts or floods, increased pollution, and increased
human demand and overuse of water.[3] A water crisis is a situation where the
available potable, unpolluted water within a region is less than that region's
demand.[4] Water scarcity is being driven by two converging phenomena:
growing freshwater use and depletion of usable freshwater resources

Farmer suicide in India s the intentional ending of one's life by a person

dependent on farming as their primary source of livelihood. In 2012,
the National Crime Records Bureau of India reported 13,754 farmer
suicides.[1] The farmers suicide rate in India has been in 1.4 to 1.8 per 100,000
range over a 10-year period through 2005.[2]
India is an agrarian country with around 60% of its people depending directly
or indirectly upon agriculture. Farmer suicides account for 11.2% of all
suicides in India.[1] Activists and scholars have offered a number of conflicting
reasons for farmer suicides, such as monsoon failure, high debt burdens,
genetically modified crops, government policies, public mental health,
personal issues and family problems.