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Dear Panditji
I’m an Environmental
Science student from a small village, Jamaalpur Maan Pota. Due to rainwater harvesting
canals, all the rainwater in the village goes into a large pond. The pond is dry before
the monsoon, but overflows and floods surrounding areas after it. How can we avoid this?
Water level is high, crops have enough water and there are no rivers. Also, the village's
domestic waste ends up in the pond.
Pawan Kumar Bharti
Bijnore, Uttar Pradesh
Dear Pawanji,
What I have understood from your mail is that the pond is not capable of holding the
amount of water it used to do in the past. This has led to the over flooding in the area
around the pond. It indicates that the total storage capacity of the pond is not enough to
hold the water coming from the catchment area or it is being reduced due to accumulation
of thick layer of silt in the pond over a period of time. This has also resulted in
minimising the natural percolation under the ground from the pond. The pond must be
desilted and widened before the monsoon. It will ensure better percolation of water to the
underground and substantial storage.
Another thing, which scared me, is that the sewage water from the
households is reaching the pond meant for recharge. This will lead to contamination of
groundwater resources, as the water levels in the area are very high. So this water must
be taken away from the pond.
Respected Panditji,
We re-use all our old one and
two-litre plastic mineral water bottles in a bid to recycle plastic. We use them in our
fridge, keep them in our car and so on. But recently someone told me that this is not a
good idea. Please advise.
Rajeev Shukla
Bangalore
Dear Rajeevji,
While it is good that you want to recycle old bottles, please be cautious. These bottles
are meant for one time use only for packaging drinking water and old ones can cause
poisoning. PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles have diethylhydroxylamine, which can
cause cancer. After opening them, don’t use them more than a few days, a week at
most. Also, keep them away from heat. Repeated washing and rinsing can cause the plastic
to break down and the carcinogens can leach into the water that you are drinking.
Dear Panditji,
I have heard about ozone
pollution. I would like to know what harmful effects does it have and where does it come
from. Do motor vehicles emit ozone in some form?
Renith Valsraj
Bangalore
Dear Renithji,
Ozone is not emitted directly into the atmosphere. But high atmospheric concentrations of
ozone are produced as a result of a complex set of reactions in the atmosphere which
involves emissions of both nitrous oxides and certain reactive hydrocarbons. Most of the
primary pollutants come from motor vehicles and industries in cities and towns. 
Systematic monitoring of ozone and other oxidants has not begun in
India yet. But field experiments have shown that ozone has a large local impact on crops.
Ground-level ozone can harm plants, trees, and crops by preventing the plant from being
able to use the sun's energy. Ozone does this by reacting with the molecular links between
the carbon atoms (called the carbon-carbon bonds) in the plant's photosynthetic machinery.
Ozone is harmful to human health because ozone reacts readily with the
membranes of the eye and those lining the lung's air passages.
Once ozone forms in the atmosphere, it can react with volatile organic
compounds and nitrogen oxides to form smog. |
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