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Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?

#31

Post by ocean3 »

pigpaws wrote: post #20

While no one can deny the effects of changing climate, why has no one brought up the piss-poor management of the water they DO have? The river is used for drinking, as an open toilet AND as a 'burial' ground and people seem confused as to why it doesn't support the life it once did - and people mention it as an AFTERTHOUGHT. ah - we don't want to insult their culture, now do we? Come on. If you're going to address th…

India is huge and varied. If you saw corpe on a river does not mean its followed everywhere. The bodies are cremated and the ashes are floated on rivers. Outside the cities/towns people might still be fetching water from wells. But the ground water level has depleted as well.

Re: Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?

#33

Post by dharmach »

pigpaws wrote: post #29
dharmach wrote: post #28

Give up your Abrahamic bigotry. Rivers are not used as burial ground but in Hindu traditions body is cremated and then remains are put in river water.

Ah - the name calling... did you even READ the article? have you done ANY research outside of a reddit thread? or are you just a troll? Here's an article for you. It even has pictures so you can follow along. http://www.vocativ.com/culture/photos/photos-of-the-dead-in-...

Did you READ "the article"? Where it talks about "using the river as a burial ground"?

Re: Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?

#34

Post by pigpaws »

cholantesh wrote: post #30
pigpaws wrote: post #20

While no one can deny the effects of changing climate, why has no one brought up the piss-poor management of the water they DO have? The river is used for drinking, as an open toilet AND as a 'burial' ground and people seem confused as to why it doesn't support the life it once did - and people mention it as an AFTERTHOUGHT. ah - we don't want to insult their culture, now do we? Come on. If you're going to address th…

I'm not sure what the purpose of your comment is. In the article, overconsumption, pollution, and interstate water routing disputes are all mentioned as exacerbating factors, with climate is only given a passing mention. Those human factors are part of a wide, ongoing discussion in Indian communities around the world, and water catchment is common in municipalities within the country. I'm not sure this is an 'honesty…

The 'honesty' issue I mentioned was in regards to the article and how it portrayed the issue and how it implied 'climate change' was the main culprit. I understand the issue is much more widely discussed in India with all of its various facets and variables, but the way the article framed it was disingenuous at best (IMO).

Re: Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?

#35

Post by jussij »

piyushpr134 wrote: post #11

I think this is just flavour of the month FAD that media is making fashionable. Mind you, I am not saying there is no water shortage. There is acute water shortage in some parts of the country. India has faced two back to back deficient monsoon rain condition years (Last year was due to el nino). However, this is not something which is a permanent situation. On 1st June, Monsoon would break ground in Kerala. It shoul…

Northern Australia has it's monsoon period from October to April and it only got it's first real downpour this month.

With only a few months to go it's going to be a rather dry monsoon for Northern Australia.

So there are no guarantees the monsoon will arrive with such great force.

Re: Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?

#36

Post by cholantesh »

ocean3 wrote: post #31
pigpaws wrote: post #20

While no one can deny the effects of changing climate, why has no one brought up the piss-poor management of the water they DO have? The river is used for drinking, as an open toilet AND as a 'burial' ground and people seem confused as to why it doesn't support the life it once did - and people mention it as an AFTERTHOUGHT. ah - we don't want to insult their culture, now do we? Come on. If you're going to address th…

India is huge and varied. If you saw corpe on a river does not mean its followed everywhere. The bodies are cremated and the ashes are floated on rivers. Outside the cities/towns people might still be fetching water from wells. But the ground water level has depleted as well.

Proper cremation can be expensive, so poor persons often take part in an ad hoc ceremony in which they may not properly burn the body before sending it down the river. This is in addition to infanticide and other unsavory reasons for disposing of bodies...

Re: Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?

#37

Post by sandGorgon »

pigpaws wrote: post #29
dharmach wrote: post #28

Give up your Abrahamic bigotry. Rivers are not used as burial ground but in Hindu traditions body is cremated and then remains are put in river water.

Ah - the name calling... did you even READ the article? have you done ANY research outside of a reddit thread? or are you just a troll? Here's an article for you. It even has pictures so you can follow along. http://www.vocativ.com/culture/photos/photos-of-the-dead-in-...

This is confusing - hindus dont drown their dead. They cremate them and the ashes are frequently immersed in rivers (which is also a bad practice, but not as bad as floating the dead onbthe water).

Floating the dead on any of these rivers would be ill-tolerated by the fairly powerful religious community.

Re: Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?

#38

Post by hourislate »

rrrazdan wrote: post #22
pigpaws wrote: post #20

While no one can deny the effects of changing climate, why has no one brought up the piss-poor management of the water they DO have? The river is used for drinking, as an open toilet AND as a 'burial' ground and people seem confused as to why it doesn't support the life it once did - and people mention it as an AFTERTHOUGHT. ah - we don't want to insult their culture, now do we? Come on. If you're going to address th…

No one is confused about the death of the river. The problem is clearly with Indian people itself, including me. There is a lot going on at the ground level and there is a lot more that should be done. I used to be as exasperated as you, but I have come to peace that this is all attributable to poverty. You cannot expect "rational" behaviour from people fighting for their next meal? As average incomes grow, people ar…

India is the richest country in the world. You don't grow to 1.3 billion people because your hungry and poor or don't have resources.

How could a people even breed themselves to 1.3 billion with the lack of resources?

These stories are someones fabrication. There is plenty of water in India or their population wouldn't be growing.

Re: Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?

#39

Post by ocean3 »

cholantesh wrote: post #36
ocean3 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India is huge and varied. If you saw corpe on a river does not mean its followed everywhere. The bodies are cremated and the ashes are floated on rivers. Outside the cities/towns people might still be fetching water from wells. But the ground water level has depleted as well.

Proper cremation can be expensive, so poor persons often take part in an ad hoc ceremony in which they may not properly burn the body before sending it down the river. This is in addition to infanticide and other unsavory reasons for disposing of bodies...

People don't dump bodies in rivers where in live. As i said India is huge. The cultural practices vary from region to region.

Re: Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis?

#40

Post by pkaye »

pigpaws wrote: post #25
rrrazdan wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one is confused about the death of the river. The problem is clearly with Indian people itself, including me. There is a lot going on at the ground level and there is a lot more that should be done. I used to be as exasperated as you, but I have come to peace that this is all attributable to poverty. You cannot expect "rational" behaviour from people fighting for their next meal? As average incomes grow, people ar…

It is not ALL attributable to poverty - There is no SINGLE factor (aside from Education). The poor are not the only ones using the river as a burial ground. do you understand what a single rotting body does to the water supply, let alone tens of thousands?

Hindus don't bury their dead. They cremate them. Now there are polluting aspects to cremation but it can be done better than burial using proper incineration equipment. I have observed that such environmentally friendly cremation services are becoming more common in India even in smaller cities.
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