Prabha Vasili
From GeoClasses
Contents |
INDIA’S GEOGRAPHY, WEATHER & WATER
Geography of India
- Sumarized from Wikipedia Geography of India, (version 21:13, 13 August 2005).
Climate of India
- Sumarized from Wikipedia Climate of India, (version 22:58, 30 July 2005).
The Seasons and Water Scarcity by Prabha Vasili
Monsoons
Rainy Season is from June- October. We recently heard the news about floods in Bombay. The Monsoons come as a relief from the heat and parched landscape. The rains bring down the temperature, and make the surroundings lush and green. It is the best season to go hiking. The monsoons are intricately linked to the economy as a good monsoon results in a booming economy. The rains fill the ground water tables and reinvigorate rivers and lakes.
Winter
Winter is from November- March; the temperature gradually falls in the country after September. As the vertical rays of the sun move south of the equator, the country experiences cool weather, with temperatures decreasing by about 32F for every 1 latitude moved north. December and January are typically the coldest months with mean temperatures of 50F-59F in the north – west and the Himalayan region. The mean temperatures increase as one moves east and south, where it can between 68F-77F. The highest temperature recorded in India was 123.08F in Alwar in 1955. The lowest was –49F in Kashmir. Recent claims of temperatures touching 131F in Orissa have been met with some skepticism by the Met department, based largely on the method of recording of such data.
Water
Politically, there are twenty-eight states. We used to live in the state of Andra Pradesh Hyderabad City, still my relatives living there. In India the major cities like Hyderabad, Bombay, and Madras has water scarcity. They do not have facility to run the water all day. The Municipality releases the water only 2or 3 hours, alternative days to each area of the city. Some areas they releases at 2:00 am at night, so people always turn on the taps and they keep buckets under the taps, so they can hear when water is coming, they get up and stock the water into big tubs and containers. Sometimes it is not enough water for each family. First everybody gets at least drinking water then what ever they can get is to use for other things. Some houses have wells, when there is not enough water from the taps and they get water from the wells. In some villages people have to walk so many miles to get a pot of drinking water.
Some times in the summer the wells will dry, the second chance of water source also not that much useful for normal public. Because of water scarcity especially in the summer time there is power cut (electricity cut) two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening to each area they will give us a schedule. Sometimes more than two hours. We need to know in advance sometimes to use ironing, blenders, well motors, (whichever we use the electricity) like household equipment. And it was been like this since last twenty years that I knew of.
When I went Visakhapatanam (Srikakulam) beach to visit, I observe that fishermen families, some women were walking with pots an their waist towards to the beach, I saw some women are sitting on the sand scooping the water from a big ditch, (like 08/052005 lecture slide 49 picture) I was surprised I asked one of the lady is this a drinking water she said yes, and I tasted it was just normal water. And also I saw another ditch with few feet away from that ditch, it was a little bit of muddy water, but nobody scooping the water from that ditch. I asked her why you are not using this water they said that too salty and muddy. Sometimes who can affordable they can pay extra money and buy water and they fill out their containers and underground water tanks.
