Bangalore: Water Facts

1,000 Lakes in Bangalore in 1790

200 Lakes in Bangalore in 2013

17 Healthy lakes in 2013

51 Healthy lakes 1985

155 Lakes placed in the care of the city corporation

1,450 million litres Water Bangalore draws each day from the Cauvery River

1.3 billion litres Water needed per day to support city population

42 per cent Water that is lost due to leaks and faulty distribution

0 per cent Borewell water in Bangalore that is potable, owing to high levels of nitrates

59 per cent Tap water in Bangalore that is not potable

8.4 per cent E coli bacteria in borewell water

30 per cent Sewage treated by the city’s recycling plants

900 mm Annual rainfall in Bangalore.

135 Estimated Litres Per Capita Per Day needed for Bangalore’s citizens

75 LPCD likely to be available by the year 2016

Data from The Alternative, via TimeOut Bengaluru: a study by the sustainability media platform, from which these figures are drawn, cites multiple sources.

Fashion still doesn't give a damn about… →

Primark

…the deaths of garment workers

To the Guardian [article by Lucy Siegle][Guardian Link] to which the image above points, I add from what I've seen:

Bargaining is tough when buyers from transnationals fly down to set hourly rates with manufacturers. Decisions to move away to lower-cost sellers are taken in an instant and aggressive sellers desperate to cover overhead do everything they can (but shouldn't) to meet target prices. Both sides are at fault in this dynamic, so it is the market economy that's at fault, and who can change this situation but roused people moving their governments?

Evening Sounds at Nandi Plantation

The sounds we heard last evening at Nandi Thota. We were on the upper deck of our bungalow. The humid air promised rain whereas the sky was clear. The birds were subdued and the crickets were muted, as though they were both doing a sound check to improve their performance. It was bedtime for the birds and starting time for the crickets and they should both have been shrill.

Now in the morning the leaves of the coffee plants are glowing with life given them by the dew. The sounds of the birds and the crickets are downed by the chug and drone of our neighbour's pump. It is draining the stream that separates our plantations.

I've pulled on my headphones and tapped on Tom Waits. But audio above is of last evening's.

9-year-old boy drives a Ferrari in Kerala

In this video a 9-year-old boy drives a Ferrari in Kerala with a child aged five beside him and nobody else is in the car.  He cannot pull on the seat belt because if he did his feet wouldn't reach the pedals. The video was filmed by his mother and she uploaded the video to YouTube—full of pride and ignorant of wrongdoing.

The police took the father into custody. The video has gone viral and also the outrage so I'm not altogether ashamed of this episode that happened in India.

The London Marathon

Home

London Marathon

Dave Hill: Why its marathon shows London at its best

“The London marathon is not a political event, and I’m not seeking to depict it as one. But each of us, participants and spectators alike, draws our own version of the moral meaning of the grueling, heartening, experience and, for me, this year’s, the 33rd, is already defined against the backdrop of a London that is changing for the worse.

It comes at a time in its history when the capital has been casually claimed as a playground, financial killing field, and unofficial tax haven by the most worthless of the super rich, and used as a testing ground by a desperate, dishonest government for its policy of pinning blame for austerity on those least able to defend themselves. All of this goes on with the chortling approval of a dilettante London mayor, for whom City Hall is a mere public podium of convenience from which to pursue his private ambitions.

The marathon, it seems to me, is nourished by the antithesis of this mean, destructive spirit. The efforts poured into it by ordinary people illustrate and resolve a potential paradox: on the one hand, it is an intensely individual and competitive event, with most of those running engaged in a grinding struggle with their own bodies and minds; on the other, and simultaneously, it is a huge collective endeavour largely conducted for the benefit of others.”