Water Bodies - Get Started
Oceans, seas, lakes and ponds, man made reservoirs are a few examples of water bodies. Water bodies, the resources of water locally, are important to the local ecology. The quality and quantity of water in the water bodies is getting affected by growing urbanization and insensitivity to ecology. While many water bodies, especially the smaller ones have disappeared, others have turned into cesspools. The environmental groups and city planners are struggling to preserve the existing ones while trying to revive or replenish dried lakes, ponds and reservoirs. The preservation and proper maintenance of water bodies is as much as the responsibility of the citizens as it is of the water authorities and ecology conservation groups.
Frequently Asked Questions
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There is decayed plant growth on the pond in my city. How can it be cleaned?
Ponds can be revived in the following ways:
- Clearing of the weeds and water hyacinth
- Desilting of the bed of water bodies
- Introducing fish varieties which improve the water quality
- Clearing waterways on the upstream to improve flow of water into the water body
- Arresting further contamination of the water body by arresting flow of polluted waste water flowing into it.
Lake Vembanad in Kerala got polluted from to the rubbish thrown by the visitors and discharge from nearby agricultural fields. The people and the authorities got together to clean the lake and the shores around. For learning more about cleaning of ponds and lakes. Find out more
This report was sourced from
Vol:26 Iss:09 URL: http://www.flonnet.com/fl2609/stories/20090508260906600.htm
The report titled Wetland or wasteland by written by Sally Duncan. -
The name ‘Ramsar Convention’ is mentioned in many articles related to the environment. What exactly is it?
The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, called the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
The Ramsar Convention takes its name from the city in Iran, where several countries met on February 02, 1971 to have a convention to save their wetlands and their inhabitants. The official title of Ramsar is actually ‘The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat’. The Ramsar Convention came into force on December 21, 1975.
The ‘Ramsar List’ includes more than 1,675 wetlands for special protection as ‘Ramsar sites’. A few of India’s wetlands are featured in the Ramsar list which has sites small and big. For example, the Fardrum and Roosky Turloughs in Northen Ireland, which is just 0.41sq km and the large Queen Maud Gulf site in Canada, which is 62,800 sq km. -
How many types of lakes are there?
Lakes have diverse identifies and sources. For example, the Himalayan, Peninsular and Coastal lakes, as the name indicates, are classified as per their geographical location.
There is the fresh water or brackish water lakes, irrigation lakes, and lakes for water supply to the city.
The sacred tanks and lakes in places of worship are also part of the diverse lake heritage of India.
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A lake nearby has plants growing on its surface. Why does this happen and is it likely to impact on the lake in any way?
You may well be seeing a process known as eutrophication – an increasingly common threat that has led to the dying of many lakes. In this process, plant life grows abundantly on the surface area of the lake, covering it like a sheet. The runoff from fertilizers of nearby agricultural fields, or nutrients from the sewage or industrial wastes is responsible for the accelerated plant growth.
As the plants die, its decaying vegetation depletes the supply of oxygen, which in turn leads to the death of fish in the lake. The dead plants and aquatic life changes the lake to a swamp and eventually the lake converts into dry land. -
What are reservoirs?
As the name indicates, a reservoir is a vessel to store water in reserve, for later use. A reservoir refers to an artificial lake, used to store water for various civic and agricultural uses. Reservoirs are created to store water for use in non monsoon months. They are usually filled from the stream of water from dams, and rains.
The reservoirs need to be regularly cleaned of the silt from river waters. Else, the it reduces the benefits of dams, increases evaporation losses, cause backwater flooding and damage the power house turbines. -
What are wetlands?
Wetlands are defined as ecosystems whose soil is saturated for long periods seasonally or continuously, including marshes, swamps, and ephemeral ponds.
Wetlands are the places to drain and convert to uses, such as agriculture. Water birds, migrating over thousands of kilometres twice a year, need the wetlands to rest, feed and breed. The disappearance of wetlands is leading to the loss of groundwater reserves, to flash floods, to shoreline destruction, to the accumula-tion of pollutants and to other subtle disturbances.
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