Traditional Groundwater Diviners in India

Traditional Groundwater diviner is the person who claims to have the unique power using which he can find out the site, depth and yield of groundwater for drilling of bore well for good supply water. Poor and uneducated farmers are the main victims of such ground water diviners. In India, still most of the farming is dependant on the monsoon rainfall which is not very reliable source for the farmers who already have very low land holding capacity. In such cases, these farmers are looking forward to irrigate their farms for sustainable income from farming using groundwater resource. These section and also sometimes superstitious educated people in cities becomes victim of these ground water diviners.

The so called techniques which these water diviners use are use of stick or coconuts or copper V-shaped rods etc. They just carry these rods or sticks and coconuts in their hand and travel in the field for few meters. And the method is, because of their divine power the rod or sticks will move or rotate in their hands and that means there is groundwater stream and if you will make drill there you will get plenty of groundwater. Sometimes they get lucky and they get well paid for this exploration and many times it fails too. Some people told me about their funny experiences of these groundwater diviners. Sometimes these diviners in over confidence claim that they will repay all the money in case of failure and when they notice that there prediction is going to be fail, so they ran away during night and will never show their face in that village or region. But still they get plenty victims to earn money. Unfortunately, some of these groundwater diviners get awards from ministers and they use these functions to promote their fake service. None of these groundwater diviners have any scientific explanation of their techniques. And to make such drills for bore wells, sometimes it costs Rs. 15,000-30,000 which is lot of money if you will consider the economical condition of these farmers.

In India, there are already many, so called Baba’s and Guru’s who claim to have cure for diseases like Cancer and AIDS with no background of medical knowledge at all. Such water diviners can be included in the same category.

For such groundwater explorations, Geophysical Survey using the Electrical Resistivity Method is practical and economical scientific method to find out the best site of bore well drilling. This method has a success rate of near about 80%. Unfortunately there are very few people and organizations who can guide scientifically to explore the sites for groundwater in India. The organizations like Central Ground Water Board or Ground water departments of states have also not reached yet to this poor section of farmers in India.

WORLDS LARGEST SWIMMING POOL

According to the Guiness book of records the worlds largest and deepest swimming pool is located at the
San Alfonso del Mar resort in Chile. It holds an amzing 66 million gallons of water and is more than 1000 yards
long! The water is so beautifully clear that you can see the bottom of the pool even at the deepest part which
is 115 feet deep. It cost close to one billion dollars to build and the yearly cost of maintaining the pool it
estimated to be approximately 2 million dollars.
This is a salt water lagoon style pool that uses a computer controlled suction and filtration system to ensure
that fresh, clean sea water is constantly circulating. Construction of the pool took around five years, it was
completed in 2006 and it is very comfortable to swim in as the sun warms it to a perfect 26C … so it is 9C
warmer than the nearby sea. It has been attracting record numbers of tourists to the area since it first opened
and likely will continue to do so.

EXCTING JOURNEY OVER GOTEIK VIADUCT

The Goteik viaduct, located in Nawnghkio, is one of Burma’s most stunning engineering marvel. Built by the
colonial British in the beginning of the 20th century, this spectacular railway bridge is the highest bridge in
Myanmar and when it was completed, in 1900, it was the largest railway trestle in the world.
The Goteik viaduct is located in the center of the country about 100 km northeast of the largest city of
Mandalay, between the two towns of Pyin U Lwin, the summer capital of the former British colonial
administrators of Burma, and Lashio, the principal town of northern Shan State. The rail line was built as a way
for the British Empire to expand their influence in the region. Constructed when the country was originally
called Burma, the bridge was designed and fabricated by the Pennsylvania Steel Company and shipped
overseas.


The viaduct stretches 689 meters from end to end supported by 15 towers. Many sources have put the height
of the bridge at 250 meters. This is supposedly a measurement to the river level as it flows underground
through a tunnel at the point it passes underneath the trestle. The true height of the bridge as measured from
the rail deck to the ground on the downstream side of the tallest tower is 102 meters.
Although larger concrete viaducts and steel cantilever bridges were constructed before and after Gokteik, no
other conventional box tower and girder type steel trestle has ever exceeded it in size except for the
monstrous Lethbridge Viaduct in Alberta, Canada which is about the same in height but more than twice the
length. The Joso bridge in the U.S. state of Washington, the Poughkeepsie bridge in the U.S. state of New
York and the original Kinzua viaduct in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania are the only other traditional steel trestles
that are equal in size to Gokteik


Gokteik also had the tallest bridge piers in the world at the time of its completion at 97.5 meters. The current
record is now held by France’s Millau Viaduct at a record breaking height of 245 meters.
Gokteik bridge can be reached by taking a train from Mandalay or Pyin U Lwin north towards Nawnghkio where
the bridge is located about 5 km further east. Crossing the bridge by train is a high-wire act. The bridge is
more than a century old, a rather crumbling antique, which adds to the white-knuckle experience. The train
moves at walking speed across the bridge to avoid the rocking motion that will further damage the bridge and,
possibly, plunge the train into the river below.

Underwater Tunnel In The Netherlands

The Aquaduct Veluwemeer is and underwater overpass located underneath a small part of lake Veluwemeer.
Lake Veluwemeer is not a natural lake, it is one of several lakes that were formed in 1957 when the
Flevopolder was created. The surface area of Lake Veluwemeer is over thirty kms, it is quite a shoolow like
with an average depth of 1.55m. The lake connects the Netherlands mainland to the artificial island of
Flevoland. Flevoland is the largest artificial island in the world. At least 28,000 vehicles travel via the
Veluwemeer Aquaduct on a daily basis since it was first opened to traffic in 2002.
The Ringvaart (ring canal) is a canal located in the Netherlands in the province of North Holland. It is a circular
canal which surrounds the Haarlemmermeer polder. It crosses the A4 highway via an aquaduct that was built in
1961. This is the oldest aquaduct in the Netherlands and the two newest portions of it were completed in
2006, it is now 1.8 kms long. The Ringvaart is used for both commercial and recreational boat traffic, the
tunnel allows both road traffic and water traffic to co-exist as conveniently as possible.