21 Dec Kerala Construction Sand-reservoir sourcing flops
Reservoir sand extraction flops
Gladdening news that Thomas Issac informed the house of Kerala Assembly in the Q&A session today was the dismal performance of the mission launched to win sand from the reservoirs of Kerala to supplement the need by the EMS housing scheme to start with. In fact, a geologist like me, knew better that this mission of the Issac-Rajendran duo will fail ultimately. Either these chiefs were incorrectly briefed by the concerned directorates, or they made an attempt to overestimate the human decidedness over the basic tenets of science.
Well it is high time that we as a society pay little more heed to the science rather than to emotion or blind enthusiasm. The administrators are only a slice of the society at large and hence the scientifically unsound decisions mirror the IQ of the society. I am sure that the entire society need not be blamed; instead the sycophants are to be put under limelight.
The rock weathering is the process that generates sand and the rock in general has less than 27 percentage points of quartz which goes into making of the sand. An to convert a meter thick layer of rock in our tropical climate takes a pretty long time of close to a million years.
Another “blunder” is in the anvil. It was announced in the house today – decision to recover sand from the Akulam-Veli kayal in the NWern suburb of Trivandrum. The suction dredging or whatever type of dredging to win sand will be futile to the ecosystem of the Kayal and the sand will be substandard as it will be laced with sea-salt, and perhaps with a modal size of 0.5 mm or less and will not be a graded sand desired by the construction industry.
Hence let us stand warned: Laws of nature are inviolable, but they may be modulated. Respect Gaia.
thrivikramji@gmail.com
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