Raman Science Centre and Planetarium has set up a new permanent exhibition gallery titled Water The Elixir of Life. The gallery comprises of 30 participatory exhibits spread over 3000 sq. feet.
This exhibition on Water – The Elixir of Life, curated by N. Ramdas Iyer, Project Coordinator of the centre, is aimed at creating awareness about this scarce and all important source of life among the visitors specially the children.
The gallery unfolds with a plethora of exhibits that cover various issues related to water. How much of it is available on our planet and what percentage of it is potable and in what form is water available on the Earth are some of the issues that are dealt with in the exhibition.
Other issues like the water cycle, water on different continents, water in ones body, water conservation, water treatment plants, properties of water, cultural and religious practices and their impact on our rivers etc are also covered in the exhibitions. Significance of water is propounded in almost every religious scripture, and written script exists for water in every language and in every country thus showing how important this life supporting resource is for all of us.
The water cycle exhibit shows how water circulates between sea, air, and land. As it moves, it often changes from one state – solid, liquid, or gas – to another. The water cycle is powered by the Sun’s heat, which evaporates water from sea and land. Water makes up more than half of our body weight, and upto 70% by volume. It is the main component of each of our billions of body cells, without which, we would die in just a few days. The amount of water inside our body must remain almost constant for good health. The exhibit on water in your body will in an interactive way educate the visitors about the quantity of water that exists in different parts of human body.
Human consumption of water is not just restricted to the volume of water that we drink but also depends on several other parameters. For example a kg of grain needs 1500 ltrs of water and a kg of meat needs 15000 ltrs of water. In other words eating a kg of meat is equivalent to drinking 15000 litres of water. From food to fabric, crayons to cars, and petrol to paper, virtually everything we use or consume needs water to produce it. In short we are thirsty because we are hungry or more appropriately because we are greedy!
Many infectious diseases are water borne and poorly treated water when consumed causes epidemics. Visitors get to know about these diseases in the exhibition. Exhibition also depicts how one can conserve water by rainwater harvesting, innovative agricultural practices, finding alternates to products which require more water per unit production, minimizing water use etc.
Exhibit on water efficient devices helps the visitor understand how we can conserve water as well as avoid wastage of water using intelligent planning, management and use of conservation devices. Water saved is water produced.
The exhibition ends with a computer quiz on water to gauge ones knowledge of water and a pledge which the visitors can take to conserve water and protect this unique life supporting source for our future generations.
The Exhibition will be inaugurated on 14th August 2018 at 11.00 am by Honourable Mayor, Smt. Nanda Jichkar, Nagpur Municipal Corporation in the august presence of Shri. P.K. Parchure, Regional Director, Central Ground Water Board-Central Region, Nagpur.
Shri Iyer has urged the students and general visitors to visit this exhibition. This additional facility is available for them with no extra entry fee.
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