'Cloud seeding could be dangerous'
Published:Saturday | February 20, 2010 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I HEARD that the Government has plans to tackle the drought by carrying out cloud seeding.
Cloud seeding is the process of spreading either dry ice (or more commonly, silver iodide aerosols) into the upper part of clouds to try to stimulate the precipitation process and form rain. Since most rainfall starts through the growth of ice crystals from super-cooled cloud droplets (droplets colder than the freezing point, 32 degrees F) in the upper parts of clouds, the silver iodide particles are meant to encourage the growth of new ice particles.
Cloud seeding can be very dangerous. China used that method in 2004 and they created a storm which was very devastating at that time.
Enough water
I was listening to the water minister on a current affairs programme and he said that 70 per cent of the water produced by the NWC is wasted. Mr Editor, we may not get any rain for quite sometime but we have more than enough water that can keep us until we get rain.
Why should we disturb the environment to suit ourselves when we have many rivers which are flowing with fresh water?
We need to build more dams and fix the water system that is very old and ineffective. The money that we plan to spend to seed clouds and the effects that that action may have on us should be considered carefully.
I am, etc.,
Sheldon Allen