Latest news with #waterretention
Zawya
2 days ago
- General
- Zawya
Oman: Wadi Qafeefah dam supports agriculture in drought-hit Ibra region
Despite only sporadic rainfall, the Wadi Qafeefah Dam in the Wilayat of Ibra, Al Sharqiyah North Governorate, has managed to retain significant volumes of water — offering much-needed relief to a region that has long suffered from drought. The water retention has already begun to support groundwater replenishment and agricultural activity in the surrounding areas. According to technical data, the dam measures 122 metres in length and reaches a maximum height of 24.3 metres. Its reservoir can store up to 926,520 cubic metres of water and is engineered to safely manage floods that occur once in 10,000 years. The dam directly serves communities near Wadi Qafeefah, where residents rely heavily on farming. Local produce such as mangoes, dates, lemons, bananas, garlic, onions and clover is sold daily in nearby markets, sustaining both livelihoods and local food supply. The dam's reservoir can store up to 926,520 cubic metres of water 'The recent rains and the dam's capacity to hold large volumes of water over the past two days demonstrate the importance of such vital infrastructure', said a local farmer. 'This water will nourish aflaj (traditional water channels) and recharge groundwater wells, boosting crop fertility in the months ahead'. The region is also rich in indigenous flora, including tamarisk, sidr and shua trees, which are valued for their use in traditional medicine. Many of these trees, particularly the acacias, support beekeeping and contribute to the production of sought-after local honey. They also provide habitats for birds, butterflies and other wildlife, enhancing the area's biodiversity. Farmers and residents alike have expressed gratitude to all those involved in the development of the dam project. A set of visitor guidelines has been put in place to ensure safety and preservation of the site, which is now considered a vital environmental and agricultural resource for the community. 2025 © All right reserved for Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Vogue
25-07-2025
- Health
- Vogue
5 Foods That Cause Water Retention
Water retention can happen any time of the year, but experiencing swollen, heavy legs is especially common in the summer—and certainly uncomfortable. Luckily, there are some things you can do to help ease the puffiness or, better yet, avoid it altogether. One of the most effective ways? Skipping the foods that cause water retention. Why do we retain water in the summer? Feet, ankles, and legs can swell in the summer when an excess of fluid accumulates in the tissues. This type of water retention is known as edema. 'Edema is a medical term for swelling caused by fluid buildup in the tissues,' explains Dr. Asimah Hanif. 'It often appears in legs, ankles, and feet, but it can also affect other areas like the hands, arms, face, or even the lungs.' While certain health conditions—like heart or kidney disease—and taking specific medications can cause fluid retention, Hanif says that it can also be due to poor circulation or lack of movement. 'Even something as simple as sitting or standing for too long, especially in hot weather, can cause the legs to swell up,' she notes. Furthermore, women may be especially susceptible. 'For many women, mild edema is part of monthly hormonal shifts or travel-related fluid retention,' says Dr. Terry Dubrow. 'Think of it as your body whispering that it's holding on to water—often because something is off balance.' What foods cause water retention? Certain foods, usually those high in sodium or sugar, also promote fluid accumulation and venous stagnation, which inevitably leads to swollen and painful legs. If you are susceptible to leg swelling, avoiding these foods during the warmest months can be helpful. 'Diet can play a big role in how much fluid your body holds onto,' Hanif says. 'The biggest offender is salt. Eating salty foods—like chips, canned soups, takeout, or ready-made meals—makes your body hold onto more water, which can worsen swelling.' Foods that don't taste particularly salty can lead to water retention—especially if they're processed and packaged. 'Things like bacon, ham, sausages, and other cured meats can also contribute. Pickled foods and sauces like soy sauce tend to be salty too,' says Hanif. Sugar and alcohol can be culprits, too. 'High-sugar diets can lead to inflammation and make your body retain more fluid, while alcohol affects your liver and kidneys and can throw off your fluid balance by causing dehydration,' Hanif says. 5 surprising foods that lead to water retention Canned tuna Canned tuna can be high in sodium due to the salt that's added during processing and preservation. Tomatoes Although tomatoes are water-rich, they also contain histamine, which could contribute to water retention as histamine increases the permeability of blood vessels. Eating tomatoes with diuretic vegetables, such as cucumbers, can help mitigate the effects. Smoked salmon Like canned tuna, smoked salmon is high in sodium, which can contribute to water retention. 'Sodium is the biggest culprit in water retention,' says Dubrow. Crackers Crackers may seem like a light alternative to bread, but they're processed and therefore can be high in sodium. 'Refined carbs spike insulin and promote inflammation, which can worsen swelling,' says Dubrow. Aged cheeses Many aged cheeses, like parmesan, gruyere, cheddar, and manchego, are high in sodium thanks to the aging process—as cheese ages, it loses moisture, which concentrates its salt content. What foods reduce water retention? Just as some foods can cause water retention, others can reduce it. 'Edema might show up as a little puffiness, but it's your body's way of asking for a reset. Choosing the right foods isn't just about de-bloating, it's about feeling lighter and more energized,' says Dubrow, who recommends 'magnesium-rich foods like almonds and dark chocolate, which are especially helpful for hormonal swelling.'
RNZ News
11-07-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Country Life: City to Farm - how leftovers are giving back to the land
Jenny and Phil Grainger, part of the City to Farm project, have experimented with swales, composted with food scraps from urban areas, to improve water retention and nourish the soil on their banana grove at Waitoki Photo: RNZ/Sally Round It's prep time in the kitchen at Evelyn Page Retirement Village in Orewa, north of Auckland, and another load of food scraps has just gone into the bin. Senior lead chef Dylan Hatt sprinkles some special sawdust over the top and closes the lid. A few kilometres away in rural Wainui, a dedicated team of Year 8 students in masks and gloves, are collecting caddies from the classrooms and emptying the lunchtime food scraps into larger bins, tamping down the gloop to a gleeful chorus of "eew" and "yuck". A few more kilometres inland, a banana farmer is at his specially built "jetty" unloading dozens of wheelie bins of food scraps into a "fast feeder" which spreads the fermented waste into ditches lined with biochar . He then covers it all with mulch and leaves it to nourish and build the soil. This is the chain created by City to Farm - a project run by Hibiscus Coast Zero Waste (HCZW) - to stop food waste going into landfill, to lower greenhouse gases and nourish local farmland. "This is a way for everybody to participate in climate action with their food scraps, just sending them off to the farm," HCZW trustee Betsy Kettle told Country Life . Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts. City to Farm collects food scraps once a week from 25 collection points in the district including kindergartens, cafes and restaurants, schools and the retirement village. Partially grant-funded, it has diverted more than 350 tonnes of food scraps from landfill since it started in 2019. The food scrap producers pay to have their scraps taken which also helps fund the operation, Kettle said. "We don't call it waste. No, these are resources," she said, lifting the lids of bins in the basement of the retirement village. They have woody mulch and biochar in the base to help with the pickling process known as bokashi . A bokashi bin at Two Spoons, a cafe in Arkles Bay, which has been with the project since it started in 2019. Photo: Supplied The bins are strapped down to make them airtight, ready for the weekly pick-up truck which then transports the bins to the banana farm for further composting and integrating with the soil. One of the retirement village's residents spotted the project in the local paper and it took on a life of its own, village manager Jill Clark said. "There's no extra work. It's just so routine. Now that's just what we do, because we've been doing it so long." Betsy Kettle, one of the drivers of the City to Farm project, checks out one of the specially adapted food scrap bins at Ryman's Evelyn Page Retirement Village Photo: RNZ/Sally Round It's also become normal for the children at Wainui School. "When we started it, we didn't really know what to think of it. We kind of just like, did it, and we were sort of like, 'eew'," Year 8 student Madison Freestone said. "But now we do it all the time, and we do find it cool. We find it fun. We learn new things all the time." Madison and three other Year 8s form a dedicated team of food waste busters at the rural school. The Year 8 student team in charge of food scrap recycling in the school vegetable garden. From left to right - Arielle Oswald, Leah Andrell, Morgan Price, Madison Freestone Photo: RNZ/Sally Round The bokashi method doesn't attract rodents, a particular problem with composting in a rural setting, principal Gillian Bray explained. The fertiliser created from leftovers is feeding the school vegetable garden as well as City to Farm. Kettle said City to Farm provides schools with special food scrap caddies and a little stand that also takes paper and the hard recyclables. She said they talk to the children about the link between food scraps and greenhouse gases when placed in landfill, as well as the way food scraps, together with biochar, can build topsoil and create a carbon sink. The City to Farm project, run by Hibiscus Coast Zero Waste, collects food scraps from 25 centres - retirement villages, schools, kindies, restaurants and cafes - to be turned into compost for soil improvement on farms nearby Photo: RNZ/Sally Round Wainui School's recycling hub where food scraps are turned into nutrient rich fertiliser Photo: RNZ/Sally Round The Year 8 girls have taken to educating too and they're very strict about what can't go in the caddies. "Any liquids, such as yoghurt, you know, juices, that type of stuff, no whipped cream, no meat, because the meat can make maggots grow and it's gross. "Yeah, and obviously no rubbish. So, if someone does something wrong, we remind them that they can't put that stuff in the bin. And we tell them what they can and can't put in the bin, so that they know for next time." Teacher Nick Wotton who leads the project at the school says the girls have taken the task on with gusto. "Our goal is for our students to be more sustainable and environmentally responsible, and I think this, starting with the girls, is a way to sort of embed that in our students and in our culture as a whole." Down the road from Wainui School, Phil and Jenny Grainger are hosting lunch at a large table. Big bunches of bananas decorate their off-grid home from which wafts a delicious aroma. Jenny has made a banana curry from bananas grown out of the once poor soil, which has been nourished by six years of food scraps. "When we first came here, there was hardly a worm on the place," Jenny said. The land was also dry and hydrophobic, repelling water. Phil and Jenny Grainger looking out over their growing banana farm, fuelled with food scraps Photo: RNZ/Sally Round The couple, former dairy and kiwifruit farmers, took on the task of taking in the food scraps to see how soil could benefit and "to sequester carbon", Phil said. They experimented with banana swales, digging ditches and building up banks for the plants with biochar and the fermented scraps topped with mulch. Rainwater and organic matter were then able to infiltrate the clay soil. They also developed systems to make food scrap application more efficient and not so messy, and now apply the scraps once a month using a fast feeder and orchard tractor. Food scraps line a planting bed which is then topped with compost, creating healthy topsoil from waste Photo: Supplied "Initially, it was having a car trailer trying to unload these wheelie bins and tipping and mud and stuff and it was disgusting and terrible," Phil said. The Graingers have planted more and more banana plants as the food scraps initiative has grown, and they've had the soil tested and learnt more about growing the fruit. Other challenges emerged on-farm including rats and flies but surprisingly, odours were minimal, likely due to the bokashi fermentation process which prevented putrefaction, Kettle said. "Although the work was messy, the impact was undeniable." The Graingers are now transitioning into producing bananas commercially. Kettle says her husband did some sums and they reckon half of Auckland's food scraps could be diverted from landfill onto 400 hectares of farmland. They'd like more farmers and communities to be involved. "The City to Farm system is meant to model a small-scale, decentralised, local-resources-for-local-use system that, hopefully, other community groups will trial in their areas. "And if we could do that, then we would be… helping the whole planet, and the farmers would be heroes. They'd be climate heroes." Learn more: Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
