Monday, January 14, 2013

Osama Bin Laden's Spring

Originally published at http://rationalistpk.org/2012/06/mythbusting-osamas-spring.html

Surprise happens, when gushing water oozes out from OBL's compound in Abbottabad. But this is not the surprise. The surprise is that the local residents calls this a miracle. A miracle which happens because according to them innocent (yes, you read it right, innocent) people were killed there. Now I wonder which myth do I do bust here. The myth of innocence or the myth of non-sense. Let's stick to the later one as it is related to an indigineous and unknown phenomenon.


The area where the spring oozed is called Orash valley. This valley was once being flowed by river Jab. Later on river's water became limited to a stream, when water usage increased. The area around the stream is now a major field for agriculture. Rice, maize and wheat crops are regularly grown in this area. The fact here is that due to the river that once flowed here, the land area is converted into a fresh water wetland. Hence the water table in the area rises after spring and monsoon, resulting in sprouting of water through the crevices, through out the area. It is a common practice for the locals to bore a six to eight feet injection and get continuous water from the water table. When the foundations of new buildings are laid in this area, even in other seasons of the year, contractors have to fill the foundations as soon as possible, after digging, because of the water of the water table, which fills them in no time.

Hence, it was really a surprising stunt by the locals when they correlated the spring with a mystical justification. Still I wonder that if the gushing of water had to be a miracle then why in the favor of OBL. May be a more "rational" explanation would be that the water sprouted just to wash the land and clean it off the sins. However, as Einstein had rightly pointed out, "Stupidity has no limits."

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