tagged w/ potable water
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Water for the 1.6 million people – half of them children and two-thirds refugees – who live in just 365 sq km of land bordering the Mediterranean comes entirely from the shallow coastal aquifer shared between Gaza, Israel and Egypt, which is only partly replenished each year by rainfall. Decades of overpumping and heavy pollution from salts and waste water has left the aquifer highly degraded and in danger of irreparable damage.
UN hydrologists say no more than 55 million cubic metres (mcm) of water should be abstracted a year, but present exploitation rates run at around 160mcm. If this continues, says the UN, it could result in the water table dropping to a point where massive sea water intrusion permanently destroys the source within a few years.
In addition, the little water available is heavily polluted by nitrates from uncontrolled sewage, and fertilisers from farmlands, making 90% of the water unfit for human consumption. With the Gaza population expected to increase by 500,000 within eight years, and nearly 25% of all illnesses in Gaza water-related, the urgency for countries to put aside differences and address the issue is growing.
"The aquifer could become unusable as early as 2016, with the damage irreversible by 2020. UNEP [the UN Environment Programme] recommends ceasing abstraction immediately as it would otherwise take centuries for the aquifer to recover. Even with remedial action now to cease abstraction, the aquifer will take decades to recover," said a UN Relief and Works Agency report published this week.
The Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) expects demand for fresh water to grow to 260mcm per year by 2020, a 60% increase on current levels of abstraction from the aquifer, the UN report says.
"We are facing a crisis. If we do not address it now, then Gaza will become unliveable," said Shaddad Attili, minister and head of the Palestinian water authority in Stockholm to lobby the Swedish and other Nordic governments during World Water week.
End of excerpt.
More at the linkWater for the 1.6 million people – half of them children and two-thirds refugees... more
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This is a video of the cleaning of a Pennsylvania drinking water tank. 8 out 10 Drinking water storage tanks look like this and never get cleaned! We need to do something about this! The pollution in our drinking water is killing us!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3DfGzdJ3TAThis is a video of the cleaning of a Pennsylvania drinking water tank. 8 out 10... more
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Charity Water has been doing wonderful things to bring potable water to those who need it most. Over four thousand projects this year alone. In the coming years with climate change and pollution having a greater effect in a world with a growing population, potable water and sanitation will be even more essential to life.
There is no better gift to give than water. To see the smile on the face of a child as they put clean water from a tap to their lips for the first time to drink is unlike any other.
2011 was a year in which we saw more water sources compromised by scarcity, pollution and the effects of climate change (such as drought, evaporation, floods.) This coming year will be no less of a challenge. However, when we work together for a common cause we can do wonders.
Let us make 2012 the year we begin to heal this planet and bring this living liquid to all in our world who need it.
Water Is Life.
As 2012 starts I will be featuring other water organizations also working to provide potable water to those who need it most.Charity Water has been doing wonderful things to bring potable water to those who need... more
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Earlier this month, officials in the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu had to confront a pretty dire problem: they were running out of water. Due to a severe and lasting drought, water reserves in this country of 11,000 people had dwindled to just a few days' worth. Climate change plays a role here: as sea levels rose, Tuvalu's groundwater became increasingly saline and undrinkable, leaving the island dependent on rainwater. But now a La Niña–influenced drought has severely curtailed rainfall, leaving Tuvalu dry as a bone. "This situation is bad," Pusinelli Laafai, Tuvalu's permanent secretary of home affairs, told the Associated Press earlier this month. "It's really bad."
So far Tuvalu has been bailed out by its neighbors Australia and New Zealand, which have donated rehydration packets and desalination equipment. But the archipelago's water woes are just beginning — and it's far from the only part of the world facing a big dry. Other island nations like the Maldives and Kiribati will see their groundwater spoil as sea levels rise. Texas, along with much of the American Southwest, is in the grip of a truly record-breaking drought — even after days of storms in the past month, Houston's total 2011 rainfall is still short of its yearly average by a whopping 2 ft., or 60 cm. Australia has experienced severely dry weather for so long, it's not even clear whether the country is in a state of drought, or more worryingly, a new and permanent dry climate that could forever alter life Down Under. "Climate-change impacts on water resources continue to appear in the form of growing influence on the severity and intensity of extreme events," says Peter Gleick, one of the foremost water experts in the U.S. and head of the Pacific Institute, an NGO based in Oakland, Calif., that focuses on global water issues. "Australia's recent extraordinary extreme drought should be an eye-opener for the rest of us."
(See photos of the world's water crisis.)
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2097159,00.html#ixzz1bAUCHxtB
More at the link.Earlier this month, officials in the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu had to... more
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The EPA is currently considering requiring ALL Water Tanks to be inspected!
Why is this a BIG DEAL?
Currently there are no EPA regulations requiring water tanks and towers to ever be inspected. Most states do not require tank inspection or cleaning. The water in the storage tanks goes from the tank directly to your tap.
All water tanks accumulate sediment over time. The soft sediment in the floor of water tanks and towers becomes a safe habitat for bacteria, protozoa and even VIRUSES!
Out of site out of mind-
No one thinks about the sediment.
The water is tested daily, if the chlorine residual goes down - operators do not ask why, they just add more chlorine, over time the additional chlorine breaks down and itself becomes a contaminate in the tank that can cause cancer.
Instead of constantly adding more and more treatment chemicals, simply cleaning the sediment from the floor of the tanks is the solution.
A countless number of biological contaminates can use the sediment in the floor of water tanks and towers to get a foot hold in a municipal drinking water system and grow into a real health concern. Why should we care what is on the bottom of a water storage tank?
We drink off the bottom of water storage tanks! Of course like many things the adverse health effects are unequally distributed to poor communities where drinking store bought bottled water is not a given, It is also these communities who have underfunded water systems that suffer from lack of maintenance.
Many utility systems that can afford inspection and cleaning of their systems simply do not allocate the funds for it because there are no regulations requiring them to do so.
What do you think?
Take the poll at www.ronperrin.us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLfqaWH_nO4&feature=youtu.beThe EPA is currently considering requiring ALL Water Tanks to be inspected!
Why is... more
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When I started this blog several years ago these were the main areas of concern surrounding lack of access and potability of water in the world. And as with the climate crisis there have been many people out here talking about this and trying to educate people in doing what is necessary to provide this human right to all and warning of the consequences of not doing so. Unfortunately, though we have come some part of the way thanks to education, activism and the work of NGOs like Charity Water and others whose links I will also post here there is a long way to go.
As we are now seeing across the globe privitization is still trying to make more of a headway (even though we have seen initiatives in Germany, Italy and in the US in stopping this insidious move to control our global water supply) and moving to "commoditize" water in a market system sure to deprive the most poor of this basic human right even though it was declared so at the UN.
War is also playing a part. As a result of the tumultuous battles taking place in Libya the Great Manmade River Project started by Gaddafi (and this is not to be a political post so I will refrain from discussing opinions of him) which regardless of politics was and is an engineering marvel (I will post video on that here too) has been bombed and essentially shut down thereby cutting off water to more than half of Tripoli and other regions. Water is then still being used as a weapon of war which I find insidious regardless of who does it.
We are seeing as well increasing pollution levels in rivers, continued toxification of our oceans, acidification of our oceans, plastic garbage patches in our ocean's gyres that stretch for miles and on top of all of this, effects of a changing climate brought on by human activity that now threaten water supplies for billions of people worldwide and the systems that sustain our marinelife.
What are we to make of all of this? Are we finally reaching the point where more people will discover just how crucial water is to all of the systems that sustain us? If not, by the time critical mass is reached will it be beyond saving? For the next couple of weeks I will be writing and reporting on ways that we are affecting water and also ways we can save it. In the world we live in now water access has never been more of an urgent crisis.
That is why supporting organizations like Chartity Water are essential in working to provide equality, access and potability of water to the billions who now go without and that also includes adequate sanitation. It is unfathomable to believe that in the 21st century with all of the technological advances we have achieved that we still cannot provide basic sanitation and potable water for the people who live on this planet, even now as we explore other worlds. I say, let's take better care of the one we have now.
Please watch this video and look at the links to other organizations I will post here and reflect on what you can do to address this crisis locally and globally. Water is the one tie that binds us all. We cannot afford to lose it.
More at the link.When I started this blog several years ago these were the main areas of concern... more
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For 26 years, American Rivers has sounded the alarm on hundreds of rivers through our America’s Most Endangered RiversTM report. By shining the spotlight and mobilizing the public to take action, we save rivers from urgent threats like pollution, mining, and dams. The report emphasizes solutions to secure a better future for the rivers, their fish and wildlife, and communities.
The ten rivers named as America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2011 highlight an issue of urgent concern to all Americans: clean water. It is vital to the health of our families and communities. Sixty-five percent of our drinking water comes from rivers and streams, but many of our rivers are too polluted to use.
Working with local partners and concerned citizens, American Rivers fights to safeguard our rivers and clean water for this year’s endangered rivers — and rivers nationwide — for generations to come.
Here they are:
#1 Susquehanna River
#2 Bristol Bay Rivers
#3 Roanoke River
#4 Chicago River
#5 Yuba River
#6 Green River
#7 Hoback River
#8 Black Warrior River
#9 St. Croix River
#10 Ozark Scenic Riverways
Special Mention: Mississippi RiverFor 26 years, American Rivers has sounded the alarm on hundreds of rivers through our... more
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The wall of water raced through narrow Himalayan gorges in northeast India, gathering speed as it raked the banks of towering trees and boulders. When the torrent struck their island in the Brahmaputra river, the villagers remember, it took only moments to obliterate their houses, possessions and livestock.
No one knows exactly how the disaster happened, but everyone knows whom to blame: neighboring China.
"We don't trust the Chinese," says fisherman Akshay Sarkar at the resettlement site where he has lived since the 2000 flood. "They gave us no warning. They may do it again."
About 500 miles east, in northern Thailand, Chamlong Saengphet stands in the Mekong river, in water that comes only up to her shins. She is collecting edible river weeds from dwindling beds. A neighbor has hung up his fishing nets, his catches now too meager.
Using words bordering on curses, they point upstream, toward China.
Blame game
The blame game, voiced in vulnerable river towns and Asian capitals from Pakistan to Vietnam, is rooted in fear that China's accelerating program of damming every major river flowing from the Tibetan plateau will trigger natural disasters, degrade fragile ecologies, divert vital water supplies.
A few analysts and environmental advocates even speak of water as a future trigger for war or diplomatic strong-arming, though others strongly doubt it will come to that. Still, the remapping of the water flow in the world's most heavily populated and thirstiest region is happening on a gigantic scale, with potentially strategic implications.
On the eight great Tibetan rivers alone, almost 20 dams have been built or are under construction while some 40 more are planned or proposed.
China is hardly alone in disrupting the region's water flows. Others are doing it with potentially even worse consequences. But China's vast thirst for power and water, its control over the sources of the rivers and its ever-growing political clout make it a singular target of criticism and suspicion.
"Whether China intends to use water as a political weapon or not, it is acquiring the capability to turn off the tap if it wants to — a leverage it can use to keep any riparian neighbors on good behavior," says Brahma Chellaney, an analyst at New Delhi's Center for Policy Research and author of the forthcoming "Water: Asia's New Battlefield."
Analyst Neil Padukone calls it "the biggest potential point of contention between the two Asian giants," China and India. But the stakes may be even higher since those eight Tibetan rivers serve a vast west-east arc of 1.8 billion people stretching from Pakistan to Vietnam's Mekong river delta.
Lack of transparency?
Suspicions are heightened by Beijing's lack of transparency and refusal to share most hydrological and other data. Only China, along with Turkey, has refused to sign a key 1997 U.N. convention on transnational rivers.
Beijing gave no notice when it began building three dams on the Mekong — the first completed in 1993 — or the $1.2 billion Zangmu dam, the first on the mainstream of the 1,790-mile Brahmaputra which was started last November and hailed in official media as "a landmark priority project."
The 2000 flood that hit Sarkar's village, is widely believed to have been caused by the burst of an earthen dam wall on a Brahmaputra tributary. But China has kept silent.
"Until today, the Indian government has no clue about what happened," says Ravindranath, who heads the Rural Volunteer Center. He uses only one name.
Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has also warned of looming dangers stemming from the Tibetan plateau.
"It's something very, very essential. So, since millions of Indians use water coming from the Himalayan glaciers... I think you (India) should express more serious concern. This is nothing to do with politics, just everybody's interests, including Chinese people," he said in New Delhi last month.
Beijing normally counters such censure by pointing out that the bulk of water from the Tibetan rivers springs from downstream tributaries, with only 13-16 percent originating in China.
Officials also say that the dams can benefit their neighbors, easing droughts and floods by regulating flow, and that hydroelectric power reduces China's carbon footprint.
China "will fully consider impacts to downstream countries," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu recently told The Associated Press. "We have clarified several times that the dam being built on the Brahmaputra River has a small storage capacity. It will not have large impact on water flow or the ecological environment of downstream."
For some of China's neighbors, the problem is that they too are building controversial dams and may look hypocritical if they criticize China too loudly.
The four-nation Mekong River Commission has expressed concerns not just about the Chinese dams but about a host of others built or planned in downstream countries.
In northeast India, a broad-based movement is fighting central government plans to erect more than 160 dams in the region, and Laos and Cambodia have proposed plans for 11 Mekong dams, sparking environmental protest.
cont.The wall of water raced through narrow Himalayan gorges in northeast India, gathering... more
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Some environmentalists fear that industry lobbyists responsible for weakening the Clean Water Act have successfully convinced the Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives to use this year’s Continuing Resolution budget to further weaken CWA regulations.
The GOP’s CR – the money bill that will keep the government running through September 30 – includes language on page 276, Section 1747, lines 12-18 that would deny funding to the Environmental Protection Agency to implement guidelines needed to enforce the Clean Water Act.
“None of the funds made available by this division or any other Act may be used by the EPA to implement, administer, or enforce a change to a rule or guidance document pertaining to the definition of waters under the jurisdiction of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.”
This language was inserted in response to the expected release of guidelines on enforcement of the Clean Water Act by the Office of Management and Budget. The OMB rulemaking is an attempt to restore protections that eroded during the Bush Administration. It is a strategy of last resort by clean water advocates after failing to strengthen the law during the previous, Democratically-controlled Congress.
A handful of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions limit the authority of the EPA to enforce CWA protections. The most significant of these decisions was Rapanos vs. the United States. In a split decision, the court changed the definition of the type of waters the CWA could protect from waters of the United States to a more narrowly defined “navigable waters.” The 2006 ruling resulted in numerous jurisdictional issues that pro-industry lawyers have used to help their clients avoid CWA permitting regulations regardless of public health or habitat concerns.
New York’s Assistant Commissioner for Water Resources James M. Tierney told The New York Times that the court decision creates a big problem. “There are whole watersheds that feed into New York’s drinking water supply that are, as of now, unprotected.” The EPA says that over 100 million Americans are drinking water that comes from unguarded sources.
Even the Members of Congress cannot use the water fountains on Capitol Hill for fear of contamination – especially lead, according to Natalie Roy, executive director at Clean Water Network. After the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007 and the White House in 2008, former Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN) and former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) introduced legislation to clarify what they said was the original intent of the Clean Water Act – to protect all waters of the United States – (exclusions were made for agriculture and mining) but their efforts never made it into law. “Here is the U.S. Congress, and they can’t pass a bill that would protect the waterways and the headwaters that flow into bigger bodies of water. Common sense calls for them to enforce protections but they are making distinctions because they are being beat up by corporate interests,” Roy said.
Recently, the EPA submitted guidelines to OMB describing which waters should be protected under the CWA in response to inaction on the Hill, a decade of confusing court decisions, and a narrow definition put forth by the Bush White House that forced the EPA to abandon hundreds of pollution investigations and fines. According to a U.S. Congressional investigation, the Bush-era language may have been written with a lawyer-lobbyist representing industry, Virginia Albrecht, to better benefit her clients. “Documents produced to the Committee indicate that the White House significantly weakened guidance issued by the Administration to implement the Supreme Court’s decision in the Rapanos case. These actions appear to have been taken at the behest of J.P. Woodley, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, and Virginia Albrecht, the lobbyist who intervened in the case involving the Santa Cruz River.”
Documents obtained by environmental groups through the Freedom of Information Act show that Albrecht wrote the White House in the fall of 2006 expressing concern over the proposed rules and they were then “pulled back in the face of objections from lobbyists and lawyers” for industry groups, according to The New York Times.
The new OMB guidelines are expected to affirm a broader view of what waters and wetlands should be protected, thereby forcing industry to obtain permits to pollute or fill them.
cont.Some environmentalists fear that industry lobbyists responsible for weakening the... more
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- An attempt by a Kentucky water district to raise rates in order to meet clean water regulations has become political, with a local Tea Party organization stepping in and arguing that the county should simply ignore federal rules.
The Northern Kentucky Water District is seeking a 25 percent rate increase by January 2012, and according to The Kentucky Enquirer, a major reason for the raise is to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulations that are meant to prevent bladder cancer by "requiring that water utilities nationwide improve their treatment of drinking water to eliminate byproducts left over after chemical disinfection."
"The standard that we have to meet as to whether our water is safe or not is based upon the regulations that are set under the Safe Drinking Water Act and that are administered through the (Kentucky) Division of Water," said Northern Kentucky Water President and CEO Ron Lovan during a hearing last month. "Is our water safe? Yes, we feel it's safe based upon the current regulations. ... That's the standard that we've got to meet."
The EPA, however, is the arch-nemesis of many conservatives, who believe that it overreaches and imposes unnecessary regulations on states, localities and businesses.
But according to Lovan, if the local water district refuses to comply, it could face up to $25,000 per day in fines, the leadership could go to prison and the state Division of Water could possibly step in and take over. He added that the EPA regulations have been in the works since the 1990s and had significant public input.
"It's been years in the making, it was a very public process that they (EPA officials) took a lot of input from a lot of interest groups all around the country," said Lovan. "Whether the Tea Party folks believe that or not, it was a very open, public process before we got to the point where we are today."
During a hearing on the issue last month, Duane Skavdahl, an attorney representing the Tea Party group, lamented that "nobody will take on the EPA."
A Campbell County fiscal court judge recently told the Tea Party that if it was really concerned about the agency, it needed to take it up on the federal level. "What you're going to have to realize is that a federal mandate is the reason that we're involved in this conversation, and you're going to have to be talking to the federal people, and hopefully in a little bit different tone of voice and with different expectations than the way you're laying it out to us," said Judge Steve Pendery.
The Northern Kentucky Water District estimates that 80 percent of the $88 million increase is attributable to the new Safe Drinking Water Act regulations, but Northern Kentucky Tea Party member Garth Kuhnhein, who is a mining engineer, suspects that federal regulators were off on their cost projections.
According to the EPA, the regulations are intended to reduce not only bladder cancer, but also colon cancer, rectal cancer, and health risks to pregnant women and their fetuses. The Northern Kentucky Tea Party did not return a request for comment.
Tea Partiers are increasingly getting active locally, with groups in Arizona protesting changes in trash collection and a mandatory recycling program.- An attempt by a Kentucky water district to raise rates in order to meet clean water... more
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Multiple environmental stressors, such as agricultural runoff, pollution and invasive species, threaten rivers that serve 80 percent of the world's population, around 5 billion people, according to researchers from The City College (CCNY) of The City University of New York (CUNY), University of Wisconsin and seven other institutions. These same stressors endanger the biodiversity of 65 percent of the world's river habitats and put thousands of aquatic wildlife species at risk.
The findings, reported in the September 30 issue of Nature, come from the first global-scale initiative to quantify the impact of these stressors on humans and riverine biodiversity. The research team produced a series of maps documenting the impact using a computer-based framework they developed.
"We can no longer look at human water security and biodiversity threats independently," said the corresponding author, Dr. Charles J. Vorosmarty, director of the CUNY Environmental CrossRoads Initiative and professor of civil engineering in The Grove School of Engineering at CCNY. "We need to link the two. The systematic framework we've created allows us to look at the human and biodiversity domains on an equal playing field." The framework offers a tool for prioritizing policy and management responses to a global water crisis.
Many stressors threaten human water security and biodiversity through similar pathways, but influence water systems in distinct ways. For example, reservoirs convey few negative effects on human water supply but they significantly challenge aquatic biodiversity by impeding migration routes and changing water flow regimes.
Understanding and responding to the myriad threats to water security requires new methods to make diagnoses and to act on these findings. "As is the case with preventive medicine, our study demonstrates that diagnosing and then limiting threats at their local source, rather than through costly remedies and rehabilitation, is a more effective and sensible approach to assure global water security for both humans and aquatic biodiversity, " notes Professor Vorosmarty.
"We've integrated maps of 23 different stressors and merged them into a single index," said study co-leader Dr. Peter McIntyre, assistant professor of zoology, University of Wisconsin. "In the past, policymakers and researchers have been plagued by dealing with one problem at a time. A richer and more meaningful picture emerges when all threats are considered simultaneously."
Among the stressors analyzed were the effects of pollution, dams and reservoirs, water overuse, agricultural runoff, loss of wetlands and introduction of invasive species. The authors said their findings are "conservative," since there is insufficient information to account for additional stressors like pharmaceutical compounds and mining wastes.
High incident threat levels to human water security were found in developed and developing nations around the world. Affected areas include much of the United States, virtually all of Europe and large portions of Central Asia, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and eastern China.
"We uncovered a broad management principal operating at the global scale," Professor Vorosmarty said. "In the industrialized world, we tend to compromise our surface waters and then try to fix problems by throwing trillions of dollars at the issues. We can afford to do that in rich countries, but poor countries can't afford to do it."
The researchers noted that causes of degradation of many of the developing world's most threatened rivers bear striking similarities to those of rivers in similar condition in wealthy countries. However, going down the path of instituting highly engineered solutions practiced traditionally by industrialized nations, which emphasize treatment of the symptoms rather than protection of resources, may prove too costly for poorer countries.
There are many more cost-effective solutions, they point out. For example, engineers, can re-work dam operating rules to achieve economic benefits while simultaneously providing water releases downstream that preserve habitat and biodiversity.
With the high price tag for bringing water quality and supply in the developing countries to levels found in industrialized economies, Professor Vorosmarty argues that a more economical approach is called for. A strategy called integrated water resource management, which balances the needs of humans and nature, would best meet the dual challenge of establishing human water security and preserving biodiversity in the developing world.
contMultiple environmental stressors, such as agricultural runoff, pollution and invasive... more
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Information on the disaster in Haiti is only slowly coming out, but it is clear that the magnitude and extent of the catastrophe is vast, in a land seemingly cursed by endless environmental destruction.
I urge people to make donations to whatever organizations they trust to deliver help. I’ve donated to the American Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, but there are many more.
Water Number:
50 liters per person per day. In previous work I’ve done on basic human needs, I’ve identified 50 liters per person per day as a minimum for drinking, sanitation, cooking, and cleaning. In a disaster of this magnitude, even a fraction of that amount would be a blessing. Emergency water supplies can be provided in many ways, but there is no consistent approach or technology. Here are some that should be applied quickly:
– Some space on the first cargo planes should be reserved for small-scale desalination systems and other water purification plants that can be put in place immediately in centralized locations. Systems that fit on pallets, that in turn fit on transport planes, should be available. Water (such as bottled water) itself is very heavy. Best to send the equipment to purify unlimited amounts on the ground. Also send the solar energy systems, diesel generators, and other energy systems needed to operate them 24/7.
– Big US Navy ships have desalination systems on board. When the US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrives (as news reports suggest it will), the ship’s water system — capable of producing water for thousands of people every day — should be tied in to some kind of land distribution system so people can come and collect safe water. Other ships with such capability should also be used in this way.
– It would have been nice to have pre-positioned some large water bags, such as the innovative Spragg Bag, that could be flown to the country, or to neighboring Dominican Republic, filled with freshwater, and towed to Haiti for distribution. Alas, this technology is still searching for angel funders, though similar bags operated commercially for a number of years in the Mediterranean. These kinds of bags could also be used to store water on land as it is produced by water purification plants.
– Engineers should begin immediately to evaluate and repair the basic water system. In Haiti, this system has always been marginal and limited, but the purification and wastewater systems needs immediate attention.
– I believe that both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have relationships with bottlers in Haiti. If so, their teams should work (as no doubt they are) to repair bottling facilities in order to provide purified water to surrounding communities rather than other commercial drinks, during the emergency.
Bottled water should be shipped when space is available. As much as I’ve been known to criticize the bottled water industry (and I have a new book coming out shortly, called Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water, from Island Press, more about this a different time), some of the major bottled water companies have consistently been very generous during emergencies in making free water, or plastic bottles, available. The expertise of their water-quality engineers may also be valuable.
I’m sure there are many more good suggestions and ideas out there. Let’s hear them. This is one of the things Americans do really well. We step up in whatever ways we can.
Thank you,
Peter Gleick
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Peter Gleick is president of the Pacific Institute, an internationally recognized water expert and a MacArthur Fellow.Information on the disaster in Haiti is only slowly coming out, but it is clear that... more
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When large tanks that hold our drinking water leak, underwater specialist with gear purchased for and only used in potable water are called in. Potable water is just another way of saying treated drinking water. Water storage tanks and towers around your city or town are full of treated water waiting to go to your kitchen sink. When these tanks need to be inspected or cleaned out specially equipped commercial divers can save the utility time, water and money be doing many task without draining the treated water.
Today we are looking for a leak in a multi million gallon underground storage tank in north central texas.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6jmLb48PMs]
For more information visit www.ronperrin.comWhen large tanks that hold our drinking water leak, underwater specialist with gear... more
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Up to 150,000 litres (40,000 gallons) of diesel spilled into the Chishui and Wei rivers on Wednesday last week after a pipeline operated by China's largest oil producer, China National Petroleum, ruptured, state media said. AFP - Two tributaries of China's Yellow River have been "seriously polluted" by an oil spill, further contaminating badly tainted drinking water resources, the government said Tuesday.
Up to 150,000 litres (40,000 gallons) of diesel spilled into the Chishui and Wei rivers on Wednesday last week after a pipeline operated by China's largest oil producer, China National Petroleum Corp., ruptured, state media said.
"Due to this incident, the Chishui river was seriously polluted and the Wei river was relatively seriously polluted," the government in northern Shaanxi province said in a statement posted Tuesday on its website.
But it said the pollution on the Wei river had been "effectively controlled".
Water quality on the two rivers had on Monday reached grade five, the worst level in China's pollution monitoring scale, after falling off the register following the oil spill, it said.
Level five water is unfit for drinking, but can be used for agricultural purposes, according to government standards.
The two rivers flow into the Yellow River, one of China's longest rivers and the source of drinking water for millions of people, including residents of eight cities that lie downstream from the oil spill, Xinhua news agency said.
On Sunday, diesel was detected in water in the Sanmenxia reservoir on the Yellow River in neighbouring Henan province, it said.
In an effort to contain the pollution, authorities shut down electricity production on the Sanmenxia dam in an effort to keep the contamination from flowing downstream to the cities of Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, the report said.
The two cities, with a total population of nearly 3.5 million people, get up to 95 percent of their tap water from the Yellow River, the report said. Residents in the cities have long depended on bottled water for drinking.
More than 30 years of unbridled economic growth have left most of China's lakes and rivers heavily polluted, while the nation's urban dwellers also face some of the world's worst air pollution.
More than 200 million Chinese currently do not have access to safe drinking water, according to government data.Up to 150,000 litres (40,000 gallons) of diesel spilled into the Chishui and Wei... more
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Access to potable freshwater brings life through education, opportunity, health, and economic freedom. It is hard to believe that the simplest solutions to our greatest problems are so hard to achieve because of moral and political cowardess. Water is a human right and one that all should share. To think this will also be ignored in Copenhagen is very disappointing and outrageous.Access to potable freshwater brings life through education, opportunity, health, and... more
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"The technology is simple. A special mixture of clay is fired in a way that leaves tiny pores in the pot, which filter contaminants and kill bacteria. The pots can cleanse 1 to 3 liters per hour and last up to 5 years for a family of up to 10 people–all for $30, or about 2 cents per family per day, Hawkins said."
One more excerpt:
"Q: What’s one fact that people might not know about the issue of clean water in Tanzania?
A: I think for me what really struck me that was a big “a-ha” moment was that the people really do not know that they are sick. That they think that their children dying, that having stomach pain all the time, living with sores, is a way of live. That is their reality. That’s their ‘normal.’ And I just found that shocking, because, of course, we’re here living in an environment where, if we were living like that, we would think we were dying. We’d be at the doctor every moment, but for these people it’s just normal."
Very sad and hopefully it will change thanks to this invention."The technology is simple. A special mixture of clay is fired in a way that... more
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Approximately 2.5 billion people in this world do not have adequate access to sanitation, with waterborne diseases being the number one killer of children in the developing world. This was a project performed to test the effects of solar disinfection of water to reduce childhood diarrhoea in rural Bolivia. It is studies like this that hopefully will bring better health to developing rural communities where sanitation and access to potable safe water is a daily life and death struggle.Approximately 2.5 billion people in this world do not have adequate access to... more
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What a failure that as a species we can always find time, money and energy for distractions and war, but we can't even build toilets for people to prevent them from dying of preventable diseases. That speaks more to our collective moral conscience than anything I know.What a failure that as a species we can always find time, money and energy for... more
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Add your voice to the End Water Poverty campaign's demand that governments provide sanitation and water for the world's poorest people.
End Water Poverty is calling for:
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One global action plan for sanitation and water monitored by one global task force
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70% of aid money for sanitation and water to be targeted at the poorest countries
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Water resources to be protected and shared equitably
You can help today by telling the G8 leaders to urgently address the crisis in sanitation and water at their next summit in Japan in July 2008.... continued on link.
From TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.Add your voice to the End Water Poverty campaign's demand that governments... more
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