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Collect rainwater for just $200
Rainwater harvesting is taking America by storm. A San Francisco woman built her own 1,250-gallon rainwater catchment system with parts from a hardware store for $200. Web traffic has tripled at HarvestH2O.com, which provides information on harvesting rainwater. More idea houses now incorporate rainwater collectors as a green design feature. Rainwater harvesting is taking America by storm. A San Francisco woman built her own 1,250-gallon rainwater catchment system with part... more
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U.S. power plants consume 136 billion gallons of fresh water every day
Here in California, we are told that the snow packs on our mountain tops are shrinking. There's less and less fresh water to share between our growing populations, farmers, ranchers and wildlife. Water is life.
This UPI article (U.S. Wants to Cut Power Plant Water Usage, July 18, 2007) alerted me to the problem concerning the oil fired, natural gas, coal and nuclear power plants. They all use copious amounts of our nation's fresh water resource.
Here is an excerpt:
WASHINGTON, U.S. Department of Energy officials said thermoelectric power plants using coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear sources require significant amounts of water for cooling and are a major competitor for water resources. A 2000 study found electric power plants were the second largest U.S. user of fresh water, withdrawing 136 billion gallons of fresh water daily. Only agriculture used more water.
Energy Department officials said the goal is to achieve a "50 percent" reduction in power plant fresh water usage by 2015.
Solar electric roof shingles and solar electric panels use "no" water in the generation of clean renewable electricity. They have no moving parts, make no noise, cause no chemical reaction, require virtually no maintenance and are guaranteed on average for 25 years.
When one factors in the true cost of generating electricity including the use of water as well as the production of greenhouse gases and other toxic emissions, solar electricity leads the field with clean, low cost, renewable energy.
Governor Schwarzenegger has recently told us that due to climate destabilization, forest fires aren't just seasonal anymore, they're year round. This will add new competition for our already strained precious water resources.
California as well as many other states can improve their flexibility to cope with an uncertain water future while practicing environmental stewardship.
– Harvey Sherback Here in California, we are told that the snow packs on our mountain tops are shrinking. There's less and less fresh water to shar... more -
Ways to Conserve Water
CONSERVE WATER
by Elizabeth Creehan
Water Conservation
Carefully conserving water lessens the damaging effects of droughts.
Droughts can decrease food production, raise food prices, increase fire hazards, as well as worsen soil erosion and insect infestation.
Droughts are a normal part of climate cycles. So, it's crucial to conserve water now to minimize the effects of drought later.
Water conservation needs to be a higher priority for Americans. People in the United States use more water per person than citizens of any other country. At a pace of almost 1,300 gallons of water per day, Americans are quickly consuming a precious resource.
Only 1 percent of the world's water is available for human consumption. Some water conservation experts predict that our Southwestern states will face severe freshwater shortages by 2025.
Highest volume water uses inside the home include:
* Toilet: 26.7%
* Clothes Washer: 21.7%
* Shower: 16.8%
* Faucets: 15.7%
* Leaks: 13.7%
It's so simple to conserve water and dramatically help the environment... and your checkbook.
Remembering to conserve water throughout your daily routine will eventually turn into such an ingrained habit that you won't even have to think about it.
You can start water conservation in your home today. Here are some tips to save water:
* Don't let the water run needlessly when washing dishes, shaving, or brushing your teeth.
* Take shorter showers... keeping showers less than 5 minutes can save up to 1,000 gallons per month.
* Plug the bathtub before turning the water on, and then adjust the temperature as the tub fills up.
* Fix leaky faucets: Just one drip a second can waste 2,000 gallons of water per year.
* If practical, try to run the dishwasher or washing machine only when completely full.
* If you live in an older home, consider replacing your plumbing with low-flow fixtures and low-flush toilets.
* Water your lawn only when necessary and consider landscaping with native plants adaptable to your climate's conditions.
* Place a bucket in the shower to catch excess water to later water plants. This also works when washing dishes or vegetables in the sink.
* Use the garbage disposal minimally and compost instead.
More information on water conservation and other tips to help save water are available from:
* American Water & Energy Savers
* Water: Use It Wisely
* Heifer International CONSERVE WATER by Elizabeth Creehan Water Conservation Carefully conserving water lessens the damaging effects of droughts. ... more -
World water crisis underlies world food crisis
The world's supplies of clean, fresh water cannot sustain today's "profligate" use and inadequate management, which have brought shrinking food supplies and rising food costs to most countries, WWF Director General James Leape told the opening session of World Water Week in Stockholm today.
"Behind the world food crisis is a global freshwater crisis, expected to rapidly worsen as climate change impacts intensify," Leape said. "Irrigation-fed agriculture provides 45 percent of the world's food supplies, and without it, we could not feed our planet's population of six billion people."
Leape warns that many of the world's irrigation areas are highly stressed and drawing more water than rivers and groundwater reserves can sustain, especially in view of climate change. At the same time, he said, freshwater food reserves are declining in the face of the quickening pace of dam construction and unsustainable water extractions from rivers.
At a time when billions of people live without access to safe drinking water or suffer ill health due to poor sanitation, when food producers battle biofuel producers for land and water resources, and when global climate change is altering the overall water balance, 2,500 water experts are gathered this week at the Stockholm International Fairs and Congress Center to craft solutions to these problems.
World Water Week is an annual event co-ordinated by the Stockholm International Water Institute. This year's conference has the overall theme of Progress and Prospects on Water: For A Clean and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation" in keeping with the UN declaration of 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation.
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According to an announcement here the amount of people without potable water is going down. This is good news, and is in part due to organizations such as Water Partners International, Water Aid, and other organizations coming together in the water justice movement to bring potable water to more areas of the world that need it most.
It is an encouraging sign, but the work is far from over. Glaciers worldwide continue to melt threatening the water supplies for millions of people as freshwater lakes and rivers continue to decline due to a combination of climate change/global warming, overusage and pollution. The measures outlined by the forum need to be seriously instituted instead of just being talk to carry over for the next year.
As population rises freshwater resources will become even scarcer due to climate changes, pollution, and corporatization, so conservation and more efficient irrigation practices worldwide must be instituted. It is then ironic to see the water fountains going outside the sign to this forum. I wonder if they realized that.
Anyway, I know this issue is not "sexy" and some think it redundant. Well, sorry, but it is the most important environmental issue and crisis we are facing in our world, and the only way people will know about it is for those with the passion to get the message out to persevere in doing so. The world's supplies of clean, fresh water cannot sustain today's "profligate" use and inadequate management, whic... more -
Lake Tuz, Turkey's 2nd largest lake disappearing
Lake Tuz, located in central Anatolia and known as the second-largest lake of Turkey, can no longer carry that title as it has shrunk by 85 percent over the last 90 years due to global warming, drought and the over usage of its water for irrigation purposes.
Aksaray University department of engineering, geodesy and photogrammetry engineering instructor Semih Ekercin spoke with the Anatolia news agency on Tuesday and said he examined the changes to the coastlines of Lake Tuz, second in size only to Lake Van, located in eastern Anatolia, and Beyşehir Lake, located in the western part of central Anatolia.
Ekercin said he even received support from NASA during the course of his study, adding that after examining satellite maps of Turkey provided by the US, Japan and France, he found there was a serious shrinkage of Turkey's lakes.
Ekercin said Lake Tuz covered 216,400 hectares in 1915. "Lake Tuz has shrunk at an alarming rate from then on. The water surface area of Lake Tuz decreased to 92,600 hectares in 1987," Ekercin said. "I clearly detected from the satellite images that the area of Lake Tuz decreased to 32,600 hectares in 2005. Drought, the over usage of water in the lake basin for irrigation and global warming have led to the loss of water in the lake.
snip
Ekercin said there is a need for urgent and radical measures to protect Lake Tuz. "If the necessary measures are not taken, by 2015 Lake Tuz will no longer exist."
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Radical measures indeed. The World Water Forum is taking place this week in Stockholm... but like every other year, what "radical" plans will come from it? Every year there are meetings, forums, dinners, and talks. And every year we see scenarios like Lake Tuz in Turkey continuing to play out before our eyes. We talk, and yet while talking still continue to perpetuate the climate change/global warming that is dropping levels in waterways worldwide. We talk, and yet continue to pollute our waterways until they are of no use to us or other species and cause the death of many rivers worldwide. We talk, and yet we still do not have a sufficient global plan to deal with the affects of climate change/drought that are slowly and silently creeping to all corners of this world as we continue to waste water with inefficient agricultural practices, infrastructure, and greed.
Those who know of and remember the tragedy of the Aral Sea in Russia see a hauntingly familiar and frightening pattern here. People care more for their own selfish sustainment than for only using what they need, which is considerably less than what they want. How many lakes and rivers will we run dry before we realize that we are running out of time to fight for the sustainability of this planet? Where is the plan? Where are the politicians? The World Bank doesn't have that plan. The IMF doesn't have that plan. The G8 doesn't have that plan. Will the World Water Forum in Stockholm have that plan?
The loss of Lake Tuz like so many other waterways, the Murray River in Australia as a starker example is a harbinger to us that something is terribly wrong.
Why aren't we listening?
WHAT WILL IT TAKE?
How many more? Lake Tuz, located in central Anatolia and known as the second-largest lake of Turkey, can no longer carry that title as it has shrunk ... more -
Spain sweats amid 'water wars'
Spain is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years. Climate experts warn that the country is suffering badly from the impact of climate change and that the Sahara is slowly creeping north - into the Spanish mainland.
Yet in Spain itself there is little consensus about what is to be done. Indeed, such is the disagreement that journalists and politicians alike are calling it "water wars".
A farmer and politician, Angel Carcia Udon, said: "Water arouses passions because it can be used as a weapon, a political weapon, just as oil is a political weapon".
And water in Spain has set region against region, north against south and government against opposition.
When the city of Barcelona nearly ran out of water earlier this year, the fountains were switched off and severe restrictions were introduced.
The government of Catalonia pleaded for water to be transferred from rivers like the Ebro, in neighbouring regions, but they refused.
Instead, the city imported tonnes of litres of water from France and accelerated work on the giant desalination plant on the edge of Barcelona, which promises to provide 180,000 cubic metres of water a day.
Parched land
But Barcelona is not alone in its insatiable thirst. Apart from the far north, the entire country is suffering, especially the parched areas on the Mediterranean coast, from Catalonia, down through Valencia, Alicante, Murcia and Almeria.
Mr Udon, whose Popular Party (PP) believes in transferring water around the country, said: "It's incomprehensible that, in one country, there is an excess of water in one place and a deficit in another.
The landscape of eastern Spain looks more parched than usual
"Even more incomprehensible is that they expect us to use water from desalination plants, which is expensive and would force us to raise prices."
But when the present PSOE Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero got into power in 2004, they cancelled all the PP's plans to send water from the north-west to the arid zones of the south-east.
Instead, the government is building more desalination plants, adding to the more than 900 already in Spain - the largest number in any one country outside the Middle East.
They are working night and day at the one at Llogrebat, close to Barcelona airport. The general manager, Juan Compte Costa, assured me that it was the most cost-effective and energy-efficient desalination plant yet. Spain is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years. Climate experts warn that the country is suffering badly from the impact of clima... more -
Water Conservation in the Rockies
The diminishing resource of water in the west and ways we can help.
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Ceremony marks 'death' of Australia's greatest river
Thousands of people rallied in southern Australia Sunday to protest the dwindling water levels in one of the country's greatest rivers, claiming the loss was causing an environmental disaster.
The 5,000-strong crowd gathered near the mouth of the 2,530 kilometre (1,569 mile) Murray to hold two minute's silence to mark the 'death' of the river, which forms part of Australia's most important agricultural region.
Kym McHugh, mayor of the local Alexandrina Council, said the ceremony near the South Australian town of Goolwa was to "underscore this eleventh hour bid to save the nation's greatest river." "It sent a very clear message by saying we've had a lot of talk about the river system, a lot of science, we all know what the problem is -- we just want politicians to have the will to fix it up," he told national news agency AAP.
"They need to secure water upstream and send it down."
Water levels are so low in the Murray River, due to drought and irrigation, that the freshwater lakes the river feeds into are turning to acid.
The federal government last week said there was not enough water in the system to save the freshwater lakes, leading to suggestions that ocean water could be used to prevent the lakes from drying out.
But the council wants the government to release water held in storage in upstream states into the river so it can flow down and prevent an environmental, economic and social disaster in the region.
"We need to give these lakes another chance," McHugh said.
The Murray, along with the 2,740-kilometre Darling River and 1,690-kilometre Murrumbidgee River, form the Murray Darling Basin, which accounts for some 40 percent of the nation's agricultural production.
photo credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95438214@N00/2306721603/ Thousands of people rallied in southern Australia Sunday to protest the dwindling water levels in one of the country's greatest r... more -
Himalayan glaciers shrinking every year
Glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating at an alarming rate of 15-20 metre every year, says the study jointly done by Himachal Pradesh Science and Technology Council and Space Research Station, Ahmedabad.
With rising global temperature, glaciers in Himalayas are retreating at an alarming rate of 15-20 metre every year, which could adversly impact agriculture in the region.
Mapping of 400 glaciers done jointly by the Himachal Pradesh Science and Technology Council and Space Research Station Ahmedabad since 1994 on rivers Chandra, Beas, Ravi, Satluj, Spiti and Baspa has shown that the glaciers are retreating.
"There had been a retreat of 10-15 m per year in 400 glaciers," A B Kulkarni, head of Glaciology wing of Space Research Station, Ahmedabad, said.
A Report of Geological Survey of India (GSI) says that prominent glaciers like Chota Sigri in Lahaul-Spiti district showed a retreat of 6.81 m per year, Bara Sigri 29.78 m per year, Trilokinath 17.86 m per year, Beas kund 18.8 m per year and Manimahesh 29.1 metre per year.
The mapping of glaciers through satellite picture suggests that there are in total 334 glaciers in the entire Satluj and Beas basins covering an area of 1515 sq km. Out of this 202 glaciers fall in Himachal Pradesh.
Syed Iqbal Hussnain of TERI, who is studying retreat of glaciers in Himalayas, said the situation is serious.
Hussnain, who is a member of National Action plan on climatology, suggested Himachal Pradesh government to set up a glacier commission on the pattern of one existing in Sikkim to carry field-based scientific study of glacier retreat and draw future plans to tackle the problem. Hussnain, who heads Glacier Commission of Sikkim which was set up in January this year, said the commission is making a scientific study of actual retreat and also regularly monitoring water discharge in the rivers to assess speed of retreat.
A comprehensive report will be submitted to the Sikkim government in December this year for drawing future plans, he added. Glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating at an alarming rate of 15-20 metre every year, says the study jointly done by Himachal Prades... more -
A unique solar powered community in Canada
The Drake Landing Solar Community is the first solar powered community of North America. Located in the town of Okotoks, Alberta, Canada, the project sets a wonderful example of how every household can lead a sustainable lifestyle. There are 800 solar panels located throughout the community on garage roofs, and they produce 1.5 mega-watts of thermal power during a summer day and supply heat to the district heating system. The whole system meets 90% of the annual heating and hot water needs of the homes.
The 52-home solar community has installed an array of solar panels on the roofs of their houses and garages. Glycol solution runs through an insulated piping system, or collector loop, that connects the array of solar panels. The solar panels absorb the solar energy during the daytime and heat the glycol solution. The glycol solution travels through the collector loop and reaches an underground heat exchanger within the community’s centralized Energy Center. The heat is then transferred from heat exchanger to the water stored in a short-term storage tank. The glycol solution returns to the solar collector system. The Energy Center has short-term thermal storage tanks and long-thermal storage tanks (Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) system).
During the warmer months the heated water is transferred to the underground borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) system via a series of pipes. The water heats up the surrounding earth increasing the temperature to 80 degrees C (176 °F). The water returns to the short-term storage tanks to be heated again. The heat is stored underground insulated with sand, high-density R-40 insulation, a waterproof membrane, clay, and other landscaping materials. The stored heat is used to provide heat and hot water to the entire community throughout the winter.
The homes are moderately sized, ranging from 1,492 to 1,664 square feet, and have low energy demands, suitable to work with the system. The homes are located close to one another, which provides a walkable neighborhood, and reduces the lengths that the fluid for the solar heating system needs to travel. Water conservation has been made mandatory in the homes. The homes have been built using locally manufactured materials, and recycled material too has been used in construction. The homes will be certified to Natural Resources Canada’s R-2000 Standard for energy efficiency, and the Built Green™ Alberta program. The precedence set by the Drake Landing Solar Community can serve as an example for every community.
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/07/24/a-unique-solar-powe...
link to The Drake Landing Solar Community website
http://www.dlsc.ca/index.htm The Drake Landing Solar Community is the first solar powered community of North America. Located in the town of Okotoks, Alberta, Cana... more -
Facing The Freshwater Crisis
From Scientific American:
Key points:
Global freshwater resources are threatened by rising demands from many quarters.
Growing populations need ever more water for drinking, hygiene, sanitation, food production and industry.
Climate change, meanwhile, is expected to contribute to droughts.
Policymakers need to figure out how to supply water without degrading the natural ecosystems that provide it.
Existing low-tech approaches can help prevent scarcity, as can ways to boost supplies, such as improved methods to desalinate water.
But governments at all levels need to start setting policies and making investments in infrastructure for water conservation now.
A friend of mine lives in a middle-class neighborhood of New Delhi, one of the richest cities in India. Although the area gets a fair amount of rain every year, he wakes in the morning to the blare of a megaphone announcing that freshwater will be available only for the next hour. He rushes to fill the bathtub and other receptacles to last the day. New Delhi’s endemic shortfalls occur largely because water managers decided some years back to divert large amounts from upstream rivers and reservoirs to irrigate crops.
My son, who lives in arid Phoenix, arises to the low, schussing sounds of sprinklers watering verdant suburban lawns and golf courses. Although Phoenix sits amid the Sonoran Desert, he enjoys a virtually unlimited water supply. Politicians there have allowed irrigation water to be shifted away from farming operations to cities and suburbs, while permitting recycled wastewater to be employed for landscaping and other nonpotable applications.
As in New Delhi and Phoenix, policymakers worldwide wield great power over how water resources are managed. Wise use of such power will become increasingly important as the years go by because the world’s demand for freshwater is currently overtaking its ready supply in many places, and this situation shows no sign of abating. That the problem is well-known makes it no less disturbing: today one out of six people, more than a billion, suffer inadequate access to safe freshwater. By 2025, according to data released by the United Nations, the freshwater resources of more than half the countries across the globe will undergo either stress—for example, when people increasingly demand more water than is available or safe for use—or outright shortages. By midcentury as much as three quarters of the earth’s population could face scarcities of freshwater.
Scientists expect water scarcity to become more common in large part because the world’s population is rising and many people are getting richer (thus expanding demand) and because global climate change is exacerbating aridity and reducing supply in many regions. What is more, many water sources are threatened by faulty waste disposal, releases of industrial pollutants, fertilizer runoff and coastal influxes of saltwater into aquifers as groundwater is depleted. Because lack of access to water can lead to starvation, disease, political instability and even armed conflict, failure to take action can have broad and grave consequences.
end of excerpt.
My comments at the link. From Scientific American: Key points: Global freshwater resources are threatened by rising demands from many quarters. ... more -
Diary: Colorado River drought
The south-western US is suffering its eighth consecutive year of drought. There are concerns that the Colorado River, which has sustained life in the area for thousands of years, can no longer meet the needs of the tens of millions of people living in major cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
We cannot continue to waste water as we are doing. We are turning the Western US into a desert. The south-western US is suffering its eighth consecutive year of drought. There are concerns that the Colorado River, which has sustai... more -
Water bills to rise £450m to save wildlife
Water companies have been asked to drastically reduce the amount of water they take from rivers and groundwater due to the threat it poses to wildlife and natural habitats. Households in the UK will have to foot the bill of half a billion pounds following the review from the Environment Agency.
Chalk rivers and wetlands, and protected habitats for wildlife such as water voles (pictured above) and salmon were found to be in danger. Damage is caused when water dries up or falls so low that plants and other species are unable to thrive in more polluted and warmer water, or choked by sediment. "You might find you'd go from a nice big wetland to something which was mixed grasses, those sort of things, which may be less valuable in terms of its biodiversity," said a spokeswoman from the Environment Agency.
Alternatives which have been mooted in the past include pumping water from the north to the south, additional reservoirs, and desalination plants, which use enormous amounts of energy.
Industry bodies have called for a slower pace of change, and warned that households will face higher bills and low water pressure. Is our supply of water a commodity we can and should compromise for the benefit of the environment? Water companies have been asked to drastically reduce the amount of water they take from rivers and groundwater due to the threat it p... more -
Pacific Institute:Extreme Weather Events Will Increasingly Affect US Water Supply
With global warming, there is an increased risk of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and heat waves,” according to the Congressional testimony of Heather Cooley, senior research associate of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California. Cooley’s testimony was provided to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming for the hearing on Climate Change and Extreme Events on Thursday, July 10.
“Floods and droughts are a natural part of the climate system, but we are seeing a growing body of scientific analysis indicating it is likely that climate change will vastly increase stresses on our water systems,” Cooley testified. “We are essentially ‘loading the dice’ and increasing the probability that these types of events will increase in frequency and intensity.”
snip
Cooley made several recommendations for mitigating the impact of extremes on communities and water supplies, citing the need for water conservation, improved weather-monitoring efforts, and better planning and preparedness for floods and droughts. In addition to her remarks, she presented written testimony to the Select Committee addressing the need for adaptation to be a central element of all climate-change policy.
Such adaptation measures include:
-Water managers must re-evaluate engineering designs, operating rules, contingency plans, and water-allocation policies, including taking into account their energy and greenhouse-gas implications.
-New water infrastructure must be designed and built incorporating expected climate change over the expected life of the project.
-Water and energy issues must be better integrated, and water agencies should partner with other agencies to seek combined solutions to water, energy, and greenhouse-gas problems.
“Climate change will have a significant impact on freshwater resources, affecting availability, timing, reliability, and quality,” Cooley testified, “and water conservation and efficiency are particularly attractive adaptation options.”
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This will be the greatest environmental challenge of the 21st century. We must plan now. With global warming, there is an increased risk of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and heat waves,” according to the ... more -
Crap and Trade: Why public toilets should pay you
What? You've been giving away your urine for free?
Many of us haven't just been giving our waste away; we've been paying to unload it. Hundreds of cities have automated public toilets, known as APTs. In New York or Los Angeles, you drop in a quarter, and the door opens. But your quarter hardly pays the bills. New York's new APTs reportedly cost more than $100,000 apiece; Los Angeles' cost $300,000; Seattle installed five at a cost of $6.6 million. At 25 cents a flush, 20 to 130 times a day, a toilet brings in only $2,000 to $11,000 per year.
So how does the math work out? The Los Angeles Times explains:
In Los Angeles, the facilities are part of a 20-year contract between the city and a joint venture of two companies: CBS Outdoor and JCDecaux. The latter, a French firm, has installed thousands of the sleek units worldwide, mostly in exchange for the right to sell the ads that adorn them. It's a common model that is used by the majority of American cities looking to install the loos. L.A. is guaranteed $150 million in revenue over the course of the contract. … The companies foot the bill for installing all the structures, including the toilets, and for the maintenance on each.
So the company pays the city, and in exchange, the city provides your eyeballs. Do you get a cut? A free flush, at least? Nope. You pay.
The obvious argument for making you pay is that you're getting a service, too: a clean, private place to relieve yourself. If you can't find a john, you'll have to go in the street.
Last fall, New Delhi hosted the World Toilet Summit. At the meeting, experts estimated that 700 million Indians lacked access to proper toilets. "Defecating in the open can contaminate water supplies and spread diseases such as diarrhea," Reuters observed. Accordingly, India committed to increase its spending on rural sanitation by almost half, "building toilets for hundreds of millions of its poor and homeless." The country's minister of rural development pledged, "By 2012, India will be free of defecation in the open."
Residents of Saliyar Street in Musiri are getting paid for using toilets. While people elsewhere have to hastily dig into their pockets and shell out a rupee or more to relieve themselves in a dingy public urinal, around 300 families in Musiri have found they can actually profit every time they answer nature's call. Essentially, the system serves two purposes. While it encourages people in the lower middle-class neighbourhood to use toilets, the urine collected goes for research to test its efficacy as a fertiliser.
The plan seems to be working:
Initially people in Saliyar street were amused when they heard about the use and earn facility. But now the queues are getting longer before the eco sanitation (ecosan) toilet. … Although it was the novelty of the project that initially attracted many, people have also realized the health benefits and stopped using public spaces to relieve themselves. ''Now even children in the locality do not urinate in the open, thanks to the 10 paise incentive," said [a local man].
Could a similar incentive work in the United States? Nobody's being paid to use public toilets, as far as I know. But some people get to use them for free. In Los Angeles, for example, the Times reports, "All of the APTs in the city, except two on skid row, charge a quarter for each use." Why the skid-row exception? Two reasons seem pretty clear. First, homeless people don't spend quarters lightly, if they have them at all. Second, if the city doesn't give them a free indoor place to relieve themselves, they'll use a free outdoor place: the street...
----In India, it pays to use public toilets------
http://current.com/items/89082209_in_india_it_pays_to_u... What? You've been giving away your urine for free? ... more -
Bottled water industry faces growing opposition
Last week’s decision by a York County water board to delay a vote on whether to sell municipal water to Nestle Corp., the owner of Poland Spring, did not happen in a vacuum.
* Last month in McCloud, Calif., after encountering opposition to what would have been the largest water bottling plant in the country, Nestle announced plans to significantly reduce the plant’s size.
* Earlier this month in Enumclaw, Wash., the city council rejected a proposal to allow Nestle to build another such plant.
* And last Monday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors voted to phase out use of bottled water for municipal employees.
Across the country, opposition to bottled water is building, amid growing concerns about the industry’s environmental impact and rising fears about private control of public water supplies.
“There’s no question that there is a groundswell,” said Ruth Caplan, coordinator of Defending Water for Life, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign that opposes the bottled water industry.
There are several reasons for the backlash to bottled water. Some of it is driven by fears about global warming - given the amount of oil needed to bottle and transport the water.
Some stems from concerns about the chemical makeup of plastic water bottles.
Some of the opposition is a byproduct of the huge price disparity between bottled water and the kind of water that comes from the tap for free.
Here in Maine, some of the local opposition to Poland Spring’s operations has stemmed from the traffic generated by the trucks that transport the water.
Perhaps the biggest factor, though, is a fear that as bottled water becomes more popular, private corporations are gaining more control over a natural resource that is central to life.
“The fundamental issue is, who owns the water?” said Jim Olson, an attorney for Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, which has been engaged in a legal battle with Nestle. “If this company gets to do it, all companies get to do it, and you’re not going to be able to say no in the future.”
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We need to stop the commoditization of this resource which is the lifeblood of the Earth. Water is a human right. It cannot be bought by Nestle at the expense of the poor in countries where water is already scarce. It is a good sign to see people finally standing up to these companies. Last week’s decision by a York County water board to delay a vote on whether to sell municipal water to Nestle Corp., the owner of Pol... more -
Living with water scarcity: world must act now
Only if we act to improve water use in agriculture now will we meet the acute water-environment-poverty challenges facing humankind over the next 50 years. "With earth's water, land and human resources it is possible to produce enough food for the future - but it is probable that today's food production and environmental trends will lead to crises in many parts of the world" says David Molden Deputy Director General of the International Water Management Institute.
This is the opening prognosis given in the Earthscan publication Water for Food, Water for Life: A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. The Assessment, the first of its kind, brings together the work of over 700 specialists from hundreds of institutes around the world into the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of water and food ever written, critically examining policies and practices of water use and development in the agricultural sector over the last 50 years.
Spearheaded by International Water Management Institute (IWMI), one of 15 CGIAR agricultural research centres striving to increase food production, increase rural incomes, and safeguard the environment, the report is co-sponsored by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), FAO, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and the Convention on Biological Diversity in a bid to find solutions to the challenge of balancing the water-food-environment needs.
The assessment finds that 1/3 of the world's population live in areas where water scarcity must be reckoned with. While much of this water scarcity cannot be avoided, water problems can be averted through better water management.
Growing cities take more water, and environmental concerns are rising. A water-food-environment dilemma. Water use in agriculture is recognized as one of the major drivers of ecosystem degradation, causing habitat loss, drying up of rivers, and reduction in groundwater levels. Flows in the Colorado River in USA, the Yellow River in China, the Indus in India and Pakistan - all important food producing areas - dry up because of the water needed for irrigated agriculture. Clearly limiting agricultural water use is key for environmental sustainability. Therein lies the dilemma. More people require more water for more food; more water is essential in the fight against poverty; yet we should limit the amount of water taken from ecosystems.
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Since climate change is expected to hit these areas hard, better water systems will be a key to helping people cope with dry spells. Poverty, hunger, gender inequality, and environmental degradation continue to afflict developing countries not because of technical failings but because of political and institutional failings. There is need for drastic reform in the water sector. Governments must lead the reform process, but ironically state institutions themselves are in greatest need of reform. While water scarcity is here to stay, many of the problems associated with water scarcity can be avoided.
This will require that we deal with difficult choices and tradeoffs. Reconciling competing demands on water requires informed negotiations by the many stakeholders involved in water with transparent sharing of information. "The hope is in realizing the unexplored potential that lies in better water management along with non-miraculous changes in policy and production techniques" says Margaret Catley Carleson, Chair of the Global Water Partnership, "but world leaders must take action now." As Sunita Narain, 2005 Stockholm Water Prize Winner says, "this issue must become the world's obsession." Only if we act to improve water use in agriculture now will we meet the acute water-environment-poverty challenges facing humankind ov... more -
What's your water footprint?
Water conservation can begin with your dinner plate. Sure, it looks like merely a hamburger with cheese, a baked potato and a cup of coffee.
But look at it in terms of water: ● It took about 464 gallons of water to produce that quarter pound of beef, ● 108 gallons to produce a potato, ● 37 gallons to make 1 ounce of cheese ● and 37 gallons of water to create your 8-ounce cup of coffee.
This concept of calculating how much water goes into the production of food or other items is called "virtual water." Instead of seeing only the item in front of you — say, a ribeye steak — you look at where it came from, how the cattle was raised, how many gallons of water were used in irrigation to produce the feed the cattle ate, how many gallons of water were used to create the fertilizer and pesticides used in raising the feed corn, how much water was consumed by the actual animal, how many resources went into getting that animal from the ranch to the slaughter house to the packing plant to the store to you.
As food and energy costs continue to rise, and concern about the effects of global warming increases, many consumers are looking at choices differently. Our community consolidates car trips to save gas and plans meals based on coupons and sales instead of convenience.
Water is a prized resource in our part of the world and we face huge policy questions as communities in Arizona continue to grow in size and population. We must come to terms with how we use this priceless and limited commodity.
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"I think people at the global level are talking about this with global trading in food, but it's only now becoming a local issue," said Pat Gober, the co-director of the Decision Center for a Desert City at Arizona State University. "If somebody in Phoenix consumes a hamburger it's not consuming much of Phoenix's water, but it's consuming Brazil's water, or wherever the beef was raised. It's the globalization of our food supply.
"Food as a way of conserving water," said Gober. "I think it's an important thing to think about."
How much water do you really use?
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When adding up all of the water you use in just one day to shower, drink, cook, clean, eat, prepare food, and for sanitation, not to mention recreation, pools, sprinklers, watering lawns, washing cars, washing clothes, etc., it is astounding to see the total. And the impacts of that use are felt globally.
http://www.waterfootprint.org can help you calculate your water footprint and give you information about how to bring it down. It is only when we begin to look beyond the dinner plate and the tangible items to see what goes into them that we become more aware and more enpowered in our choices. And that can have a positive global effect, especially now as not only 45 % of our country is in some stage of drought, but much of our world. Water conservation can begin with your dinner plate. Sure, it looks like merely a hamburger with cheese, a baked potato and a cup of c... more -
Congress to hear global warming woes of the Colorado River
Federal scientists and Western water managers will call Congress' attention Friday to the potentially devastating effects of climate change on the Colorado River, warning that an expected warming trend would reduce the amount of water in the river.
All told, the Colorado is a water source for more than 25 million people in seven states and Mexico. The volume of the river is particularly critical for southern Nevada because the Colorado feeds Lake Mead, which supplies 90 percent of the Las Vegas Valley's water.
At Friday's congressional briefing, research scientist Gregory McCabe will present a study that shows even a 1.5-degree increase in the overall temperature of the Southwest will decrease the river's flow. It will also increase the likelihood that it will fall short of the amount needed to meet the annual allocations upon which Nevada and the other members of the Colorado River Compact rely.
"I live in the West. I worry about water supply," McCabe said. "We have lived in an anomalously wet century. A shift to a much drier climate coupled with additional warming spells trouble for the future."
"Because the water usage is so large in the (Great) Basin, it is very sensitive to even small warmings," McCabe said.
McCabe's study estimated the effects of 0.86-degree Celsius warming, which is 1.548 degrees Fahrenheit -- the same amount as the climate has changed in the past century -- and the 2-degree Celsius, or 3.6-degree Fahrenheit, warming of the climate that scientists say is possible in the next century.
He analyzed these changes against the backdrop of tree ring records used to estimate river flows going back more than 500 years, as well as more than 100 years of data from the river.
Friday's hearing comes on the heels of a recent release of a report detailing effects of warming on fish, forests, rangelands and arid lands. The U.S. Agriculture Department report predicts dwindling rivers, an increase in extreme weather -- droughts and floods -- and the death of plant life. Federal scientists and Western water managers will call Congress' attention Friday to the potentially devastating effects of clim... more -
Drought declared In California
The dryness continued this past week for the entire Southwest and most of California. This was somewhat tempered by cooler-than-normal temperatures that occurred across the Great Basin, Arizona, and California as well. New Mexico saw an expansion of D2 to the west across the extreme southern counties of the state. Precipitation has been pretty dismal for most time frames out to the Water Year (October 1), with only 25-50% of normal being reported in that period.
In California, many locations recorded a record or near-record dry spring. In fact, on June 4, Governor Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought. On the heels of last winter’s low totals, the water strain has been increased after a disappointing finish to this winter. Final snow water content levels statewide were only around 67% of average and thus streamflow runoff forecasts are only calling for a little more than 50% of normal. As a result of the past 90 days, D0 and D1 have pushed north up the valley and along the coast north of Santa Barbara up to Eureka.
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If you consolidate all of the areas that are colored on this map together, that constitutes approximately 45 to 50% of the land mass of this country being in some state of drought. For those who think this only happens in Africa or some place else on the other side of the world, it doesn't. Drought can strike anywhere water has been wasted, mismanaged, and where the effects of climate change and overpopulation are making themselves felt the worst.
According to the IPCC, the Southwest US is one of the areas predicted to be experiencing severe drought due to climate change. And yet, our Congress plays games regarding this crisis as if we have time to continue to squabble over whether it even exists. With water tables in rivers throughout America falling, including and predominantly The Great Lakes, The Colorado River, and Lake Mead which serves Nevada and this area in drought, people must wake up to what their wasteful practices are doing to the environment.
Population increases in this area without proper water management have also led to this stage. We either conserve now, or we will see just how much taking this resource for granted can do to change not only our way of life, but life as we know it. The dryness continued this past week for the entire Southwest and most of California. This was somewhat tempered by cooler-than-normal... more
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