Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Water is the one substance that keeps all living things alive. Without water the Earth would be empty with no plants or animals. Today the issue of water scarcity and sanitation draws the attention of many people living in developing countries. Unfortunately, in these countries, water is not an abundant resource as it is in the United States. About one billion people today live without access to clean water.[1] Without sanitation facilities readily available, the poor are forced to drink disease infested water. Drinking this water causes many to get sick and eventually die of waterborne illnesses such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and hepatitis. Programs like the UNICEF are working to provide these developing countries with fresh water. Their idea is to drill wells in areas that do not have close access to rivers or lakes. With these wells the people of this area can easily take water whenever needed, to drink, clean, cook, and bath with. Currently this program is involved with 90 countries providing clean water to those who need it most.
While millions of people around the world live with limited water supplies, countries like the United States often waste millions of gallons of water a day. We tend to ignore the fact that many live without a reliable source of water. Instead we find ourselves using ridiculous amounts of this resource when little is really needed to complete the task. Each person in the U.S. uses about 80-100 gallons of water per day, when the daily water required is only about 13.2 gallons per person.[2] To help save the water that we do have people can start saving little amounts of water each day. Some of these methods include taking shorter showers, turning off the sink water while brushing your teeth, or even going to a car wash instead of washing it yourself. All of these things could save gallons of water each day.
While many do not think that there is any global water crisis at all, others argue that with the increase of climate change and the great population growth over the past centuries we are headed toward an incurable crisis. The shocking fact that less than 1% of the world’s fresh water is readily accessible for direct human use[3], supports the idea of a global crisis. This has already started to show in countries such as Africa with their low source of water and sanitation. The climate change has caused glaziers to melt and wash away our resource of fresh water. Another contributing factor is the population growth, which has caused the demand for water to go up significantly. These two factors cause many to question how much stability we truly have with water. It may seem that there is an abundant supply of water with the never ending flow coming out of our faucet, while in reality that endless flow will eventually end. Though there are ways to prevent a complete global crisis from occurring. By conserving as much water as possible and by proving water to areas that to not have great water supply, we can prevent waterborne deaths and hopefully find a way to use the water that we do have for good use.
[1] http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/billion/
[2] http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/
[3] http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Local Solution
Letter to Mr. Green and the grounds crew
Dear Mr. Green,
While researching water conservation I found that diverting rain water off of your roof is a great way to reduce water consumption and to save money. I believe that the Peddie School should invest in rain barrels to help save the environment. Rain water can be used to water the plants or garden with little contaminants that could harm the agriculture. The amount of water we use becomes more of an issue during the hot summer months. Instead of using unnecessary amounts of fresh water to keep the agriculture alive, rain barrels will store the water when it does rain, leaving your water bill relatively low. Research provides evidence that 40% of domestic water consumption is traced to residential irrigation.[1] Lawn care alone accounts for 32% of outdoor water use.[2] By installing rain barrels, we will be saving up to 60% of urban fresh water that we would normally use to water the plants and lawns.[3]
The mean areal precipitation for Mercer County this past year was 61.3 inches and is about 30 to 50% above normal rainfall from previous years.[4] Throughout this year’s rainfall, the recorded mean has been higher every thirty days than in past years recorded. More rainfall means more water can be collected and saved for later use. The collected rain water can be used to hydrate the agriculture, in addition to cleaning sidewalks, and the outside of campus buildings. A one-inch rainfall per every 1,000 square feet of roof collects 623 gallons of water. This amount of water would save a whole day’s worth of irrigation.
When selecting rain barrels some factors come into play. Many rain barrels come in different sizes and types. The average rain water capacity per barrel is about 60 gallons. It is suggested to purchase rain barrels that include a mesh screen to keep out dirt and mosquitoes from thriving and multiplying in the water. Another convenient, affordable accessory is an attached water spigot, which provides easy access to the collected water and is a way to transfer it into other watering cans or buckets. Depending on the version of the rain barrel, the cost ranges from $50 to $200 per bucket.
If you do not want to spend that much money a simple solution is to make a rain barrel yourself. Making one is easy and only cost approximately $20 to $30 per bucket. All you need is a large enough barrel to hold the amount of water you plan on using, some type of screen to keep the dirt and mosquitoes out, and a spigot for easy access to the water.
Whatever method you may chose, rain barrels are a great way to help the environment by conserving water and saving money at the same time. I believe Peddie could thrive from this form of water conservation. The Peddie community could help the environment, and set a good example to the students who will use their knowledge gained from Peddie later in life. I appreciate your consideration of my idea on how Peddie can conserve water. I hope you find this information useful and will help you make your final decisions easier.
Sincerely,
Claire Haeuptle
[1] https://www.conservemc.org/rainbarrelbenefits.htm
[2] http://www.mass.gov/agr/waterwellbeing/water_facts.htm
[3] http://www.epa.gov/greenacres/wildones/handbk/wo8.html
[4] http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/marfc/Maps/NJ_counties_365_color.htm
Friday, May 21, 2010
FAQs
Q: How can I conserve water in my dorm, apartment, or home?
http://ucsd.edu/conservewater/faq/index.html
There are many ways to conserve water around the household using easy simple methods. By turning off the water while brushing your teeth, you can save three gallons of water per day. Shortening your shower by a few minutes could save five gallons a day. Washing your clothes when you only have a full load can save 15 to 50 gallons of water per load. Getting your car washed at a car wash instead of washing it yourself could save 100 gallons per wash. These are just a few simple ways to conserve water, just watching how much unnecessary amounts of water you use each day could save hundreds of gallons of water per day.
Q: Why don’t we just stop watering?
http://ucsd.edu/conservewater/faq/index.html
While stop watering our plants and landscape may seem like the best solution to conserving water not all of its results are beneficial. The landscape that we do have slows down the runoff of water. During this process pollutants are removed naturally from the water before it reaches the oceans. Removing watering all together could cause soil erosion and pollution. Instead you can plant new drought-tolerant and low-water-use plantings which require less watering than normal plants.
Q: Can we replace all fixtures with low-flow versions?
http://ucsd.edu/conservewater/faq/index.html
Low flow-fixtures are now mandatory to be installed. The National Energy Policy Act, as early as 1995, authorized the use of toilets that use no more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush.[1] These low-flow fixtures include toilets, faucet aerators, and showerheads. Low flow toilets use about 1.6 gallons of water while conventional toilets use 3.5 gallons per flush. Low-flow shower heads only use about 2.5 gallons of water per minute while regular shower heads use 4 to 5 gallons of water. Lastly low-flow faucet aerators use 2.5 gallons per minute compared to 4 gallons per minute.[2] They are simple to install and don’t cost too much. This simple change could save thousands of gallons of water per household.
Q: What is rainwater harvesting?
Rainwater harvesting is the collecting of rain water from rooftops for drinking water, landscape irrigation, and watering livestock. Methods such as rain barrels are simple and easy to install. Most cost within $50-$200 and can hold around 60 gallons of water per barrel.[3] Some ground catchment systems take the collected water and store is underground to be filtered for regular use like water out of the faucet. The advantages of rainwater harvesting, are the amounts of water and money that you will save. Instead of wasting large amounts of water that comes from the tap, we can use the water that comes straight from rainfalls and use it safely that ways.
Q: Does everyone have access to sanitary water?
No. Around 1.1 billion people globally do not have access to sanitary water and 2.4 billion people do not even have sanitation facilities.[4] Millions of people, especially children, die of a waterborne illness each day because of lack of water sanitation. Many of these people are forced to drink dirty infested water to even stay alive. Most lack common hygiene because they have little access to water so they skip out on bathing themselves and their children. By providing sanitation facilities in these developing countries we can lower the water-related deaths by one third.[5] Education about sanitation would higher hygiene within the people of these countries and disease rates would lower.
Q: How much water does a person use each day?
http://www.lenntech.com/water-quantity-faq.htm American use about 168 liters of water per day. Surprisingly most of this water is used while flushing the toilet. About 29% of our daily water use is due to flushing the toilet. Second in line is using the washing machine with about 21% of our daily usage of water.[6] We use unnecessary amounts of water throughout the day. By simply conserving a little water each day we could give this water to the countries that are in need of it most and have little access to the fresh water that we do. We take the water that we have for granted. We simply turn on the tap and endless amounts of water poor out. Unfortunately, this water is not endless and we will run out eventually. We should start conserving now before it may be too late.
Q: How much water is there on earth?
http://www.lenntech.com/water-quantity-faq.htm
There is more than half the amount of water on earth than there is land. About 70% of the earth is covered in water. These facts may draw people to believe that we will have an endless amount of drinking water, yet this accusation is false. Of all the water we have on this planet only 2.59% of it is fresh water and an even lower percent of less than 1% of this water can be used as drinking water.[7] There are systems being tried such as desalination which filters water straight from the ocean into drinking water. Although this sounds like a breakthrough system, it has its flaws. It takes a great amount of energy to complete this task and in the process it releases harmful greenhouse gases. This is not a price we want to take for fresh water.
Q: How is drinking water purified?
http://www.lenntech.com/applications/drinking/faq/drinking-water-faq.htm
Water is usually stored in a reservoir for several days before the water is moved to a purification plant. While sitting in the reservoir, oxygen from the air settles into the water improving the taste of the water. Water can be filtered in many different ways such as activated carbon filters, Ion exchange units, reverse osmosis units, and distillation units. The most common way to filter water is through activated charcoal. When the charcoal is heated it becomes “activated” and absorbs any impurities in the water.[8] Today we can buy household units to filter our own water. By doing this we can also save water and prevent dirt and disease from entering our body.
Q: How does water and sanitation affect women?
Women make up more than half of Africa’s population. Because women are the care takers of their children they are forced to find water in any condition to help their children survive. This may even mean walking hundreds of miles to the closest body of water, which in most cases is usually extremely contaminated and full of water-borne disease. The women often don’t even have enough water to bath their own children, therefore their hygiene is lacking. Many of these children die either from not bathing or drinking the unsanitary water. The women use this water for everything from drinking, bathing, cleaning, and even cooking. The African Union Summit is helping in this area by providing these women with sanitary facilities with drinkable water.[9]
Q: Is the climate change causing water to become scarce?
The temperature is increasingly getting higher; therefore glaciers are melting causing snow-based water to lower in availability.[10] The hotter temperature also leads to less rain falls and droughts causing the water supply to be very scarce. If there is not enough water for the people than there will not be enough water for the agriculture and it will cause famine and lack of water can lead to war. This domino effect is occurring now and climate change has a big thing to do with it. Things are being done both about the climate change and the water crisis. People are now working together to ensure that our planet will safe for millions of years to come.
[1] http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/Plumbing/low-flow-plumbing-fixtures
[2] http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/Plumbing/low-flow-plumbing-fixtures
[3] http://frugalliving.about.com/od/energyandutilities/p/Rain_Barrels.htm
[4] http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/en/
[5] http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/?gclid=CO2s_6Gp46ECFcRM5Qodiz5xJw#sanitation
[6] http://www.lenntech.com/water-usage-faq.htm
[7] http://www.lenntech.com/water-quantity-faq.htm
[8] http://www.howitworks.net/how-water-filters-work.html
[9] http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/48637
[10] http://solveclimate.com/blog/20091021/dangers-climate-change-lack-water-can-lead-war
http://ucsd.edu/conservewater/faq/index.html
There are many ways to conserve water around the household using easy simple methods. By turning off the water while brushing your teeth, you can save three gallons of water per day. Shortening your shower by a few minutes could save five gallons a day. Washing your clothes when you only have a full load can save 15 to 50 gallons of water per load. Getting your car washed at a car wash instead of washing it yourself could save 100 gallons per wash. These are just a few simple ways to conserve water, just watching how much unnecessary amounts of water you use each day could save hundreds of gallons of water per day.
Q: Why don’t we just stop watering?
http://ucsd.edu/conservewater/faq/index.html
While stop watering our plants and landscape may seem like the best solution to conserving water not all of its results are beneficial. The landscape that we do have slows down the runoff of water. During this process pollutants are removed naturally from the water before it reaches the oceans. Removing watering all together could cause soil erosion and pollution. Instead you can plant new drought-tolerant and low-water-use plantings which require less watering than normal plants.
Q: Can we replace all fixtures with low-flow versions?
http://ucsd.edu/conservewater/faq/index.html
Low flow-fixtures are now mandatory to be installed. The National Energy Policy Act, as early as 1995, authorized the use of toilets that use no more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush.[1] These low-flow fixtures include toilets, faucet aerators, and showerheads. Low flow toilets use about 1.6 gallons of water while conventional toilets use 3.5 gallons per flush. Low-flow shower heads only use about 2.5 gallons of water per minute while regular shower heads use 4 to 5 gallons of water. Lastly low-flow faucet aerators use 2.5 gallons per minute compared to 4 gallons per minute.[2] They are simple to install and don’t cost too much. This simple change could save thousands of gallons of water per household.
Q: What is rainwater harvesting?
Rainwater harvesting is the collecting of rain water from rooftops for drinking water, landscape irrigation, and watering livestock. Methods such as rain barrels are simple and easy to install. Most cost within $50-$200 and can hold around 60 gallons of water per barrel.[3] Some ground catchment systems take the collected water and store is underground to be filtered for regular use like water out of the faucet. The advantages of rainwater harvesting, are the amounts of water and money that you will save. Instead of wasting large amounts of water that comes from the tap, we can use the water that comes straight from rainfalls and use it safely that ways.
Q: Does everyone have access to sanitary water?
No. Around 1.1 billion people globally do not have access to sanitary water and 2.4 billion people do not even have sanitation facilities.[4] Millions of people, especially children, die of a waterborne illness each day because of lack of water sanitation. Many of these people are forced to drink dirty infested water to even stay alive. Most lack common hygiene because they have little access to water so they skip out on bathing themselves and their children. By providing sanitation facilities in these developing countries we can lower the water-related deaths by one third.[5] Education about sanitation would higher hygiene within the people of these countries and disease rates would lower.
Q: How much water does a person use each day?
http://www.lenntech.com/water-quantity-faq.htm American use about 168 liters of water per day. Surprisingly most of this water is used while flushing the toilet. About 29% of our daily water use is due to flushing the toilet. Second in line is using the washing machine with about 21% of our daily usage of water.[6] We use unnecessary amounts of water throughout the day. By simply conserving a little water each day we could give this water to the countries that are in need of it most and have little access to the fresh water that we do. We take the water that we have for granted. We simply turn on the tap and endless amounts of water poor out. Unfortunately, this water is not endless and we will run out eventually. We should start conserving now before it may be too late.
Q: How much water is there on earth?
http://www.lenntech.com/water-quantity-faq.htm
There is more than half the amount of water on earth than there is land. About 70% of the earth is covered in water. These facts may draw people to believe that we will have an endless amount of drinking water, yet this accusation is false. Of all the water we have on this planet only 2.59% of it is fresh water and an even lower percent of less than 1% of this water can be used as drinking water.[7] There are systems being tried such as desalination which filters water straight from the ocean into drinking water. Although this sounds like a breakthrough system, it has its flaws. It takes a great amount of energy to complete this task and in the process it releases harmful greenhouse gases. This is not a price we want to take for fresh water.
Q: How is drinking water purified?
http://www.lenntech.com/applications/drinking/faq/drinking-water-faq.htm
Water is usually stored in a reservoir for several days before the water is moved to a purification plant. While sitting in the reservoir, oxygen from the air settles into the water improving the taste of the water. Water can be filtered in many different ways such as activated carbon filters, Ion exchange units, reverse osmosis units, and distillation units. The most common way to filter water is through activated charcoal. When the charcoal is heated it becomes “activated” and absorbs any impurities in the water.[8] Today we can buy household units to filter our own water. By doing this we can also save water and prevent dirt and disease from entering our body.
Q: How does water and sanitation affect women?
Women make up more than half of Africa’s population. Because women are the care takers of their children they are forced to find water in any condition to help their children survive. This may even mean walking hundreds of miles to the closest body of water, which in most cases is usually extremely contaminated and full of water-borne disease. The women often don’t even have enough water to bath their own children, therefore their hygiene is lacking. Many of these children die either from not bathing or drinking the unsanitary water. The women use this water for everything from drinking, bathing, cleaning, and even cooking. The African Union Summit is helping in this area by providing these women with sanitary facilities with drinkable water.[9]
Q: Is the climate change causing water to become scarce?
The temperature is increasingly getting higher; therefore glaciers are melting causing snow-based water to lower in availability.[10] The hotter temperature also leads to less rain falls and droughts causing the water supply to be very scarce. If there is not enough water for the people than there will not be enough water for the agriculture and it will cause famine and lack of water can lead to war. This domino effect is occurring now and climate change has a big thing to do with it. Things are being done both about the climate change and the water crisis. People are now working together to ensure that our planet will safe for millions of years to come.
[1] http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/Plumbing/low-flow-plumbing-fixtures
[2] http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/Plumbing/low-flow-plumbing-fixtures
[3] http://frugalliving.about.com/od/energyandutilities/p/Rain_Barrels.htm
[4] http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/en/
[5] http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/?gclid=CO2s_6Gp46ECFcRM5Qodiz5xJw#sanitation
[6] http://www.lenntech.com/water-usage-faq.htm
[7] http://www.lenntech.com/water-quantity-faq.htm
[8] http://www.howitworks.net/how-water-filters-work.html
[9] http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/48637
[10] http://solveclimate.com/blog/20091021/dangers-climate-change-lack-water-can-lead-war
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Case Studies
Title: Desalination: Option Or Distraction For A Thirsty World?Many countries that are affected by water problems such as Australia, the Middle East, Spain, the UK and US[1], are resorting to seawater desalination to provide fresh water to their country. Though this is an effective method it overall has a negative effect on the country and a world as a whole. The desalination process is expensive, calls for great amounts of energy, and emits greenhouse gases all to produce small amounts of fresh water. The desalination plants are even destroying the natural resources we have for water today such as rivers, floodplains and wetlands. By preserving these resources we will have access to fresh water while also preventing devastating events. Instead of destroying the natural resources that we do have, we should find a way to implement these rivers and wetlands to our advantage.
Title: Water Purification Down The Nanotubes: Could Nanotechnology Solve The Water Crisis?
Title: Water Purification Down The Nanotubes: Could Nanotechnology Solve The Water Crisis?
New research is being done today about new efficient ways to filter water. Nanotechnology is “the unique chemical properties of carbon nanotubes mean that only very small molecules, such as water molecules can pass along their interiors, whereas viruses, bacteria, toxic metal ions, and large noxious organic molecules cannot.”[2] This process would provide great amounts of water to countries that are going through a drought or have little resources to fresh water. For water filtration systems to be effective, they have to be cheap, efficient, and easy to install. Billions of people in the world live without a resource to fresh water. With the continuation of research on nanotechnology we may find a way to provide every water scarce country with enough water to stop the water crisis.Title: Researchers Address Developing Countries' Water And Sanitation Needs
Despite great efforts over one billion people in the world today live without access to sanitation facilities[3]. This problem is trying to be solved by the American Association of Advancement in Science. The processes that we are using today will simply not make results fast; it is time for new ideas on how to provide water to developing countries. Population growth and climate change play a major role in the water crisis today. They are doing research today in these smaller countries to determine why the people have little water and how to stop or even prevent the issue. Their goal is to provide water in different ways that pertain to those specific countries, because not all of their problems are exactly the same.[1] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070621203448.htm
[2] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915105731.htm
[3] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070312151956.htm
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Article Summaries
Title: Water: Not A Drop To Drink
Author: Pranay Gupte
Date Published: Mar 29, 1999
Source: Newsweek
Website: http://www.newsweek.com/id/87726
This news article describes how the world is running out of water quickly and how many people are ignoring it. They suggest that in a more globalized world there will not be enough water for everyone on earth and it will become a scarce resource. It may even cause “water wars” which are wars between different nations for the once abundant resource of fresh water. The population is growing quickly and water is running low. This article provides statistics on water and how we are losing it rapidly. It also mentions that nations seem to ignore the crisis at hand and refuse to institute water laws to conserve the water that we do have. The big cities receive all the water at little to no cost when the poorest of poor countries have to pay for water which they cannot afford causing them to resort to unsanitary waters. This article gives the harsh truth about what is going on in the world around us and ultimately how we can help.
Title: Water Conservation Could Limit Suburban Lawns
Author: Susan Sward
Date Published: January 10, 2010
Source: The New York Times
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/us/10sfwater.html?pagewanted=1&sq=water%20conservation%20and%20sanitation&st=cse&scp=2
This article addresses the conflict of the new law being enforced in the Bay area. This law limits the amount of water usage for watering lawns and plants in your yard. Many people do not agree with this law and believe that their lawns and plants will suffer because of it. While on the other hand, environmental groups are happy about the new law and are calling it a “major step forward.” Many of the people that are against the new law often overestimate the amount of water that is really needed to water their lawns. They are specifically targeting places with large amounts of land such as commercial owned property. The law states that they will have to stay within the water budget and if they do not then they will be fined. The point of this law and other new ones being voted on is to conserve as much water as possible without hurting things that are valuable like human life.
Title: Aid for Sanitation and Water Projects Lags
Author: Andrew C. Revkin
Date Published: April 21, 2010
Source: The New York Times
Website: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/aid-for-sanitation-and-water-projects-lags/?scp=3&sq=water%20conservation%20and%20sanitation&st=cse
This article speaks about the lack of help that developing countries are now receiving concerning water sanitation. The United Nations had been doing so well with providing these countries with water that people began to forget about the crisis and believe that it had been solved. This assumption was false because the total development aid has progressively been decreasing over the years. Not only this but the countries that are receiving the water do not have the money to repay the organizations, so the organizations are left with little funding. This article summarizes that there is still a lot to be done in these developing countries and they continue to need our help and resources.
Title: Nonprofit Group Will Prod Companies to Report Their Water Use
Author: Todd Woody
Date Published: April 6, 2010
Source: The New York Times
Website:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/business/energyenvironment/07water.html?scp=3&sq=water%20conservation&st=cse
This article explains the current laws being enforced to companies with their water usage. Many large companies often waste large amounts of water to produce something very small. In efforts to limit the waste of water a nonprofit group is making companies issue a detailed report on their water usage. This is already in affect with gas emissions in greenhouses. The report that they are already issuing will now include their usage of water. Because of the predicted climate change, scientists believe that water will become increasingly scarce. Therefore, regulating large companies and their water usage is a great way to make sure that we are not wasting water in unnecessary ways. The report includes an eleven page questionnaire. This survey will determine how much water these companies are using and from what region. The overall goal of this project is to establish reporting standard such as the ones that are already in process with greenhouse gas emissions.
Title: Dying For a Drink
Author: Bryan Walsh
Date Published: December 4, 2008
Source: Times
Website: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1864440,00.html
This article addresses the issue of droughts and rapid water loss around the world. The author mentions how little the world has of “fresh drinking water” even though the earth is made up of more than half of water. Because of the rapid climate change, areas are drying up and water is become a scarce resource. Sadly, the richest of countries are wasting the water we do have like it is an abundant resource. While the poor countries around the world are left with little or no clean water at all to drink, bath, and cook with. The author admits that people are finally beginning to realize the crisis at hand but are not doing things about it quickly enough. Most of the people are wasting the water in irrigation and industry. This article provides specific examples of countries suffering the rapid water loss and how it is affecting the county and its people. Countries such as Australia and India face great drought and fear with population growing rapidly that they will soon run out of fresh water. It may even get to the point where you will have to pay for the water that you once received for free. The author summarizes his article by stating that “We have the time to change.” We just have to start sooner than later.
Author: Pranay Gupte
Date Published: Mar 29, 1999
Source: Newsweek
Website: http://www.newsweek.com/id/87726
This news article describes how the world is running out of water quickly and how many people are ignoring it. They suggest that in a more globalized world there will not be enough water for everyone on earth and it will become a scarce resource. It may even cause “water wars” which are wars between different nations for the once abundant resource of fresh water. The population is growing quickly and water is running low. This article provides statistics on water and how we are losing it rapidly. It also mentions that nations seem to ignore the crisis at hand and refuse to institute water laws to conserve the water that we do have. The big cities receive all the water at little to no cost when the poorest of poor countries have to pay for water which they cannot afford causing them to resort to unsanitary waters. This article gives the harsh truth about what is going on in the world around us and ultimately how we can help.
Title: Water Conservation Could Limit Suburban Lawns
Author: Susan Sward
Date Published: January 10, 2010
Source: The New York Times
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/us/10sfwater.html?pagewanted=1&sq=water%20conservation%20and%20sanitation&st=cse&scp=2
This article addresses the conflict of the new law being enforced in the Bay area. This law limits the amount of water usage for watering lawns and plants in your yard. Many people do not agree with this law and believe that their lawns and plants will suffer because of it. While on the other hand, environmental groups are happy about the new law and are calling it a “major step forward.” Many of the people that are against the new law often overestimate the amount of water that is really needed to water their lawns. They are specifically targeting places with large amounts of land such as commercial owned property. The law states that they will have to stay within the water budget and if they do not then they will be fined. The point of this law and other new ones being voted on is to conserve as much water as possible without hurting things that are valuable like human life.
Title: Aid for Sanitation and Water Projects Lags
Author: Andrew C. Revkin
Date Published: April 21, 2010
Source: The New York Times
Website: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/aid-for-sanitation-and-water-projects-lags/?scp=3&sq=water%20conservation%20and%20sanitation&st=cse
This article speaks about the lack of help that developing countries are now receiving concerning water sanitation. The United Nations had been doing so well with providing these countries with water that people began to forget about the crisis and believe that it had been solved. This assumption was false because the total development aid has progressively been decreasing over the years. Not only this but the countries that are receiving the water do not have the money to repay the organizations, so the organizations are left with little funding. This article summarizes that there is still a lot to be done in these developing countries and they continue to need our help and resources.
Title: Nonprofit Group Will Prod Companies to Report Their Water Use
Author: Todd Woody
Date Published: April 6, 2010
Source: The New York Times
Website:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/business/energyenvironment/07water.html?scp=3&sq=water%20conservation&st=cse
This article explains the current laws being enforced to companies with their water usage. Many large companies often waste large amounts of water to produce something very small. In efforts to limit the waste of water a nonprofit group is making companies issue a detailed report on their water usage. This is already in affect with gas emissions in greenhouses. The report that they are already issuing will now include their usage of water. Because of the predicted climate change, scientists believe that water will become increasingly scarce. Therefore, regulating large companies and their water usage is a great way to make sure that we are not wasting water in unnecessary ways. The report includes an eleven page questionnaire. This survey will determine how much water these companies are using and from what region. The overall goal of this project is to establish reporting standard such as the ones that are already in process with greenhouse gas emissions.
Title: Dying For a Drink
Author: Bryan Walsh
Date Published: December 4, 2008
Source: Times
Website: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1864440,00.html
This article addresses the issue of droughts and rapid water loss around the world. The author mentions how little the world has of “fresh drinking water” even though the earth is made up of more than half of water. Because of the rapid climate change, areas are drying up and water is become a scarce resource. Sadly, the richest of countries are wasting the water we do have like it is an abundant resource. While the poor countries around the world are left with little or no clean water at all to drink, bath, and cook with. The author admits that people are finally beginning to realize the crisis at hand but are not doing things about it quickly enough. Most of the people are wasting the water in irrigation and industry. This article provides specific examples of countries suffering the rapid water loss and how it is affecting the county and its people. Countries such as Australia and India face great drought and fear with population growing rapidly that they will soon run out of fresh water. It may even get to the point where you will have to pay for the water that you once received for free. The author summarizes his article by stating that “We have the time to change.” We just have to start sooner than later.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Multimedia Resource List
VIDEOS
Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor
This informative video describes the global crisis of water scarcity and sanitation. They go into the small shanty towns of Africa to give a first hand account of what is really going on. Living in America, we do not realize how much water we waste a day and how little water we have left. Many of the people, especially children, are suffering and dieing from the unsanitary water that they are forced to live on. Many mothers cannot even bath their own children. The water that they do have access to is unsanitary in disease infested. Drinking this water causes the people to get malaria, typhoid, and amoeba. Most people dump their trash in the streets early in the morning resulting in more unsanitary conditions. Most pipes are plastic and end up breaking causing a loss of water. Today they are working on ways to give the people of these poor countries good water. Their motto is "stronger service providers, better services for all." They are working with service providers to reduce the water loss in these countries. By strengthening local service providers and community organizations, they can strengthen the bond between the two so they can provide better services. Also by helping fund these organizations they will be able to extend their services to the poor. They are planning on providing sanitation for about 70 to 100 thousand people in each location.Water conservation tips - How to conserve water at home
This useful video is produced by howdini.com. In this short clip they show you how you can conserve water in your own home. We often think we are doing better for the world by planting flowers or washing our own car but in fact we might be actually hurting ourselves because of how much water we waste during these activities. These tips are easy and can also save you a lot of money. Things such as using a low flow shower head which will save up to 20,000 gallons of water per year, or even a low flow toilet. There are also many ways that you can save water with out spending any money yourself. This video gives you seven simple ways to cut down on the amount of water you use per day. Its as simple as taking a shorter shower or turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth. Lastly just simply washing your car with products that don't require any water at all can save up to 140 gallons of water that you would otherwise use to wash your car with a garden hose. This video gives great advise on how to conserve water for the better of the planet.
Global Water Crisis
This video, produced by New Hampshire Outlook, is an informative video in the facts about the global water crisis. This video consists of an interview with the UN senior advisor of water issues and author of Blue Covenant, Maude Barlow. She describes the water crisis that is taking place around the world that we are so unaware of. We take the water that we have for granted and aren't educated in what is going on across the world concerning water scarcity and sanitation. The water that we can use on earth is less than 1%. At the rate that we waste water, we will run out of the abundance we have. We grow crops in deserts which call for a great amount of water or we move water into cities which don't recycle the water and instead just dump it into the ocean. Many countries around the world have hit the "water wall" and are in desperate need of clean water, of any water at all. Many people believe that because these poor countries are far away and have nothing to do with us, we decide to ignore the crisis. Instead we waste the water that we are fortunate to have and end up polluting the water that is left or that can be reused. We have to plan ahead and conserve the water that we have. It could get to the point where we are no longer allowed to water our lawns by law. There is no need for bottled water when we have perfectly good water coming out of the tap. We can help fund the organizations that are providing clean water to the poorest of countries that are in need of help. Saving water each day and reusing water can prevent the world from going into a water crisis.
WEBSITES
This website gives the facts about the global water crisis going on today. It is a great resource for the history behind the water problem and who is affected by it. Not only does it describe the problem but it gives solutions. The different solutions include the digging of wells in these poor countries that don't have sanitary water. By digging the wells thousands of people will now have a dependable resource for clean water to drink, bath, and cook with. It also gives you ways to get involved yourself by donating or spreading awareness about the subject in your own communities. This organization has already started its work in many countries in Africa. With this website you can check out exactly what they are doing for the people of the country and how they are helping the water crisis. Lastly, it gives you the news that is going on at the time, with updated stories and projects that they plan to accomplish over in Africa.
This website is a great resource to find easy ways to conserve energy. On this page you can find over 100 ways to conserve water around your house, from not letting the water run while doing the dishes to installing a rain sensor on your irrigation controller. The site also gives you lists and resources to other informative websites on the same subject or similar subjects. The website includes games for kids so they can learn about conserving water in a fun way. Lastly it gives you ways that you can get involved in your own community or in their organization, like buying some of their products or even becoming a licensed water partner.
This website was created by the US environmental protection agency. Here they explain the issues that are going on today with the water crisis. Not only can you learn the issues but you can learn why it is happening with the section for the science and technology of the water crisis. They give you products that are approved and save water in the household and services for water efficient landscaping. It also is a great resource for the laws and regulations that are in action today concerning the subject. It gives you the calculated water that you would save if doing certain things or using certain products. Lastly, it provides other resources that you can look at for this topic to learn more and get involved.
This website was created by the World Health Organization. This website gives different articles relating to water sanitation and hygiene. It also provides different reliable databases on the subject. These could be used to find more articles and papers regarding the water crisis. This website also includes information on waste water use. This is a great way to reuse the water that we do have in a sanitary way. This website is great if you want to learn about the specific diseases that drinking unsanitary water can cause. It provides facts and statistics to support the information on the web page. Lastly, it gives you the emerging issues on the topic and the current news. This website is very informative and is a reliable source.
This website is run by the UNICEF. On this page you can find an overview of the global water crisis and exactly how it is effecting the people of this world. Under the UNICEF in action link you can find the different projects that the organization is involved with and how they are working on providing clean water for over 90 countries who do not have access to this resource around the world. These projects include drilling wells for water and making schools healthier and teaching kids how to clean the water and themselves. They also provide the current news about the subject with articles and headlines. Lastly, they give statistics with graphs on how many are affected and how many actually have access to clean water, while also providing more resources to learn about the water crisis.
This website was created by The World Bank. This website gives you there strategy on how to stop the global water crisis and their current operations. It also has a knowledge and learning link where it gives you information about how the water crisis is effecting the people of these poor countries and how we are wasting what we do have. It also provides data and statistics on the subject with visuals and easy to read graphs. Lastly, it provides the different organizations that are involved in supplying these countries with sanitary water. How they are getting involved and whether or not they are making a difference.
This website describes the water scarcity that is a major issue in the world today. It explains why this is occurring such as climate change and overpopulation. It also gives you each individual year and its news and issues concerning the topic of water. It answers commonly asked questions like "How serious is the problem?" and "Is it caused by the climate change?" It also has two separate sections for audio, video, and photography. This is a very useful website to learn how to deal with the water scarcity around the world. It answers many questions that people want to know.
This website is a great source for books and data on water. This page offers book sources on the topic so you can further learn about the water crisis around the world. It gives specific data on how we are wasting water and running out of the needed resource. This website describes the conflict on a separate page through a list, timeline, and map. Through these visuals the reader can better understand what exactly is happening. Lastly, it describes its program, Pacific Institute, and how they are helping made the world healthier and sustainable communities.
This website offers great data on how much fresh water we have on earth and what is contaminating it. On this page you can find graphs and charts explaining exactly how mush fresh water we have left and how we use it everyday. It explains the competing water uses and how much we lose with agriculture. These visuals help the reader better understand the topic and gets to see exactly how we are using our water. Lastly, the website gives resources for further research and learning on water.
This website was created by the program Water For People. This organization is working to provide clean water to developing countries that do not have the money to pay for it themselves. This website addresses the problem and explains how they are trying to stop the water crisis. On this page you can see how you can get involved while also learning about exactly what they are doing to help. With photographs and true stories you can see how this crisis is affecting people around the world and how little we really know about it. Its as simple as donating. On this page you can donate to the cause and see these poor countries receive fresh water for the first time.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Science Behind Water Conservation and Sanitation
Unpurified drinking water can be contaminated with bacteria and viruses such as Shigella, Salmonella, Rota-virus, or protozans.[1] These bacteria can lead to water borne illnesses such as diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, hepatitis. There are many different types of ways to filter drinking water. The main filtering options are activated carbon filters, Ion exchange units, reverse osmosis units, and distillation units. Activated carbon filters absorb organic contaminants, by adding a special heating process to charcoal. The charcoal becomes more absorptive, and is then referred to as “activated charcoal”.[2] The gases then stick to the charcoal, absorbing most of the impurities. Reverse osmosis is another option for water filtration. The water is pushed through an ultra-fine semi-permeable membrane, here it separates the tap liquid into the pure permeate. The water stored then goes through the activated-charcoal polishing filtration stage. The only set back to this process is that it is very wasteful; it wastes two gallons of water to purify just one gallon of water. Ion exchange is the process of exchanging natural-forming mineral ions in the water with its own ions.[3] This makes the minerals neutral to their harmful effect of creating scale-buildup. Lastly and easiest is distillation, which is as simple as boiling the water. When combined with carbon 99.9% of the water purified is pure contaminate-free water.
There has been a great demand for water in the last decades. Population is growing quickly and the poverty stricken countries cannot afford to pay for the amount of clean water that their nation desperately needs. Studies show that as the population in the small countries of the Middle East and North Africa increases the access to fresh water decreases. The population in these countries has doubled between 1970 and 2001. This rose from 173 million people to 386 million people, reducing the average amount of fresh water available per capital. The growing won’t stop there, with the population expecting to double in the next 50 years. This will then in return lower the average amount of renewable fresh water to about 1,100 cubic meters per year.[4] Because these poor countries cannot afford to buy the new high-tech water filtering resources the people are finding new ways to reuse waste water and desalination and treatment.
More than 80% of water resources in some countries are consumed in agriculture. The water that is fed to these crops is reducing the availability of water to humans in these areas. The wastewater in these cities could replace to demand for fresh water. If the water was properly cleaned and handled the agriculture output would increase. The use of decentralised and semi decentralised sanitation systems is a cheaper and easier way for countries to reuse household water or rainwater. It first separates the household water into four categories. Tailored technologies are applied to treat the various wastewater fractions and the reintroduction of treatment products into the material cycle.[5] As technology advances the systems get more expensive, but the poorest countries now have a way to reuse the water that they do have so that they aren’t as scarce for water. Not only will it help the people of the country but it will help the country economically with the growth of agriculture. The nutrients in the wastewater help the vegetation which is a great contributing factor in these poorer countries’ economies.
[1] http://www.howitworks.net/how-water-filters-work.html
[2] http://www.howitworks.net/how-water-filters-work.html
[3] http://www.howitworks.net/how-water-filters-work.html
[4] http://www.prb.org/Publications/PolicyBriefs/FindingtheBalancePopulationandWaterScarcityintheMiddleEastandNorthAfrica.aspx
[5] http://www.ete.wur.nl/UK/Projects/DESAR/
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