A Word To The Water Wise

[ensho]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/06/10159/


Well known in Canada for a variety of causes, Maude Barlow has become the Al Gore of the water world



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Barlow is described as the Al Gore of water, an internationally renowned water champion who, this month, was invited by the driest continent on earth, Australia, to address their water crisis. Last year, a man was killed in an incident of water rage in that country — the first known water murder in the developed world — after a passerby rebuked him for watering his lawn.

-snip-

For five days last week, Sun Media dispelled some commonly held liquid myths in the Canadian psyche, namely the myth of water abundance in Canada. It’s a crusade that has besotted the leader of the country’s biggest advocacy group, the Council of Canadians, since stumbling upon it “by accident” while trying to take Canada’s water off the table in U.S.-Canada free trade negotiations.

-snip-

Every eight seconds, for example, a child dies from drinking dirty water. Every year, a new desert the size of Rhode Island is created in China because of drought. In the developing world, 90% of wastewater is discharged untreated into local rivers. By 2050, 1.7 billion people will live in “dire water poverty” and be forced to relocate.

Water conflicts are already taking shape: Indonesian farmers armed with axes and hammers are fighting for dwindling water supplies. Russia is livid at China for its plans to build an irrigation canal that would siphon off 450 million cubic metres of water from the Irtysh River which they share.

-snip-

- The European Water Network wants to build a pipeline that would divert water from the Austrian Alps to thirsty areas of south Europe.

- Libya’s Great Man-Made River Project is currently the biggest in the world at 5,000-km but draws water from the same aquifer source as Chad, Egypt, Sudan and could lead to conflict.

- Half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people with waterborne diseases; the World Health Organization says contaminated water is implicated in 80% of all sickness and disease worldwide.

- Newborns in the global north consume 40 to 70 times more water than in the global south.

- In China, 80% of its major rivers are so degraded they don’t support aquatic life; it’s also home to seven of the 10 most polluted cities in the world.

- Women of South Africa collectively walk the equivalent distance to the moon and back, 16 times a day for water.
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you must think about your local source of clean water and what you would do 'if' .

[kestrel91316]

1. LA DWP is finally starting down the road to recycling water.

They have plans to take highly treated water from the wastewater plants and trickle it down through the ground into the aquifers below us to replenish them. Of course, the water then gets highly treated after extraction, too. I am 110% behind this.

One of my clients is a water engineer with DWP and he's really excited - feels it is long overdue, but is concerned about how little the public understands about the project and all the misconceptions. The media doesn't help by calling it "toilet-to-tap" and stirring up emotions.

As they say: Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We CANNOT continue to live like we have been.

For my part, this AM I remembered to save the water that ran out of the kitchen faucet while I was waiting for it to get hot, and used it to water my plants on the balcony!! I am proud of myself for once. I always forget to do this and then kick myself.

[ensho]

2. its the little things isn't it. I saved rainwater yesterday for my plants

nt

[NYC_SKP]

3. Water IS the next oil.

And it's going to involve an ugly series of events.

[XemaSab]

4. I read her book "Too Close for Comfort"

It was really good.

In care you can't make out the cover too well, it's subtitled "Canada's future within fortress North America" and it's got a BIG SCARY EAGLE looking hungrily at a small beaver.

[ensho]

5. wow - award winning cover

thanks for info