Green Design » Water

World Water Week Ends

Sarah Kuck — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:14:30 +0000

More than a thousand people met in Stockholm this week to discus the planet's most urgent water issues at the annual World Water Week conference. Near the end of the event, hosted by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the participants issued the following unanimous statement: water must be included in the COP-15 climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

“Water is a fundamental element in economies, communities, and public health," said Anders Berntell, Executive Director of the Stockholm International Water Institute. "We know that it is the medium through which climate change manifests its most serious effects. To be effective, climate negotiations must factor in the impact and importance of water for the world and, indeed, human well-being.”

For full text of The Stockholm Statement click here. (pdf)

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(Posted by Sarah Kuck in Water at 9:14 AM)

World Water Week Ends

Sarah Kuck — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:14:30 +0000

More than a thousand people met in Stockholm this week to discuss the planet's most urgent water issues at the annual World Water Week conference. Near the end of the event, hosted by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the participants issued the following unanimous statement: water must be included in the COP-15 climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

For full text of The Stockholm Statement click here. (pdf)

Image credit: magnusfranklin, CC License

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(Posted by Sarah Kuck in Water at 9:14 AM)

What’s Your Company’s Water Footprint?

HarvardBusiness.org Leading Green — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:08:48 +0000

by Will Sarni

Last year we heard a chorus of "water is the new oil," including a memorable BusinessWeek cover depicting oil baron T. Boone Pickens knee-deep in H20. This year the cry is "water is the new carbon" in response to a heightened awareness that resources such as water are more critical and valuable to a company's operation (and brand value) than previously assumed. If you are a water-intensive business such as the food and beverage sector, water is now at the top of your list of sustainability issues to address.

Yes, water is a key business risk that needs to be managed just as energy and carbon are now managed. But in fact, water is not the new oil or the new carbon, and neither comparison is a constructive way to view the value and risk of water within a business context.

Water presents several unique challenges:

it is not actually "used," but simply "borrowed" (water is used and discharged returning it to the hydrologic cycle for potential reuse);

discharge is as critical as extraction (location, quality, temperature, etc.);

local stakeholder issues vary tremendously (what makes sense in one area may not in another); and last but by no means least, there is the issue of the "human right to water."

According to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, 47 percent of the world's population will face severe water shortages by 2030. This means that multinational corporations now face "water risk" to their operations and brands — even though water is "noise" in a profit and loss statement for most multinationals.

The issue with water is not really one of cost (although this will likely change as we begin to value water according to use and need) but instead has to do with a company's license to operate and its supply chain. While water is a global issue, it is addressed locally in the communities in which companies operate. If a company mis-manages a local water resource and negatively impacts a community, bad press quickly follows. And that, in turn, can create operational interruptions and erode brand value.

Some multinationals have responded by developing guidelines for measuring their water footprint and taking a leadership role in addressing water as a critical global issue (for example, see the CEO Water Mandate at unglobalcompact.org).

Recommendations as to how to address water risks are relatively straightforward and somewhat similar to how multinationals are developing and implementing carbon strategies:

Determine your enterprise-wide water footprint and, if appropriate, evaluate the embedded water in key products;
Identify ways to reduce water use (direct and indirect);

Consider local water "offset projects" in collaboration with local and global NGOs;

"Re-value" water beyond the current cost of water;

Determine physical, regulatory and perception risks with direct and indirect water use;

Be transparent in communicating your goals and performance; and

Finally, develop a corporate-wide sustainability strategy that takes a systems-wide approach to energy, carbon, water and material use. All of these resources are interrelated, and any corporate strategy requires an integrated solution.

(For a more suggestions, see the Water Footprint Network.)

Thinking proactively about your water footprint — before you are forced to — will create goodwill toward your brand and protect your business from risk.

William Sarni is founder and CEO of DOMANI, and has 30 years of experience in providing sustainability and environmental consulting services to private and public sector enterprises.

This piece originally appeared on Harvard Business Publishing's Leading Green blog.

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(Posted by HarvardBusiness.org Leading Green in Water at 12:08 PM)

What’s Your Company’s Water Footprint?

HarvardBusiness.org Leading Green — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:08:48 +0000

by Will Sarni

Water presents several unique challenges:

it is not actually "used," but simply "borrowed" (water is used and discharged returning it to the hydrologic cycle for potential reuse);

discharge is as critical as extraction (location, quality, temperature, etc.);

local stakeholder issues vary tremendously (what makes sense in one area may not in another); and last but by no means least, there is the issue of the "human right to water."

Recommendations as to how to address water risks are relatively straightforward and somewhat similar to how multinationals are developing and implementing carbon strategies:

Determine your enterprise-wide water footprint and, if appropriate, evaluate the embedded water in key products;
Identify ways to reduce water use (direct and indirect);

Consider local water "offset projects" in collaboration with local and global NGOs;

"Re-value" water beyond the current cost of water;

Determine physical, regulatory and perception risks with direct and indirect water use;

Be transparent in communicating your goals and performance; and

Finally, develop a corporate-wide sustainability strategy that takes a systems-wide approach to energy, carbon, water and material use. All of these resources are interrelated, and any corporate strategy requires an integrated solution.

(For a more suggestions, see the Water Footprint Network.)

Thinking proactively about your water footprint — before you are forced to — will create goodwill toward your brand and protect your business from risk.

William Sarni is founder and CEO of DOMANI, and has 30 years of experience in providing sustainability and environmental consulting services to private and public sector enterprises.

This piece originally appeared on Harvard Business Publishing's Leading Green blog.

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(Posted by HarvardBusiness.org Leading Green in Water at 12:08 PM)

Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water

WorldChanging Team — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:49:49 +0000

In Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water, authors and activists Maude Barlow and Tony Clark aim to document the rapid privatization and commodification of water. Blue Gold tells the story of how recent international trade agreements are enabling big business to buy up the world's water, worsening the global water shortage crisis.

Blue Gold also provides information and strategies for taking action locally and globally to become fresh water's responsible custodians.

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Water at 11:49 AM)

Saving Water Could Cut Water-Heating Emissions by 30%, Report Finds

WorldChanging Team — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:03:09 +0000

by Alok Jha

Britons could save 30% of the carbon emissions associated with heating water at home by following simple advice such as lagging pipes and using low-flow taps, according to energy experts.

They estimate that installing just a few water-saving measures could save a typical household £225 per year on combined water and energy bills.

In a joint report launched today, the Energy Saving Trust (EST) and the Environment Agency examined the carbon impact of domestic water use in the UK. They concluded that heating water would continue to be a major source of carbon emissions from homes in the future unless urgent action was taken to reduce demand and the associated energy losses from inefficient boilers.

Energy use in homes accounts for more than a quarter of the UK's carbon emissions. In a bid to reduce overall emissions by 80% by 2050, the government has announced plans to reduce the footprint of homes by retrofitting existing homes with energy efficiency measures, such as loft and cavity-wall insulation, and wants all new homes built from 2016 to be zero-carbon.

But the energy used to heat water, around 23% of an average home's carbon footprint, will not be tackled by the government's proposals. "If the drive toward zero-carbon homes goes as planned, by the time you get to a really energy-efficient home, the energy required for space heating is going to be quite small, but unless you do something about water use, that's going to dominate and will account for over 70% of carbon emissions," said Magda Styles, water and waste strategy manager at the EST.

But she said very simple methods of water and energy efficiency could take out 5% of the emissions associated with water, equivalent to taking 600,000 cars off the road.

Water-saving technology and sustainibility standards for new homes have helped to reduce wastage but the growing popularity and frequency with which people use power showers means that Britons still use the same amount of water today as they did 10 years ago – around 150 litres per person per day.

"Water is a precious resource and as the government outlined in last week's low carbon transition plan we urgently need to cut carbon emissions to help reduce the impact of future climate change," said Ian Barker, head of water at the Environment Agency.

The EST report suggests taking showers instead of baths, retro-fitting showers and taps with low-flow heads, lagging hot water pipes, washing dishes in a bowl rather than under a running hot tap and installing a water meter. "It's been documented quite well that metering reduces water consumption by up to 15%," she said. "We're not trying to make people endure hardship and do away with hot water. In most cases, it's a simple prevention of waste."

According to the report, changing a 16 litre per minute shower head with a six litre per minute head, and using a 4.5 litre toilet instead of nine litre one, could result in annual savings of 67m3 of water, 371kg CO2 and £225 for an average household.

Getting beyond 30% reductions in CO2 for individual households would be possible, said Styles, by additionally replacing old washing machines and dishwashers with more energy and water-efficient models and more conscious behaviour change that minimised use and heating of water.

This piece originally appeared on www.guardian.co.uk

Related posts:

What Percentage of Water that Goes Down the Drain is Actually Lost Forever?

Water Efficiency Key to Saving Energy, Expert Says

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Water at 1:03 PM)

Ashley Murray: Wastewater is a Resource

WorldChanging Team — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:40:00 +0000

Nominated by Zoë Chafe

Ashley Murray's work is motivated by a simple conviction: human waste is a resource that should be reused. Her uphill battle: most sanitation systems have been built to dispose of (rather than reuse) wastewater and fecal sludge. Ashley uses her urban sanitation expertise -- and infectious enthusiasm -- to help local governments design and retrofit sanitation systems for waste reuse.

Ashley is currently based at the International Water Management Institute in Ghana. She is working to rehabilitate broken wastewater treatment plants to provide (treated) wastewater to urban farmers. But the twist is that the farmers won't just receive water; they will be involved throughout the process. Land around the wastewater treatment plant will become part of the facility. Farmers will assist with daily facility maintenance. And hopefully, the net impact will be reopened wastewater treatment plants that clean water and provide important resources to local residents.

Contact Ashley at murray.ash [at] gmail [dot] com.

This creative scheme builds on two pioneering sanitation planning tools that Ashley developed. One tool quantifies the local value of waste, accounting for economic and environmental information. The other tool helps sanitation planners to develop new infrastructure that is designed specifically for waste reuse. Both have the potential to radically change the way urban sanitation systems are constructed and maintained.

Nominator Zoë Chafe is a Worldwatch Institute Senior Fellow and graduate student at the UC Berkeley Energy and Resources Group. She is spending the summer at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, where she is workiing on the Global Energy Assessment -- an international energy science and policy initiative -- as part of the Institute's Young Scientists Summer Program.

Photos: (top, right) Wastewater in Ghana; (bottom, left) Ashley Murray conducting field work in China.

This piece is part of Worldchanging's Attention Philanthropy campaign. All week long, the Worldchanging Network will be delivering "attention grants" to worthy projects, individuals, resources and more. You can learn more about these gifts of notice and find other entries by clicking here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Water at 7:40 AM)

Ashley Murray: Wastewater is a Resource

WorldChanging Team — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:40:00 +0000

Nominated by Zoë Chafe

Contact Ashley at murray.ash [at] gmail [dot] com.

Nominator Zoë Chafe is a Worldwatch Institute Senior Fellow and graduate student at the UC Berkeley Energy and Resources Group. She is spending the summer at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, where she is working on the Global Energy Assessment -- an international energy science and policy initiative -- as part of the Institute's Young Scientists Summer Program.

Photos: (top, right) Wastewater in Ghana; (bottom, left) Ashley Murray conducting field work in China.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Water at 7:40 AM)

What Percentage of Water that Goes Down the Drain is Actually Lost Forever?

Sarah Kuck and Julia Levitt — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:15:23 +0000

Last week, peer-to-peer network CurrentTV invited us to participate in their Earth Week special, where they asked their readers to pose their most burning eco-questions to a handful of savvy bloggers. We've been thinking a lot about the state of the world's water lately, so this question stood out to us:

It's always considered a major no-no to waste water. But how is water used in a household wasted? Isn't it all just processed and reused?

I understand that there is energy spent in processing and there are possible chemical issues in the cleaning process but I'm really just interested in the whole concept of "wasting water".

What percentage of water that goes down the drain is actually lost forever?

-- Jakebot

Great question, Jake. We want to answer this question for you in two parts: simple and not so simple. First, the simple answer to your question is zero. Zero percent of water that goes down the drain is actually lost forever because, according to the law of conservation of mass, matter cannot be created or destroyed.

But what you want to know, then, is, 'why is wasting water is such a big no-no?' The answer to that is cost and location. In the United States, most people get their water from wells or from municipal systems. Once they've used it, most people send their "waste" water down the drain to either the wastewater treatment plant or to a septic system. It is costly -- in terms of both money and energy -- to transport water from its source to our houses, and to treat it once it leaves our houses.

Location is a big deal when it comes to water. If you live in Seattle, like we do, it's plentiful enough that we don't need to worry too much about wasting it because there is always enough for all of us to use as we please. But in most places, water still goes through a natural cycle -- either evaporating or soaking into the ground -- before being taken back into the municipal system. So in cities that suffer from drought, there is not enough water in the public system for everyone to use all they want, all the time, and it becomes even more apparent why sourcing water from a reservoir many miles from your home, and flushing it to a location just as far away, is a massive dedication of resources for a system that could be handled more locally.

The costs of operating these systems are growing every year. As Carol Steinfeld, author and founder of Ecovita told us (we asked for her input to help answer your question), "we have more people on the planet, each using more and more water, than ever before in human history." So, to provide the basic human right of clean water for all, it becomes imperative that we get more efficient at using our water. When you think about it that way, it seems very wasteful to use clean drinking water to wash our cars water plants, or spray the sidewalks -- when water re-used once, twice or even three times from relatively clean places like the shower, the sink or the washing machine, would work just as well without requiring nearly as much energy.

Making our water systems more efficient means we need to implement some of our more innovative solutions to reusing and treating our water at the source, such as the super-treatment facilities in San Diego, home rainbarrels, or even Steinfeld's waterless toilets. If we can get better at cutting the external cost of providing clean water -- treatment and transport -- then we can build a system where water isn't waste, but a resource.

Thanks to CurrentTV for asking us to be involved. Check out CurrentTV to see this answer and more during their special Earth Week programing.

Image Credit: Flickr/steelersfan8765, CC License

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(Posted by Sarah Kuck and Julia Levitt in Water at 4:15 PM)

Obama Pressed To Increase Global Water Aid

Ben Block — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:23:30 +0000

In his inauguration speech in January, U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned four words that lifted the hearts of water advocates worldwide: "Let clean water flow."

Although Obama has proposed doubling U.S. spending on foreign aid, his new budget, released last month, offers few details on whether the additional funding will support his inaugural vow, especially in the face of a debilitating financial crisis.

Despite global economic uncertainty, sitting and former U.S. members of Congress heightened their calls for Obama to support water aid in the developing world as politicians and water experts gathered for the 5th World Water Forum in Turkey this past week.

Illinois Senator Richard Durbin announced new legislation on Tuesday that would "reestablish U.S. leadership on water around the world." The bill would authorize funds to support water development and sanitation technologies.

"The goal is to reach an additional 100 million of the world's poorest people with sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015," Durbin said during a speech Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. "This would represent the largest single commitment of any donor country to meeting the Millennium Development Goal on water."

Durbin's bill also proposes the establishment of an Office of Water in the Obama administration. The new office would be part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

"We ought to be assigning some of our best minds to solve the global water challenge," said Durbin, the senior legislator from Obama's home state. "Right now, however, we don't have the staff at USAID to meet our goals on water or any other urgent development need."

Bill Frist, the former Republican Senate leader from Tennessee, joined Coca-Cola Company Chairman E. Neville Isdell at a separate event at CSIS on Wednesday to issue a "declaration" on how the Obama administration could better tackle global water challenges. The document concurred that a high-level position is needed to coordinate across the 15 federal agencies that currently work on water issues.

The declaration, endorsed by several water-focused non-governmental organizations, corporations, and former politicians, also called for an additional $1 billion from the United States each year for global water assistance over the next four years.

"Our government's commitment remains far below what is needed if we are to meet these [Millennium Development] goals," Frist said. "We need to increase aid for water issues and...be that beacon for others around the world, around which they can rally for support."

CSIS president John Hamre, the former U.S. deputy secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton, is among the declaration's supporters. "There's nothing - nothing - that would do more to lift up the world's perception of America than if we were to embrace a goal that, within 10 years, every human being in the world would have access to safe drinking water," Hamre said during Wednesday's event.

Congress appropriated $300 million last year to support 2005 legislation aimed at furthering U.S. foreign assistance for safe water and sanitation worldwide.

Environmentalists and aid organizations have welcomed the proposals for additional clean water funding. But some argue that aid efforts will continue to struggle without improved coordination among development groups and a more targeted dispersal of resources to the regions with the greatest need. Others still cite a dearth of collective political support.

"The most significant barriers to making real progress to address this urgent situation have been a lack of strategic thinking and political will," said Patricia Dandonoli, president of WaterAid America, and Jacob Scherr, international program director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a joint statement following a review of USAID's water activities.

In addition to calls for stepped-up government funding, Coca-Cola's Isdell said businesses in the private sector should increase their contributions as well. "Some say that they cannot afford to make water investments in this tough economic climate. I say that if water is a cost for your business, then addressing your water footprint now will actually save you money and make your business more sustainable," he said.

Isdell's company has been criticized for consuming large amounts of water in developing countries for manufacturing soft drinks and other beverages. In response, Coca-Cola announced last year it would improve the water efficiency of its worldwide operations 20 percent over 2004 levels by 2012. The company has also invested in improving the quality of its water sources. "We recognize that if communities are not sustainable, we do not have a sustainable business opportunity," Isdell said.

As part of the United Nations-sponsored Millennium Development Goals, initiated in 2002, the United States and the international community agreed to reduce by half the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015.

Current trends suggest that more than 90 percent of the world population will have access to clean drinking water by 2015, but today some 340 million people in sub-Saharan Africa remain deprived. By 2030, "business as usual" scenarios project that 5 billion people - 67 percent of the projected world population - may be without proper sanitation unless current development efforts are doubled, according to the UN World Water Development report, released on Monday.

"While the world's growing population is consuming more freshwater, climate change is making less water available in many regions as glaciers recede, rainfall becomes less predictable, and floods and droughts become more extreme," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement prepared in advance of this Sunday's World Water Day. "Our collective
future depends on how we manage our precious and finite water resources."

Ben Block is a staff writer with the Worldwatch Institute. He can be reached at bblock@worldwatch.org.

Photo credit: flickr/David A. Villa, Creative Commons License.

Also check out Julia Levitt's article Freshwater Roundup for more resources, innovations and and big ideas on water.

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(Posted by Ben Block in Water at 4:23 PM)

World Water Day: Freshwater Roundup

Julia Levitt — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:04:58 +0000

Sunday, March 22, is World Water Day. The UN initiative began in 1993 as a means of celebrating freshwater resources around the world, and of raising awareness around the need to keep these resources clean and available to people everywhere who need them.

World Water Day 2009 is focusing on transboundary waters with its theme, "Shared Water - Shared Opportunities." Although predictions about the growing danger of water-related conflict are a heightening concern in the face of global population growth, unsustainable development, rampant pollution and climate change, the UN website offers one hopeful note from history:

The total number of water-related interactions between nations are weighted towards cooperation. There have been 507 conflict-related events as opposed to 1,228 cooperative ones. This implies that violence over water is not a strategically rational, effective or economically viable option for countries. In the 20th century, only seven minor skirmishes took place between nations over shared water resources, while over 300 treaties were signed during the same period of time.

In honor of the annual event, we've put together a short list of water innovations, stories, resources and big ideas, handpicked from the Worldchanging archive:

Let the Clean Waters Flow

Water Corruption Prevents Progress

London Tap Water Just Got Sexier

Plumbing the Future: Greywater Guerrillas

Safe and Sustainable: New Sanitation System in Kyrgyzstan

Toilet to Tap or Perfectly Potable? California Uses New Treatment Technology to Increase Water Resources

Resource: Watershed Locator

Lo-Tech Windmills + Hi-Tech Filters = Desalination

Flotsam, Jetsam and the Three Gorges Dam

Review: Who Owns the Water?

Text Messaging for Safe Water

Gil Friend: The LifeStraw and LifeStraw Update

Nanoparticle Water Filter

Kid Energy

Nanotechnology for Clean Water

Photo: River Nile, Egypt.
Photo credit: Veronique RIGOT.

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(Posted by Julia Levitt in Water at 2:04 PM)

Let the Clean Waters Flow

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:24:57 +0000

by Jonathan Greenblatt

Since January 20, the American people have been drinking from a fire hose. We are deluged with progress on issues that once seemed intractable - restarting the economy, safeguarding the environment, universalizing access to health care, and reasserting our good name abroad. As President Obama rounds the bend on his first 100 days, there feels like no limit tn the good that can be achieved.

In this vein, the Administration should start to blaze new trails on even the most difficult topics. The unique personal narrative of President Obama has earned the trust of billions of people around the world, particularly among the dispossessed and downtrodden in all parts of the world. He can honor this mandate by moving ahead to tackle an issue of universal concern - global water.

As we approach March 22, World Water Day , the Administration has an historic opportunity to break new ground on a longstanding humanitarian crisis. The worldwide scarcity of clean water and sanitation access is among the most pressing challenges of our time. Even in the US, we have some familiarity with decreasing water resources. But the pressure on communities in developing countries is far more brutal and deadly.

More than one billion people presently lack drinking water. Almost 2.5 billion suffer without access to sanitation services. According to the World Health Organization, a child dies every fourteen seconds from the ills that result from these conditions. Beyond the immediate death toll, individuals, families and communities are impacted through concentric circles of suffering. Imagine tens of billions of hours of squandered productivity, widening political and military conflicts over scarce resources and painful migration patterns that spread disease and poverty across continents.

There has been progress in recent years. The UN Millennium Development Goals raised the profile of this issue. More recently, media-centric initiatives such as Jay-Z's Water for Life film, Charity Water, and Blue Planet Run all have captured public attention. But perhaps only for the cliché 15 minutes. We now need a more sustained approach - and the White House should step forward to prioritize water among its short list of global development priorities.

In our recessionary environment, we need to seek approaches beyond simply more funding. Imagine a White House Conference on Global Water that promoted new models of innovation and policy with the potential to surface new ideas and showcase smart models to address the global calamity. The participation of congressional leaders, corporate executives and nonprofit activists would signal a welcome bi-partisan and cross-sector approach to policy.

Such an event could showcase numerous examples of water-related social entrepreneurship - such as the water-related micro-finance initiative pioneered by Water Partners, the micro-enterprise model of KickStart or thePlayPumps program generously supported by the Case Foundation. Any of these inventive programs would benefit enormously from the scale that a bit of government help, even non-financial aid, might enable. Our soft power would change rapidly if USAID supported these types of innovations or just followed the lead of actors like Acumen Fund or Ashoka to pursue socially-focused, market-driven models to address local water needs.

The Fortune 500 also has a role to play. Social entrepreneurs always could benefit from corporate partnerships that deliver distribution and marketing. Big business also proactively could address their commitment to the fast-growing concept of 'water neutrality' and share ideas on how they might conserve resources in the global communities where they operate. As part of such a discussion, imagine if the President were to ask such corporations to consider measuring their "water footprint" in their annual reports. Such a simple request could create a constructive buzz in corporate boardrooms across the US and around the world.

There would be widespread ripples if the Administration re-calibrated its development program based on the water-related needs of the Bottom Billion. The handful of congressmen, such as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) , who have been committed to the issue might pick up the baton and propose new legislation to support an emerging international clean water agenda. Multilateral groups might be inspired to rethink their own plans and priorities. The knock-on efforts are almost limitless.

At a time when the world seeks US leadership, the bully pulpit provides a powerful platform - and small actions can yield large rewards. In his inaugural address, President Obama promised "the people of poor nations... that we would pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow." Now is the time to transform those words into deeds.

By starting with water, the President has an opportunity to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people - simply by turning the tap.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a post-script to my piece, I thought it might be useful to provide some suggestions for people who want to do more than read about the water crisis. Even at an individual level, there are actions that you can take to make a difference and change the world. Hope this might spur a bit of action and perhaps some additional ideas...

- Check out V2V, the online platform for volunteerism developed by Starbucks, to find local activities in your community to commemorate World Water Day (www.v2v.net/actions/world-water-day-2009)

- Start your own local Meetup on water issues

- Eat at a restaurant participating in the Tap Project

- Sign an online petition at Change.org to motivate Congress to act on water issues

- Donate to one of the great nonprofits working in the field, such as Water Partners, the International Medical Corps or CARE

- Invest in a grassroots water-related project via GlobalGiving

- Support a micro-entrepreneur with a loan via Kiva

- Give the gift of Kickstart to a local entrepreneur via Changing the Present

- Explore the issues via the scholarship of the Pacific Institute or the research of the The Global Water Challenge

- Finally, if you are in NYC, be sure to visit the Charity: Water gallery at Chelsea Market!

This piece originally appeared on The Huffington Post

Image Credit: Flickr/Beneath_B1ue_Skies

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Water at 4:24 PM)

Water Efficiency Key to Saving Energy, Expert Says

Ben Block — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:00:33 +0000

Image credit Wikipedia
In regions where pumping and distributing water requires significant electricity use, policies that lead to reduced water consumption could address climate change more efficiently than requiring businesses and households to use less energy, according to water expert Peter Gleick.
"Some of the cheapest greenhouse gas emission reductions available seem to be not energy-efficiency programs, but water-efficiency programs," said Gleick, president of the California-based Pacific Institute, a global water research center.

Gleick notes, for example, that it may be cheaper for consumers to reduce the overall hot water usage in their homes than to replace their incandescent light bulbs with more energy-efficient alternatives.

The virtues of water efficiency can be found in California and China - regions where water shortages have become emergencies and droughts may worsen with climate change. Conditions may become more severe in the future as consumers turn to water solutions that often require even greater energy supplies.

In California, where drought is afflicting the land for the third year in a row, the state is reducing water deliveries by 20-30 percent this winter and warns of "the most significant water crisis in its history." The water shortages are forcing farmers to cut production and lay off employees in an already sour economy.

Meanwhile, water transportation, storage, and treatment account for about 19 percent of the state's electricity, according to a 2007 California Energy Commission report [PDF]. To reach the rapidly expanding urban clusters in southern California, for instance, water is pumped 2,000 feet (610 meters) over the Tehachapi Mountains north of Los Angeles.

David Zoldoske, director of the Center for Irrigation Technology at California State University-Fresno, has led efforts to educate central California farmers about proper pump maintenance since 2001. With the help of utility company subsidies, the project has helped improve the efficiency of several irrigation pumps, saving 19.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually between 2002 and 2005, he said.

But the recent drought may reduce many efficiency gains. Farmers are digging deeper water wells and several counties are exploring plans to build desalination plants. Both measures lead to significant increases in energy use.

"When you're running out of water, you don't care about what the energy bill is...and we're in dire straits here in California," Zoldoske said. "Where people can use water more efficiently, people will opt for that.... But the availability and reliability of water is more of a concern."

In China, drought now stretches across the northern wheat belt, and nearly 4 million people are without proper drinking water. After declaring an emergency "rarely seen in history" on Thursday, the government said it plans to send cloud-seeding rockets into the air to encourage rain, and to redirect portions of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers.

Many regions of China fit into Gleick's definition of "peak water" [PDF] - a term used to describe situations when water is consumed from aquifers or the ground faster than it can be replaced, or when water-use patterns irreversibly damage the local ecology.

"China is an example where [water] problems come together in the worst ways on the planet," Gleick said during a presentation of his bi-annual report, The World's Water, at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. last week. "Water resources are over-allocated, over-used, and grossly polluted by human and industrial waste."

To address the country's water deficiencies, the Chinese government began plans in 2001 for a South-North Water Diversion project. The $62 billion project hopes to divert water from the Yangtze to the arid north along eastern, central, and western routes. If the project is completed (the western route has yet to begin), a significant amount of energy would be required to pump water across the country.

"It takes a lot of energy to move, treat, clean, and use water. A remarkable amount of water, it turns out," Gleick said. "So whatever we can do to reduce the energy required to meet our water needs reduces greenhouse gases."

The Chinese government in 2005 prioritized a 20-percent reduction in "energy intensity" - the amount of fuel needed to generate each dollar of national income - by 2010. Historically, water production and supply have consumed less energy over time. Energy intensity declined about 30 percent between 1997 and 2004, according to a 2008 study in the journal Water Policy [PDF].

But the study predicts that as China follows through on its promise to expand water treatment facilities across the country, energy consumption will rise.

"Reducing urban and other end-user water intensity could conserve both water and energy,...saving households money on water and energy and creating jobs elsewhere in the economy," said David Roland-Holst, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley who co-authored the study.

Ben Block is a staff writer with the Worldwatch Institute. He can be reached at bblock@worldwatch.org.

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(Posted by Ben Block in Water at 12:00 PM)

Peter Gleick and The World’s Water

Morgan Greenseth — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:18:11 +0000

Looking for a way to update yourself on the state of the world's water? On Wed., Feb. 4, Peter Gleick, one of the world's leading authorities on water issues, will present The World's Water 2008-2009 biannual report. This volume provides up-to-date information and analysis on water topics such as peak water, how human water needs meet sustainability, freshwater resources, Millennium Development Goals updates along with water threats and solutions in China.

Watch the live webcast on February 4 from 5 p.m. -7 p.m. here.

Find more articles on water in our archives:

No Such Thing As Waste Water

Pulling Water from the Air: The WaterMill

Water Corruption Prevents Progress

Water Footprints Make a Splash

Toilet to Tap or Perfectly Potable? California Uses New Treatment Technology to Increase Water Resources

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(Posted by Morgan Greenseth in Water at 1:18 PM)

No Such Thing As Waste Water

Sarah Kuck — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:13:40 +0000

On the blue planet, and especially in the industrialized world, water is seemingly everywhere. At the turn of the faucet or the flush of a toilet, our control over our water supply is misleadingly large.

Although the planet is covered in more than 70 percent of the stuff, only three percent of it is actually drinkable -- a percentage we are continually diminishing with pollution from our sewer, agricultural and industrial systems.

And even though personal anti-wasting steps (turning off the water, taking shorter showers, etc.) are in order and necessary, these measures alone will not be enough to mitigate massive global water depletion.

What's needed, argues Editor at Large for Sunset magazine Allison Arieff, in her article Blue Is the New Green, is a global effort to make use of water multiple times over. Her top conservation and reuse solutions, which include living roofs, living walls, greywater and rainwater harvesting, are ideas that we often champion. She provides a quick history of each, and discusses how they've transitioned from little-understood fringe details to stylish, practical and tested systems in mainstream building markets. It's refreshing to see worldchanging design solutions like these turn up so prominently in mainstream discussion:

Living Roofs Living (or “green”) roofs are one of several integrated water management systems. Vegetation is ideal for managing water, and provides benefits that are otherwise hard to capture. Green roofs have overcome their once-ingrained association with ‘70s-style earth architecture, thanks to improved technology, better aesthetics and increased building incentive programs like tax abatements (New York approved such a program back in August; 55,000 new square feet of green roofs were installed last year alone in cities including Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.).

110 The Embarcadero. (Rendering by Pelli Clarke Pelli)

Living Walls But despite their fantastic appearance, living walls are highly practical: they absorb and filter storm water, which reduces local water body pollution and helps prevent the overwhelming of municipal storm water infrastructure. (An urban example by architect Cesar Pelli, which is slated to receive LEED Platinum certification, is shown below). They also filter air particulates, improving air quality and help to reduce the urban heat island effect (UHI). Living walls can also be installed in building interiors, where they not only improve air quality but add humidity to the air when central heating is used in the winter.

Greywater Much less exotic but far easier to implement are greywater systems. Grey water describes water post-shower, -dishwasher or -laundry. Its use will reduce demand as well as sewer-system loads and the amount we pay for our water bills. A simple system of tubing allows one to repurpose this water for landscape watering (which, not incidentally, accounts for 50 percent of home water use in most districts.) So complex is the bureaucracy to install such systems that an organization called Greywater Guerrillas exists to offer DIY advice and workshops on sustainable water infrastructure to the public.

Rainwater Harvesting Rainwater harvesting requires little more than a few barrels. For every 1,000-square-foot catchment area, one inch of rainfall can result in 600 gallons of rainwater, which can be used primarily for irrigation, toilet flushing and fire safety. A recent product launch may help transform rainwater collection into high design: minimalist, olive-toned Rainwater HOG collection tanks are now sold at modern furniture emporium Design Within Reach.

For more articles on water, see our archives:

Water Corruption Prevents Progress.

Rainwater Harvesting

The Week in Green Design: Green Roofs

Interview: Paul Kephart of Rana Creek Habitat Restoration and Living Architecture

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(Posted by Sarah Kuck in Water at 1:13 PM)

Pulling Water from the Air: The WaterMill

Geoff Manaugh — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:34:24 +0000

I'm in London, watching snowflakes fall amidst early morning rain flurries, reading David Grann's new book The Lost City of Z, and getting ready for the Barbican event tomorrow night.

But there's an article in the Guardian today about the WaterMill, which "uses the electricity of about three light bulbs to condense moisture from the air and purify it into clean drinking water." The company, Element Four, imagines a future for their product involving everything from irrigation and personal thirst to peacekeeping and disaster relief. Perhaps it might even require an update to the atlas of hidden water – where the water supply is "hidden" in the sky itself.

[Image: A diagram of the WaterMill at work].

As the company describes it:
The system draws in moist, outside air through an air filter. The moist air passes over a cooling element, condensing the moist air into water droplets. This water is then collected, passed through a specialized carbon filter and is then exposed to an ultraviolet sterilizer, eliminating bacteria.

Further:

The WaterMill is installed unobtrusively on the outside of your home, using outside air, so it won't dry out the air you breathe in your home. And don't worry if your outdoor air is less than pristine – even if you live in a crowded city, the Watermill's filtration system ensures your drinking water will be clean and free of toxins and bacteria – more pure than tap water or even spring water.

You're basically drinking water from a dehumidifier, then.

According to the Guardian, the obvious – if extremely uninteresting – next question is: "are you crazy?" But it would seem that the next question might actually be one of large-scale climate-engineering and the future of urban design.

In other words, would it be possible to re-engineer a city's weather patterns through the judicious and geographically strategic deployment of WaterMills? What might happen if this were to occur accidentally, over time, and according to no particular plan?

Over the years, say, tens of thousands – even millions – of these machines are installed in a humid city like New York, Tokyo, or London, achieving imperceptibly slow local climate modification. The city goes into a drought, with very little rainfall as humidity disappears – and it's all because of a certain line of products that have been installed, gradually, home by home, over the course of a decade.

Sucking hundreds of thousands of liters of water out of the air everyday, and re-directing that water into the sewage system through the metabolic processes of human bodies, these machines inadvertently re-engineer the local climate.

I remember walking to a restaurant through almost unbelievable summer humidity after a night at Postopolis!, thinking that massive, solar-powered air-conditioning units installed atop Manhattan skyscrapers could flood the surrounding streets with downward winds of cooled air to avoid uncomfortable nights – but industrial-sized WaterMills might accomplish the same thing, sitting up there in the heights of the marvelous, stealing water from the sky. Anti-clouds. Black engines atop roofs prevent rainfall. Whole summer storms could be stopped before they form. City-wide, temperatures drop and the humidity falters.

The resulting fresh water is then sold to Spain.

So if designer climates are the future of urban design, something explored in the forthcoming BLDGBLOG Book, then perhaps the widespread use of WaterMill technology might be an interesting way to start. Convince enough people in one large building, say, or even one borough, to install a home WaterMill... and see if the local climate begins to change.

This piece originally appeared on Geoff Manaugh's website, BLDGBLOG.

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(Posted by Geoff Manaugh in Water at 4:34 PM)

Plumbing the Future: Greywater Guerrillas

Julia Levitt — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:50:14 +0000

Looks like not all plumbers are simply average joes (sorry, couldn't help myself). According to this excellent article by Matthew Green of the East Bay Express, a league of "plumbing activists" are putting their technical skills to work combating California state codes that inhibit the widespread use of water-saving greywater systems.

The California policy, its shortcomings and the current controversy as described in the Express:

Drawn up in 1995 by California's departments of health and water resources, it was the first state-level graywater guidelines, inspiring a number of other states throughout the country to follow suit. Yet many advocates of graywater have long asserted that the code is outdated and unnecessarily restrictive, making it far too expensive and complicated for most homeowners to install their own systems, and ultimately resulting in millions of wasted gallons each year. Some have actively lobbied officials in Sacramento to amend the code to resemble those of more arid states such as Arizona and New Mexico, which have guidelines that they say are far more reasonable for the average homeowner.

"California has such a bad code and makes it so restrictive that basically no one follows it," said [Laura] Allen, 32, an elementary school teacher who devotes much of her free time to spreading the graywater gospel. "We talk of water scarcity when we actually have a lot of water that we're just dumping in the bay."

Allen is co-founder of Greywater Guerrillas, a group devoted to distributing the plans and information that residents and experts need to install effective, low-cost, safe but mostly very low-tech greywater solutions that will help them conserve and re-use water around their homes. The group's website offers instructions for building systems that require only a few hundred dollars' investment and minimal time compared to the thousands of dollars and months of permitting work required for code-compliant systems. (Allen is also editor of the book Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground, a resource for anyone interested in the history of water politics and the measures that individuals can take on their own.)

According to the article, quite a few professionals and policy makers in the region are critical of the code. And although those who earn their living as plumbers may be reluctant to risk breaking state rules, it seems that few officials are truly interested in cracking down on clandestine conservationists. But changing laws is a slow and frustrating process, and none of the relevant departments seems willing to shoulder the responsibility of changing the status quo.

Oakland resident and licensed plumber Christina Bertea offers a thoughtful take on the situation:

"I understand the mindset of formal training about following the code, but in this case it is more important to be reusing the water." With reasonable standards, she added, local utility districts could educate their clients on how to safely recycling [sic] graywater. "This precious thing, clean potable water at our tap, that much of the world wished they had, we use it once and dump it. We need to rethink our whole relationship to water."

It takes courage to challenge the system, particularly when doing so could threaten your professional license. But it's important to do so. Throughout history, groups of concerned and passionate citizens like the Greywater Guerrillas have often provided slow-moving governments with the momentum necessary to create real change. As global population increases and the amount of water on Earth remains the same, we'll need more people out there willing to fight and to live the change that we need.

(For more tips on how to conserve water in the American West, read this article in the Worldchanging archives.)

Photo credits: Maya Sugarman, East Bay Express.

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(Posted by Julia Levitt in Water at 9:50 AM)

Water Corruption Prevents Progress

Ben Block — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:26:30 +0000

Africa's largest water transfer effort, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, plans to supply water to the industrial heartland of South Africa and to generate energy for impoverished Lesotho. The multi-billion dollar investment offers economic growth and greater water security for underserved communities in the region.

The project also presents water officials with countless opportunities to become rich on the side. In 2002, Lesotho courts sentenced the project's chief executive to prison for accepting bribes from 18 multinational companies that were vying for construction contracts.

The Lesotho case is a rare example of justice. Across the globe, the water sector is particularly prone to corruption, and the world's poor are usually the ones who suffer the costs.

The pervasive nature of dirty water politics is blamed for much of the stalled progress in improving access to water resources in this year's Global Corruption Report. It is the first report to assess how corruption affects the water sector worldwide.

The widespread corruption noted in the report reflects the large challenge of solving the world's water problems. As growing populations compete for shrinking water resources, the opportunities for corruption will increase and the damaging effects will become more severe.

"Corruption in water can lead to skewed and inequitable water resources allocation, to uncontrolled and illegal pollution, to groundwater over-extraction, and to degraded ecosystems," said Andrew Hudson, the principal technical advisor to the United Nations Development Programme, at the launch of the report. "In many cases, these impacts in turn result in reduced resilience and adaptability to the impacts of climate change."

Water corruption ranges from petty bribes to corporate manipulation of public water services. When added up, corruption raises the price for water services between 10 and 30 percent worldwide each year, the report said. These additional costs pose grave threats for countries' chances of meeting the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water. Based on the worst-case scenario, corruption could raise the cost of achieving the goal by $48 billion.

The high cost of water engineering leads to the widespread prevalence of corruption. Municipal water infrastructure projects are valued at roughly $210 billion annually in Western Europe, North America, and Japan alone. Large-scale hydropower is considered a "breeding ground for corruption," the report said. An estimated $50-60 billion in annual investments is expected for hydropower worldwide in the coming decades.

A lack of government transparency is often linked to a country's failure to provide clean water. Half of the 20 nations with the worst record in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index are located in sub-Saharan Africa, where 63 percent of the population lacks basic sanitation facilities, according to the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa [PDF].

The Global Corruption Report, produced by Transparency International and other Water Integrity Network organizations, encourages governments to curb water corruption in order to achieve the water access development goal. The report was discussed at last week's World Water Week conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

One-third of the global population lives in areas of water scarcity, according to the International Water Management Institute. The World Water Council predicts that some 3.5 billion people will live in areas without sufficient water supplies by 2025. If global society continues to consume water in a business-as-usual way, there may not be enough water to produce the food needed to feed the world in 2050, according to the Worldwatch Institute's 2008 State of the World report.

In countries where water resources are becoming scarce, water corruption will likely become an increasingly serious problem. The report notes that nine of the 10 countries with growing markets for private water and sanitation investments experience "high risks of corruption."

Ben Block is a staff writer with the Worldwatch Institute. He can be reached at bblock@worldwatch.org.

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(Posted by Ben Block in Water at 11:26 AM)

Water Footprints Make a Splash

WorldChanging Team — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:33:46 +0000

By Ben Block

If the full water requirements of a morning roast are calculated - farm irrigation, bean transportation, and the serving of the coffee - one cup requires 140 liters of water.

This notion of a product's "water footprint" is gaining traction. Defined as the total volume of freshwater required to produce a nation's goods and services, the tool tracks domestic water demand and the impact of consumption on water resources across the globe.

As world water availability begins to decline as the result of population growth, overconsumption, and climate change, more water advocates are encouraging governments and consumers to internalize the true cost of water through an account of their water footprint.

The global water footprint is about 7.5 trillion cubic meters per year, not including irrigation losses, according to estimates [PDF] by Dutch researchers and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). India, with 17 percent of the global population, has the largest water footprint in absolute terms. But its footprint represents only 13 percent of the world total. The United States, in comparison, comprises 4.5 percent of the world population and consumes 9 percent of the world's water.

Agriculture has the greatest impact on a water footprint. Global crop production requires more than 6 trillion cubic meters of water each year, with nearly a quarter of supplies flowing to rice paddies. Livestock production requires the most water resources in the food chain. One hamburger, for instance, needs 2,400 liters of water on average.

During World Water Week, which runs through Sunday, the water footprint concept is benefiting from a spike in attention. This year's Stockholm Water Prize was awarded to professor John Anthony Allan of King's College London for introducing the predecessor to water footprints: the term "virtual water" - the volume of water required to produce a commodity or service.

The conservation group WWF-UK estimated that the 4,645 average liters of water that Britons consume daily leads the country to import 62 percent of its water sources - making it the sixth largest net importer worldwide behind Brazil, Mexico, Japan, China, and Italy, according to a report released Wednesday. "Only 38 percent of the UK's total water use comes from its own rivers, lakes and groundwater reserves," said WWF's Stuart Orr in a press statement. "The rest is taken from...water resources [often] stressed or very likely to become so in the near future."

Plastic manufacturer Borealis and plumbing supplier Uponor revealed a joint plan to include water footprints in the future planning of plastic products on Wednesday. "Understanding our footprint can be a key tool to further guide the development of more water-saving products," said Tarmo Anttlla, Uponor's communication vice president, in a prepared statement.

Roughly one-third of the world population is estimated to be living in areas of water scarcity. Unless water footprints recede, fierce conflicts over water resources are likely unavoidable, experts warn.

"Feeding everyone - including the undernourished and additional 3 billion people expected in 2050 - will require 50 percent more water than is needed today," said Anders Berntell, executive director of Stockholm International Water Institute at the World Water Week opening ceremony. "We are not prepared to deal with the implications this has for our planet."

Ben Block is a staff writer with the Worldwatch Institute, where this article appeared originally. He can be contacted at bblock@worldwatch.org

In the photo above: Children in India collect water during drought. Roughly one-third of the world population is estimated to live in areas of water scarcity. Photo credit: UNEP.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Water at 8:33 AM)

Toilet to Tap or Perfectly Potable? California Uses New Treatment Technology to Increase Water Resources

Sarah Kuck — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:51:51 +0000

Pressed for water resources, California's Orange County has spent millions of dollars to build and recently open a state-of-the-art water treatment system that processes and transforms formerly flushed sewage into drinkable tap water.

The Orange County Water Replenishment System cost about $480 million and took about a decade to build. But the lengthy construction period had more to do with mindset that actual development obstacles, as Bottlemania author Elizabeth Royte recently wrote in the New York Times:

The stumbling block was psychological, not architectural. An aversion to feces is nearly universal, and as critics of the process are keen to point out, getting sewage out of drinking water was one of the most important public health advances of the last 150 years.

But as the population swells, the aquifers dry up and the surrounding area snowpacks melt, southern Californian's -- whether they think it's great or gross -- are running out of options, and will have to continue to look for new ways to reduce and reuse:

Saltwater from the Pacific Ocean was entering the county’s water supply, drawn in by overpumping from the groundwater basin, says Ron Wildermuth, who at the time we talked was the water district’s spokesman. Moreover, population growth meant more wastewater, which meant building a second sewage pipe, five miles into the Pacific — a $200 million proposition. Recycling the effluent solved the disposal problem and the saltwater problem in one fell swoop. A portion of the plant’s filtered output is now injected into the ground near the coast, to act as a pressurized barrier against saltwater from the ocean. Factor in Southern California’s near chronic drought, the county’s projected growth (another 300,000 to 500,000 thirsty people by 2020) and the rising cost of importing water from the Colorado River and from Northern California (the county pays $530 per acre-foot of imported water, versus $520 per acre-foot of reclaimed water), and rebranding sewage as a valuable resource became a no-brainer.

As we move into an age of tighter and tighter ecological limits, choices (and controversies) like this one will become increasingly common...plus it's pretty interesting to read how the process works.

Photo credit: Dwight Eschliman for the New York Times

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(Posted by Sarah Kuck in Water at 1:51 PM)