Showing posts with label water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label water. Show all posts
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
“When We Speak about Economic Growth We Speak about Water Resources”
Report from GWP’s Side Event at Astana 2011
At the Seventh “Environment for Europe” Ministerial Conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, GWP convened a side event titled, “Economic Growth and Water: An Integrated Approach Helps” on September 23, 2011. GWP Chair Dr Letitia A Obeng emphasized that “When we speak about the economy and economic growth we speak about water resources.”
The Conference addressed two main themes: Sustainable management of water and water-related ecosystems; and Greening the economy: mainstreaming the environment into economic development. The GWP side event linked these two aspects: how to make water resources available and yet protected when countries embark on economic development. The Conference recognized the “hydro-centric” and “eco-engineering” themes are closely related.
Four of the speakers at the GWP side event illustrated why water is attracting more political attention, while highlighting water’s complexity and the need for an integrated approach to guide its use, management and development.
Prof. Nariman Kipshakbaev from GWP Kazakhstan presented their experiences of developing a National IWRM Plan (presentation). He made a brief summary of water resources policy reform and emphasized that “there is a need to balance multiple uses of water in a water scarce region.” He stressed the important role of newly established water councils, citing examples of water councils that have a transboundary character, for instance in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
GWP Georgia Chair Ms Nino Chkhobadze looked at role of civil society and non-governmental organizations in support of water reform in the Caucasus (presentation). “It is not well understood the role NGOs play in supporting governments to develop and implement river basin management plans,” said Ms Nino Chkhobadze, who was Georgia’s Minister of Environment for eight years. “Involvement of society is understood as the right of people to be informed, but participation in decision making is moved aside.” She said that stakeholders and the public ensure positive results when they participate in processes that introduce Integrated Water Resources Management principles at local level, and subsequently, better acceptance of future investments.
GWP invited speakers that do not belong directly to the “water family” because GWP acknowledges that for water management to be successful it must involve experts from outside the “water box.” Prof. Laszlo Miklos from the Technical University of Zvolen in Slovakia is a geographer by background and a politician by experience. Having been the Minister of Environment for two terms, and a member of the national Parliament, he reminded the audience of the political commitments made under Agenda 21, and the adoption of the principle of an integrated approach to the management of land resources (presentation).
Recognizing that “integrated management” needs to be understood, he asked, “What exactly do we want to integrate? Different understandings of integration resulted in a myriad of policy reforms that integrated institutions and agencies and administration but not the planning process itself.” He recommended making land use plans the legal, obligatory framework for each sectoral plan because how we use land takes into account every sector including water management.
Prof. Lučka Kajfež Bogataj, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize together with other climatologists, looked at climate change from a national and international security point of view rather than from the environmental perspective (presentation). A number of studies suggest that the worst effects can be avoided by keeping global temperature rise below 2°C. But Prof. Bogataj said that if current problems are not solved, they will be aggravated regardless of mathematical scenarios that predict a temperature rise. She showed the participants the map of continents originally developed by the Ministry of Defense to illustrate, in graphic terms, the security challenges posed by a warming planet. Climate change is likely to make essential resources (notably freshwater, arable land, crop yields and fish stocks) scarcer in many parts of the world, particularly in already vulnerable societies.
“Increased scarcity increases the risk of competition over resources within and between communities and states,” she said. “This can create instability, increasing vulnerability to conflict. On current projections, substantial parts of the world risk being left uninhabitable by rising sea levels, reduced freshwater availability and declining agricultural capacity. This will exacerbate existing migratory pressures from rural areas to cities, from unproductive land to more fertile land, and across international borders.”
www.gwp.org
At the Seventh “Environment for Europe” Ministerial Conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, GWP convened a side event titled, “Economic Growth and Water: An Integrated Approach Helps” on September 23, 2011. GWP Chair Dr Letitia A Obeng emphasized that “When we speak about the economy and economic growth we speak about water resources.”
The Conference addressed two main themes: Sustainable management of water and water-related ecosystems; and Greening the economy: mainstreaming the environment into economic development. The GWP side event linked these two aspects: how to make water resources available and yet protected when countries embark on economic development. The Conference recognized the “hydro-centric” and “eco-engineering” themes are closely related.
Four of the speakers at the GWP side event illustrated why water is attracting more political attention, while highlighting water’s complexity and the need for an integrated approach to guide its use, management and development.
Prof. Nariman Kipshakbaev from GWP Kazakhstan presented their experiences of developing a National IWRM Plan (presentation). He made a brief summary of water resources policy reform and emphasized that “there is a need to balance multiple uses of water in a water scarce region.” He stressed the important role of newly established water councils, citing examples of water councils that have a transboundary character, for instance in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
GWP Georgia Chair Ms Nino Chkhobadze looked at role of civil society and non-governmental organizations in support of water reform in the Caucasus (presentation). “It is not well understood the role NGOs play in supporting governments to develop and implement river basin management plans,” said Ms Nino Chkhobadze, who was Georgia’s Minister of Environment for eight years. “Involvement of society is understood as the right of people to be informed, but participation in decision making is moved aside.” She said that stakeholders and the public ensure positive results when they participate in processes that introduce Integrated Water Resources Management principles at local level, and subsequently, better acceptance of future investments.
GWP invited speakers that do not belong directly to the “water family” because GWP acknowledges that for water management to be successful it must involve experts from outside the “water box.” Prof. Laszlo Miklos from the Technical University of Zvolen in Slovakia is a geographer by background and a politician by experience. Having been the Minister of Environment for two terms, and a member of the national Parliament, he reminded the audience of the political commitments made under Agenda 21, and the adoption of the principle of an integrated approach to the management of land resources (presentation).
Recognizing that “integrated management” needs to be understood, he asked, “What exactly do we want to integrate? Different understandings of integration resulted in a myriad of policy reforms that integrated institutions and agencies and administration but not the planning process itself.” He recommended making land use plans the legal, obligatory framework for each sectoral plan because how we use land takes into account every sector including water management.
Prof. Lučka Kajfež Bogataj, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize together with other climatologists, looked at climate change from a national and international security point of view rather than from the environmental perspective (presentation). A number of studies suggest that the worst effects can be avoided by keeping global temperature rise below 2°C. But Prof. Bogataj said that if current problems are not solved, they will be aggravated regardless of mathematical scenarios that predict a temperature rise. She showed the participants the map of continents originally developed by the Ministry of Defense to illustrate, in graphic terms, the security challenges posed by a warming planet. Climate change is likely to make essential resources (notably freshwater, arable land, crop yields and fish stocks) scarcer in many parts of the world, particularly in already vulnerable societies.
“Increased scarcity increases the risk of competition over resources within and between communities and states,” she said. “This can create instability, increasing vulnerability to conflict. On current projections, substantial parts of the world risk being left uninhabitable by rising sea levels, reduced freshwater availability and declining agricultural capacity. This will exacerbate existing migratory pressures from rural areas to cities, from unproductive land to more fertile land, and across international borders.”
www.gwp.org
Friday, 23 September 2011
25 Signs That A Horrific Global Water Crisis Is Coming
Every single day, we are getting closer to a horrific global water crisis. This world was blessed with an awesome amount of fresh water, but because of our foolishness it is rapidly disappearing. Rivers, lakes and major underground aquifers all over the globe are drying up, and many of the fresh water sources that we still have available are so incredibly polluted that we simply cannot use them anymore. Without fresh water, we simply cannot function. Just imagine what would happen if the water got cut off in your house and you were not able to go out and buy any. Just think about it. How long would you be able to last? Well, as sources of fresh water all over the globe dry up, we are seeing drought conditions spread. We are starting to see massive "dust storms" in areas where we have never seem them before. Every single year, most of the major deserts around the world are getting bigger and the amount of usable agricultural land in most areas is becoming smaller. Whether you are aware of this or not, the truth is that we are rapidly approaching a breaking point.
If dramatic changes are not made soon, in the years ahead water shortages are going to force large groups of people to move to new areas. As the global water crisis intensifies, there will be political conflicts and potentially even wars over water. We like to think of ourselves as being so "advanced", but the reality is that we have not figured out how to live without water. When the water dries up in an area, most of the people are going to have to leave.
And yes, it will even happen in the United States too. For example, once Lake Mead dries up there is simply no way that so many people are going to be able to live in and around Las Vegas.
Right now, most of us take for granted that we will always have access to an unlimited amount of clean water.
But when you take a hard look at the data, it quickly becomes clear that everything that we have always taken for granted about water is about to dramatically change.
That following are 25 signs that a horrific global water crisis is coming. The first 12 facts are about the United States, and the last 13 are about the rest of the world....
#1 Today, the United States uses approximately 148 trillion gallons of fresh water a year.
#2 According to the U.S. government, 36 U.S. states are already facing water shortages or will be facing water shortages within the next few years.
#3 Since 1998, the level of water in Lake Mead has plunged by more than 50 percent. Lake Mead supplies about 85 percent of the water used in Las Vegas, and at this point the lake has 5.6 trillion gallons less water than it used to have. Lake Mead is falling so fast that some believe that the Hoover dam could actually stop producing electricity in a few years. Needless to say, that would be a total disaster for that entire region of the country. In addition, if things continue at the current pace, it is being estimated that Lake Mead will run completely dry some time around the year 2021.
#4 According to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. interior west is now the driest that it has been in 500 years.
#5 The Ogallala Aquifer, which is a massive underground lake that stretches from South Dakota all the way to Texas, is rapidly drying up. The Ogallala Aquifer is believed to be the largest body of fresh water in the world, and right now it is being drained at a rate of approximately 800 gallons per minute. Right now it covers approximately 174,000 square miles, and since the 1950s we have drained enough water from it "to half-fill Lake Erie". Once upon a time, the Ogallala Aquifer had an average depth of about 240 feet, but today the average depth is just 80 feet. If something is not done, we will definitely see a return of the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. We need to start listening to the experts. Just consider what David Brauer of the Ogallala Research Service had to say when asked about the future of the Ogallala Aquifer....
"Our goal now is to engineer a soft landing. That's all we can do."
#6 A federal judge has ruled that the state of Georgia has very few legal rights to Lake Lanier. Lake Lanier is the main water source for the city of Atlanta. Millions more people are expected to move into the Atlanta area in the coming years, and this is creating an absolute nightmare for city officials.
#7 It is estimated that California only has a 20 year supply of fresh water left.
#8 It is estimated that New Mexico only has a 10 year supply of fresh water left.
#9 Things have gotten so dry in Arizona that now giant "dust storms" have been blowing through the city of Phoenix.
#10 Texas is has experienced one of the driest stretches that it has ever seen. Right now, approximately 81 percent of the state of Texas is experiencing "exceptional drought" conditions, and wildfires have burned an astounding 3.6 million acres in the state.
#11 Approximately 40 percent of all U.S. rivers and approximately 46 percent of all U.S. lakes have become so polluted that they are are now considered to be too dangerous to fish in, swim in or get drinking water from.
#12 Eight states in the Great Lakes region have signed a pact banning the export of water to outsiders - even to other U.S. states.
#13 It is being projected that by the year 2030, global demand for water will be 40 percent higher than it is today.
#14 Worldwide demand for fresh water tripled during the last century, and is now doubling every 21 years.
#15 According to USAID, one-third of the population of the earth will be facing severe or chronic water shortages by the year 2025.
#16 Of the 60 million people added to the world’s cities every year, the vast majority of them live in impoverished areas that have no sanitation facilities whatsoever.
#17 It is estimated that 75 percent of the surface water in India is now contaminated by human and agricultural waste.
#18 If you can believe it, according to a UN study on sanitation, far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet.
#19 In the developing world, 90 percent of all wastewater is discharged completely untreated into local rivers, streams or lakes.
#20 Every 8 seconds, somewhere in the world a child dies from drinking dirty water.
#21 Due to a lack of water, Saudi Arabia has given up on trying to grow wheat and will be 100 percent dependent on wheat imports by the year 2016.
#22 In northern China, the water table is dropping one meter every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#23 Incredibly, a new desert the size of Rhode Island is created in China every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#24 In China, 80 percent of all major rivers have become so horribly polluted that they do not support any aquatic life at all at this point.
#25 Collectively, the women of South Africa walk the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back 16 times a day just to get water.
Right now, more than a billion people around the globe do not have access to safe drinking water.
That number is going to keep increasing.
Without enough fresh water, people cannot grow enough food. Global food prices are already starting to skyrocket, and the coming global water crisis certainly is not going to help matters.
A massive, massive disaster is on the horizon. The era of gigantic amounts of cheap food and "unlimited" amounts of clean water is over.
A horrific global water crisis is coming.
You better get ready.
The Economic collapse 21-9-2011
If dramatic changes are not made soon, in the years ahead water shortages are going to force large groups of people to move to new areas. As the global water crisis intensifies, there will be political conflicts and potentially even wars over water. We like to think of ourselves as being so "advanced", but the reality is that we have not figured out how to live without water. When the water dries up in an area, most of the people are going to have to leave.
And yes, it will even happen in the United States too. For example, once Lake Mead dries up there is simply no way that so many people are going to be able to live in and around Las Vegas.
Right now, most of us take for granted that we will always have access to an unlimited amount of clean water.
But when you take a hard look at the data, it quickly becomes clear that everything that we have always taken for granted about water is about to dramatically change.
That following are 25 signs that a horrific global water crisis is coming. The first 12 facts are about the United States, and the last 13 are about the rest of the world....
#1 Today, the United States uses approximately 148 trillion gallons of fresh water a year.
#2 According to the U.S. government, 36 U.S. states are already facing water shortages or will be facing water shortages within the next few years.
#3 Since 1998, the level of water in Lake Mead has plunged by more than 50 percent. Lake Mead supplies about 85 percent of the water used in Las Vegas, and at this point the lake has 5.6 trillion gallons less water than it used to have. Lake Mead is falling so fast that some believe that the Hoover dam could actually stop producing electricity in a few years. Needless to say, that would be a total disaster for that entire region of the country. In addition, if things continue at the current pace, it is being estimated that Lake Mead will run completely dry some time around the year 2021.
#4 According to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. interior west is now the driest that it has been in 500 years.
#5 The Ogallala Aquifer, which is a massive underground lake that stretches from South Dakota all the way to Texas, is rapidly drying up. The Ogallala Aquifer is believed to be the largest body of fresh water in the world, and right now it is being drained at a rate of approximately 800 gallons per minute. Right now it covers approximately 174,000 square miles, and since the 1950s we have drained enough water from it "to half-fill Lake Erie". Once upon a time, the Ogallala Aquifer had an average depth of about 240 feet, but today the average depth is just 80 feet. If something is not done, we will definitely see a return of the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. We need to start listening to the experts. Just consider what David Brauer of the Ogallala Research Service had to say when asked about the future of the Ogallala Aquifer....
"Our goal now is to engineer a soft landing. That's all we can do."
#6 A federal judge has ruled that the state of Georgia has very few legal rights to Lake Lanier. Lake Lanier is the main water source for the city of Atlanta. Millions more people are expected to move into the Atlanta area in the coming years, and this is creating an absolute nightmare for city officials.
#7 It is estimated that California only has a 20 year supply of fresh water left.
#8 It is estimated that New Mexico only has a 10 year supply of fresh water left.
#9 Things have gotten so dry in Arizona that now giant "dust storms" have been blowing through the city of Phoenix.
#10 Texas is has experienced one of the driest stretches that it has ever seen. Right now, approximately 81 percent of the state of Texas is experiencing "exceptional drought" conditions, and wildfires have burned an astounding 3.6 million acres in the state.
#11 Approximately 40 percent of all U.S. rivers and approximately 46 percent of all U.S. lakes have become so polluted that they are are now considered to be too dangerous to fish in, swim in or get drinking water from.
#12 Eight states in the Great Lakes region have signed a pact banning the export of water to outsiders - even to other U.S. states.
#13 It is being projected that by the year 2030, global demand for water will be 40 percent higher than it is today.
#14 Worldwide demand for fresh water tripled during the last century, and is now doubling every 21 years.
#15 According to USAID, one-third of the population of the earth will be facing severe or chronic water shortages by the year 2025.
#16 Of the 60 million people added to the world’s cities every year, the vast majority of them live in impoverished areas that have no sanitation facilities whatsoever.
#17 It is estimated that 75 percent of the surface water in India is now contaminated by human and agricultural waste.
#18 If you can believe it, according to a UN study on sanitation, far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet.
#19 In the developing world, 90 percent of all wastewater is discharged completely untreated into local rivers, streams or lakes.
#20 Every 8 seconds, somewhere in the world a child dies from drinking dirty water.
#21 Due to a lack of water, Saudi Arabia has given up on trying to grow wheat and will be 100 percent dependent on wheat imports by the year 2016.
#22 In northern China, the water table is dropping one meter every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#23 Incredibly, a new desert the size of Rhode Island is created in China every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#24 In China, 80 percent of all major rivers have become so horribly polluted that they do not support any aquatic life at all at this point.
#25 Collectively, the women of South Africa walk the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back 16 times a day just to get water.
Right now, more than a billion people around the globe do not have access to safe drinking water.
That number is going to keep increasing.
Without enough fresh water, people cannot grow enough food. Global food prices are already starting to skyrocket, and the coming global water crisis certainly is not going to help matters.
A massive, massive disaster is on the horizon. The era of gigantic amounts of cheap food and "unlimited" amounts of clean water is over.
A horrific global water crisis is coming.
You better get ready.
The Economic collapse 21-9-2011
Friday, 1 July 2011
Water good idea
Biomimicry: An improved way to harvest drinking water from fog in remote areas takes its inspiration from an African beetle: this a good idea!
IN THE dry desert on the west coast of Namibia, where the annual average rainfall is a meagre 40mm, the Namib beetle (Stenocara gracilipes) has evolved a unique mechanism to drink. It collects moisture from the early morning fog that is produced when ocean breezes from the Atlantic collide with the hot desert air. Drawing inspiration from this fog-harvesting trick, Shreerang Chhatre, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues, have developed a simple and inexpensive way to produce drinking water.
The Namibian mist rapidly dissipates once the sun rises, so the beetle has just a brief opportunity to collect water. The insect typically finds a ridge of sand and faces the breeze, tilting its lower body upwards with its specially adapted wings outstretched. The wings have bumps made of a hydrophilic substance that attracts minute water droplets. As they accumulate, the droplets grow larger until their weight causes them to run off into troughs in the beetle’s wings. These troughs are covered with a waxy water-repelling substance which has the effect of rolling the droplets down the beetle’s inclined body and into its mouth.
Fog harvesting is not a new idea. FogQuest, a Canadian charity, has been installing devices using a metallic mesh to catch water droplets in developing countries for more than a decade. But Mr Chhatre says he and his colleagues have increased the efficiency of water collection using a variety of surface coatings.
Water droplets in fog are very small, typically between 1 to 50 microns (one-millionth of a metre) across. Hydrophilic surfaces gather and hold droplets with electrostatic attraction, which prevents them being picked up and carried away in the wind. As more droplets are attracted, they spread out and eventually join together and run off the surface—as they do on a pane of glass. Hydrophobic coatings, like Teflon, are then needed to repel the water and stream it as quickly as possible to a reservoir so it does not evaporate.
Mr Chhatre, a chemist, studied the so-called “wettability” of various coatings and found mathematical formulae which could determine the ideal combination of coatings for the different sizes of fog particles found in any particular region. The surface texture of the coatings also turned out to be important.
The ideal locations for fog harvesting are mountainous and desert regions where fog is present but water sources are far away. Mr Chhatre is setting up a pilot project in South Africa and hopes to organise another in India. Using a coated aluminium mesh, he conservatively estimates that it is possible to collect about one litre of water daily from a mesh of one square metre. Under ideal conditions, he says, that could increase tenfold.
The Economist 2-6-2011
IN THE dry desert on the west coast of Namibia, where the annual average rainfall is a meagre 40mm, the Namib beetle (Stenocara gracilipes) has evolved a unique mechanism to drink. It collects moisture from the early morning fog that is produced when ocean breezes from the Atlantic collide with the hot desert air. Drawing inspiration from this fog-harvesting trick, Shreerang Chhatre, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues, have developed a simple and inexpensive way to produce drinking water.
The Namibian mist rapidly dissipates once the sun rises, so the beetle has just a brief opportunity to collect water. The insect typically finds a ridge of sand and faces the breeze, tilting its lower body upwards with its specially adapted wings outstretched. The wings have bumps made of a hydrophilic substance that attracts minute water droplets. As they accumulate, the droplets grow larger until their weight causes them to run off into troughs in the beetle’s wings. These troughs are covered with a waxy water-repelling substance which has the effect of rolling the droplets down the beetle’s inclined body and into its mouth.
Fog harvesting is not a new idea. FogQuest, a Canadian charity, has been installing devices using a metallic mesh to catch water droplets in developing countries for more than a decade. But Mr Chhatre says he and his colleagues have increased the efficiency of water collection using a variety of surface coatings.
Water droplets in fog are very small, typically between 1 to 50 microns (one-millionth of a metre) across. Hydrophilic surfaces gather and hold droplets with electrostatic attraction, which prevents them being picked up and carried away in the wind. As more droplets are attracted, they spread out and eventually join together and run off the surface—as they do on a pane of glass. Hydrophobic coatings, like Teflon, are then needed to repel the water and stream it as quickly as possible to a reservoir so it does not evaporate.
Mr Chhatre, a chemist, studied the so-called “wettability” of various coatings and found mathematical formulae which could determine the ideal combination of coatings for the different sizes of fog particles found in any particular region. The surface texture of the coatings also turned out to be important.
The ideal locations for fog harvesting are mountainous and desert regions where fog is present but water sources are far away. Mr Chhatre is setting up a pilot project in South Africa and hopes to organise another in India. Using a coated aluminium mesh, he conservatively estimates that it is possible to collect about one litre of water daily from a mesh of one square metre. Under ideal conditions, he says, that could increase tenfold.
The Economist 2-6-2011
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Water at 54th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia
These are extraordinary times for Iraq. The project to create an official country Pavilion for the 54th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia is a multiple and participatory work in progress since 2004. It is historically coming at a period of great renewal after more than 30 years of war and conflict in that country.
The Pavilion of Iraq will feature six internationally-known contemporary Iraqi artists who are emblematic in their individual experimental artistic research, a result of both living inside and outside their country. These artists, studying at the Fine Arts Academy in Baghdad, completed their arts studies in Europe and USA. They represent two generations: one, born in the early 1950’s, has experienced both the political instability and the cultural richness of that period in Iraq. Ali Assaf, Azad Nanakeli and Walid Siti came of age in the 1970’s during the period of the creation of political socialism that marked their background. The second generation, to include Adel Abidin, Ahmed Alsoudani and Halim Al Karim, grew up during the drama of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), the invasion of Kuwait, overwhelming UN economic sanctions and subsequent artistic isolation. This generation of artists exited the country before the 2003 invasion, finding refuge in Europe and USA by sheer fortune coupled with the artistic virtue of their work. All six artists thus have identities indubitably forged with contemporary artistic practice that unites the global situation with the Iraqi experience and they represent a sophisticated and experimental approach that is completely international in scope.
The six artists will execute works on site that are inspired by both the Gervasuti Foundation spaces and the thematic choice of water. This is a timely interpretation since the lack of water is a primary source of emergency in Iraq, more than civil war and terrorism. A special video section will feature artists living and working in Iraq today, curated by Rijin Sahakian.
The Pavilion of Iraq has been produced thanks to Shwan I. Taha and Reem Shather-Kubba/Patrons Committee, MerchantBridge Bank, corporate and individual contributors, various Iraqi government agencies and a major grant from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture. Honorary Patron is the architect Zaha Hadid.
more info
more info 2
The Pavilion of Iraq will feature six internationally-known contemporary Iraqi artists who are emblematic in their individual experimental artistic research, a result of both living inside and outside their country. These artists, studying at the Fine Arts Academy in Baghdad, completed their arts studies in Europe and USA. They represent two generations: one, born in the early 1950’s, has experienced both the political instability and the cultural richness of that period in Iraq. Ali Assaf, Azad Nanakeli and Walid Siti came of age in the 1970’s during the period of the creation of political socialism that marked their background. The second generation, to include Adel Abidin, Ahmed Alsoudani and Halim Al Karim, grew up during the drama of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), the invasion of Kuwait, overwhelming UN economic sanctions and subsequent artistic isolation. This generation of artists exited the country before the 2003 invasion, finding refuge in Europe and USA by sheer fortune coupled with the artistic virtue of their work. All six artists thus have identities indubitably forged with contemporary artistic practice that unites the global situation with the Iraqi experience and they represent a sophisticated and experimental approach that is completely international in scope.
The six artists will execute works on site that are inspired by both the Gervasuti Foundation spaces and the thematic choice of water. This is a timely interpretation since the lack of water is a primary source of emergency in Iraq, more than civil war and terrorism. A special video section will feature artists living and working in Iraq today, curated by Rijin Sahakian.
The Pavilion of Iraq has been produced thanks to Shwan I. Taha and Reem Shather-Kubba/Patrons Committee, MerchantBridge Bank, corporate and individual contributors, various Iraqi government agencies and a major grant from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture. Honorary Patron is the architect Zaha Hadid.
more info
more info 2
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Water carafes
German designer mark braun has created a collection of water carafes for the vienna-based glass and chandelier producer
J. & L. lobmeyr which emphasis the elements of water and glass.
exhibiting at this year's vienna design week as a part of the program passionswege, 'reichtum' (german for 'wealth')
is largely influenced by the characteristics and shapes of austrian bodies of water. using satellite images from google maps as a tool,
braun engraves the outlines of lakes, rivers and glaciers found in the country on the body of the glass using a copper wheel.
the finished carafes is then filled with the water of the respective body of water, resulting in a series that, for braun, symbolizes
the essential wealth of everyday life.
Passionsweg is a feature program of vienna design week where designers are paired together with vienna shop and manufacturers.
the outcome of the creative collaboration is objects or installations that are site-specific to the local establishment or store.
read more
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Water Solar Ball
While you might mistake designer Jonathan Liow’s Solarball for a familiar hamster’s toy, it’s actually a really cool new product for humans that purifies water using the sun. The Monash University graduate’s project is specifically geared towards aiding residents of underdeveloped areas with no clean drinking water, particularly small villages in Africa.
A trip to Cambodia spurred Liow’s desire to design a simple product that could help others, and that’s how the Solarball was born. Each ball can yield just over three quarts of clean drinking water each day if placed in the direct sun. Inside the ball, the dirty water evaporates away, separating the dirt and contaminants out. The resulting condensation is clean and drinkable. The small size is easy to carry, as well as affordable.
The design does pose a few problems. The size, although convenient and extremely portable, does not generate enough water for one person, let alone a village. Another factor is that the Solarball would need to be made of a durable plastic that can withstand constant exposure to the hot sun, and not become weakened easily. Although a great invention, it is not yet suitable to solve the water problem of an entire village.
A finalist in the 2011 Australian Design Award-James Dyson Award, the Solarball prototype will be on display at the Milan International Design Fair.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Friday, 3 June 2011
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Thursday, 26 May 2011
Monday, 2 May 2011
Energy from Water
What is the chain of technology development and delivery that enables small scale decentralised electrification of unelectrified rural areas?
An example technology is pico-hydro that uses local streams as a resource.
The technology is transferred as an asset to households of farmers with access to streams, in the Western Ghats region.
Most critically, the households decide the allocation of water between electricity generation and irrigation - they manage their demand for electricity based on water availability. The entire system retrofits into their current irrigation infrastructure.
At the same time, there is an entire value chain of enterprises that develop the technology and deliver it to the farmer's doorstep, integrating access to MNRE subsidies and loans as necessary.
more info
An example technology is pico-hydro that uses local streams as a resource.
The technology is transferred as an asset to households of farmers with access to streams, in the Western Ghats region.
Most critically, the households decide the allocation of water between electricity generation and irrigation - they manage their demand for electricity based on water availability. The entire system retrofits into their current irrigation infrastructure.
At the same time, there is an entire value chain of enterprises that develop the technology and deliver it to the farmer's doorstep, integrating access to MNRE subsidies and loans as necessary.
more info
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Sunday, 24 April 2011
"Share - managing water across boundaries" now in Russian
WANI's latest toolkit translation offers "Share - managing water across boundaries" in Russian. The translated version provides Russian audiences with an overview of the world's shared water resources, and insights for managing these.
Transboudary rivers are increasingly being drawn upon to meet competing demands. The newly released Russian version of Share includes a range of potential costs and benefits of cooperation, and of non-cooperation, and principles and mechanisms for sharing the benefits that derive from water.
more info
Transboudary rivers are increasingly being drawn upon to meet competing demands. The newly released Russian version of Share includes a range of potential costs and benefits of cooperation, and of non-cooperation, and principles and mechanisms for sharing the benefits that derive from water.
more info
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Deep wells and prudence - Towards pragmatic action for addressing groundwater overexploitation in India - A World Bank document (2010)
It is in this context that this World Bank report looks at the reasons for this quantum of groundwater usage.
The report delves into socio-economic and political reasons and looks at policies which inadvertently promote so much extraction. The report also analyses various attempts to manage this resource. These attempts range from government and international agency efforts directed to grassroots mobilisations. Finally the report comes out with suggestions to deal with this crisis.
The report is broken into 4 chapters and an introduction. These are:
You cannot manage what you don’t know: Understanding realities under and above the ground
A semblance of sufficiency: Institutional framework of groundwater management in India
A groundswell of change: Potential of community groundwater management in India
Pragmatic approaches for managing over-exploited aquifers in India
Each chapter ends with a 'conclusion' section that is both a summation of the points discussed and an introduction to the next chapter.
more info
Monday, 11 April 2011
An-tiki crew complete trans-Atlantic raft voyage for WaterAid
Grandfather, writer and adventurer Anthony Smith and his three-man crew – aged from 56 to 61 years old – arrived yesterday at St Martin in the Caribbean, having safely sailed 3,000 miles across the second largest ocean in the world.
During their 66 days at sea the crew battled bad weather, broken rudders and freight boats sailing too close for comfort. They also baked fresh bread every day, studied plankton with their onboard microscope and last week celebrated Anthony's 85th birthday with a chocolate cake and a tin of pineapple chunks!
The crew have also raised thousands of pounds for WaterAid, which works with some of the world's poorest communities to improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.
Anthony, former BBC Tomorrow's World TV presenter and science correspondent, who developed the An-Tiki project, said: "We are looking forward to eating fresh food and enjoying some of life's little luxuries again. But the excitement is tinged with some sadness as the arrival means saying goodbye to our trusty partner, the good raft An-Tiki, who has so steadfastly looked after us on this journey.
"We'll also miss the incredible sights and sounds of life at sea, sunrises and sunsets, incredible wildlife, the camaraderie and that special space and solitude that ocean-goers come to love."
John Russel, 61, from Gloucestershire, wrote on the An-tiki blog: "I have to admit that I did have some concerns before setting out, but am really glad that I came on the adventure, and it has been absolutely mind-blowing and wonderful. I cannot use enough superlatives, and would not hesitate to do the same again."
7 April 2011
more info
Friday, 8 April 2011
Announcing FAO’s Regional ‘Sustainable Water Resource Use in Asia’ Online Conference
The Food and Agricultural Organization’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific is pleased to announce a Regional Online Conference Issues and Challenges in Sustainable Water Resource Use in Asia commencing 18 April 2011.
The conference is hosted by FAO in close partnership with a range of regional and international organizations including the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), UNESCAP, AusAID, Global Water Partnership (GWP), the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), IUCN and the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).
Conference Objective
The conference is an integral part of the ‘Analysis of Sustainable Water Resource Use in Asia’ project which focuses specifically on issues related to policies and practices of water allocation, particularly to agriculture. The objective of the conference is to identify the issues and challenges related to water allocation, and to explore the agricultural responses at all scales.
The aim is to get people discussing, debating and mobilized about the issues that are key to fostering better water allocation mechanisms in the region. The online conference provides the platform needed to bring together regional and international experts, government staff, researchers, academics, NGOs, system managers and all other stakeholders to share opinions, discuss new ideas and debate controversial issues.
registration
read more
The conference is hosted by FAO in close partnership with a range of regional and international organizations including the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), UNESCAP, AusAID, Global Water Partnership (GWP), the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), IUCN and the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).
Conference Objective
The conference is an integral part of the ‘Analysis of Sustainable Water Resource Use in Asia’ project which focuses specifically on issues related to policies and practices of water allocation, particularly to agriculture. The objective of the conference is to identify the issues and challenges related to water allocation, and to explore the agricultural responses at all scales.
The aim is to get people discussing, debating and mobilized about the issues that are key to fostering better water allocation mechanisms in the region. The online conference provides the platform needed to bring together regional and international experts, government staff, researchers, academics, NGOs, system managers and all other stakeholders to share opinions, discuss new ideas and debate controversial issues.
registration
read more
Sunday, 3 April 2011
James Workman: Boycott World Water Day!
Set aside warm and fuzzy emotion, and use cold logic to revalue our matrix of life.
In case your email isn’t already loaded with 967 well-meaning reminders, the United Nations has officially designated March 22 as a time for us all “to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and to advocate for its sustainable management.”
He is also translating the proven system that has sustained indigenous people of the Kalahari Desert into an online, utility-based system that could be used to conserve water and energy in cities worldwide.
In that spirit—as one who has invested two decades into conserving this precious resource 364 days a year—let me advocate how you can truly honor our supreme liquid asset, the matrix of life, the wet stuff on which we depend: boycott World Water Day.
That’s right. Skip the political speeches, ignore the tired propaganda, bypass the grim statistics, and avoid the marches expressing solidarity and concern.
Instead, do what I plan to do. Hose down your sidewalk. Plant a lawn. Order a Big Mac (1,000 gallons to produce). Buy a new pair of jeans (2,900 gallons to make). Take a long shower. Flush your toilet a few extra times, and put off fixing that leaky sink. And, in that most sinister act of betrayal, brush your teeth while leaving the tap on.
No, I haven’t come unhinged. I recognize more than ever the serious risk we all face from depleting aquifers and draining rivers. I know I’m wasting our finite resource.
So where’s the method behind my deliberate madness? I now realize that World Water Day does more than soften or hide the impact of water depletion. It makes matters worse.
First, it creates the illusion that we value water, when all economic indicators show we clearly do not.
Second, it punishes the very people who strive to be frugal and green, while rewarding profligates.
Third, it reinforces a rigged and perverse centralized system, a vertically integrated absolute monopoly of disincentives that ensures water conservation remains increasingly unsustainable.
You can stop reading right now. You can take part in the annual, feeble “celebration of water.” Or you can face reality in the water world and decide to change it.
“By boycotting World Water Day, you will create a local disturbance.”
If you, like me, decide to boycott World Water Day, you will essentially be taking the red pill that Morpheus offers Neo in The Matrix. You will see the truth behind your local water works. That is to say, you will be exposed to the Three Paradoxes of Water.
......
read more
In case your email isn’t already loaded with 967 well-meaning reminders, the United Nations has officially designated March 22 as a time for us all “to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and to advocate for its sustainable management.”
He is also translating the proven system that has sustained indigenous people of the Kalahari Desert into an online, utility-based system that could be used to conserve water and energy in cities worldwide.
In that spirit—as one who has invested two decades into conserving this precious resource 364 days a year—let me advocate how you can truly honor our supreme liquid asset, the matrix of life, the wet stuff on which we depend: boycott World Water Day.
That’s right. Skip the political speeches, ignore the tired propaganda, bypass the grim statistics, and avoid the marches expressing solidarity and concern.
Instead, do what I plan to do. Hose down your sidewalk. Plant a lawn. Order a Big Mac (1,000 gallons to produce). Buy a new pair of jeans (2,900 gallons to make). Take a long shower. Flush your toilet a few extra times, and put off fixing that leaky sink. And, in that most sinister act of betrayal, brush your teeth while leaving the tap on.
No, I haven’t come unhinged. I recognize more than ever the serious risk we all face from depleting aquifers and draining rivers. I know I’m wasting our finite resource.
So where’s the method behind my deliberate madness? I now realize that World Water Day does more than soften or hide the impact of water depletion. It makes matters worse.
First, it creates the illusion that we value water, when all economic indicators show we clearly do not.
Second, it punishes the very people who strive to be frugal and green, while rewarding profligates.
Third, it reinforces a rigged and perverse centralized system, a vertically integrated absolute monopoly of disincentives that ensures water conservation remains increasingly unsustainable.
You can stop reading right now. You can take part in the annual, feeble “celebration of water.” Or you can face reality in the water world and decide to change it.
“By boycotting World Water Day, you will create a local disturbance.”
If you, like me, decide to boycott World Water Day, you will essentially be taking the red pill that Morpheus offers Neo in The Matrix. You will see the truth behind your local water works. That is to say, you will be exposed to the Three Paradoxes of Water.
......
read more
Friday, 1 April 2011
The worth of water
An encouraging model suggests urban Asia’s water problems could be easily fixed
PIGS rootle fastidiously through the foothills of the mountain of rubbish dumped at Tuol Sen Chey on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. A few metres away, cross-legged amid the clouds of flies and shaded from a fierce sun by a broad-brimmed hat, Tim Chan Tha is sifting and flattening used plastic bags for recycling. A widow with three children, she earns about 6,000 riels ($1.50) a day for this. She lives nearby down muddy dirt roads, in a cluster of ramshackle huts of corrugated iron, salvaged wood and tarpaulins. Ms Tha’s life seems as miserable an example of urban poverty as could be found anywhere.
In one respect, however, she is lucky. Her home has a constant supply of running water, drinkable straight from the standpipe outside. Perhaps just as remarkably, she pays for it. The provider is a government-owned utility, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA), which actually makes a profit and pays tax. For its many fans in the world of development experts, its achievement in doing this while serving the very poor makes it a model—proof that all that stands between poor people and a decent water supply is mismanagement.
This is a salutary message. Perhaps two-fifths of the people in Asia’s cities do not have access to piped water. Many of the rest suffer from intermittent supply and unsafe water. And, globally, the provision of water to cities is not keeping pace with urbanisation. In a message for “World Water Day” on March 22nd the United Nations’ secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, claimed that in the past decade the number of city-dwellers without a water tap in their home or immediate vicinity has risen by 114m.
Mr Ban identified the problem as “a crisis of governance, weak policies and poor management”. Asit Biswas, of the Third World Centre for Water Management, an NGO, agrees: “Lack of money, scarcity, and so on—they’re all excuses. The problem everywhere is bad management.” PPWSA has prospered in as unpromising an environment as any. Like much of Cambodia’s infrastructure, Phnom Penh’s water-supply system fell into disrepair under the Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975, during which tens of thousands were driven into the countryside.
The isolated, cash-strapped Vietnamese-backed regime that replaced it in 1979 patched up the system. But by 1993, when a new government took office after a peace agreement and UN-supervised elections, PPWSA was producing 65,000 cubic metres of water a day, with connections to just one-fifth of city residents. Of this 72% was “non-revenue water”—given away, or lost to leakage and theft. Chea Visoth of the PPWSA recalls carrying water up to his flat from a roadside tank filled by a pipe illegally tapping the public system.
The government appointed a new boss to PPWSA, Ek Sonn Chan, who remains in charge. It now produces 300,000 cubic metres a day, has 200,000 connections and non-revenue water of less than 6%. It is financing its latest water-treatment plant through commercial borrowing, and will be one of the first companies listed on a planned new stock exchange. To achieve all this Mr Chan solved problems that dog water-suppliers across Asia. One, the physical infrastructure, was relatively easy with the help of aid agencies and development banks. Another, identifying who was using water and putting in meters to measure their consumption, was painstakingly time-consuming.
Harder still, though, was to improve the quality of the staff (in his words, “underqualified, underpaid, unmotivated and mostly inefficient”). As in public utilities in many countries, PPWSA employed too many of them—some 20 per 1,000 connections compared with about three per 1,000 now. Many were corrupt, either pocketing water tariffs or taking bribes for not charging them. When Mr Chan tried to sack one egregious wrongdoer, his well-placed relation in the municipal government objected. Mr Chan made it a resigning issue and got his way (his victim, however, says Mr Visoth, landed on his feet and now works at the electricity utility.) Nor was it easy to persuade the government and army to pay up. One senior officer’s response to a water bill was to point a gun at Mr Chan’s temple.
Another difficulty was to overcome the prejudice against running a public utility as a business. When PPWSA’s proposal for universal tariffs went to the cabinet in 1993, it was unanimously rejected. But Mr Chan earned the trust of Hun Sen, then one of two prime ministers, and, since 1997, the only, increasingly autocratic, one. His support has helped Mr Chan show that the poor will gladly pay for water if it is cheap, reliable and safe.
Ms Tha, for example, pays about 7,500 riels a month for her supply. But much of that she recoups from neighbours. (For the 300 or so “waste-picker” families at Tuol Sen Chey, there are 113 connections.) Before 2008 and the advent of piped water, she had to pay about 20,000 riels a month to the owner of a nearby well for muddy water that had to be left to settle and boiled before it could be drunk. It left your hair feeling like cardboard after washing, her sister recalls. Even happier is their neighbour Oum Sok Ha, who specialises in recycling glass jars and bottles and so is a heavy water-user. Her daily profit has increased by 2,000 riels.
Not rocket science
More important than Miss Ha’s glee are the health benefits of a good water supply. This week the UN children’s agency, Unicef, estimated that in Pakistan, for example, 60m people may not have access to clean drinking water and that 100,000 child deaths a year can be blamed on unsafe water. A frequent estimate in India is that between one-half and two-thirds of hospital beds are occupied by people suffering waterborne diseases. Through the methodical, single-minded pursuit of basic common sense, PPWSA has shown how unnecessary that is.
http://www.economist.com/node/18440717?story_id=18440717
PIGS rootle fastidiously through the foothills of the mountain of rubbish dumped at Tuol Sen Chey on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. A few metres away, cross-legged amid the clouds of flies and shaded from a fierce sun by a broad-brimmed hat, Tim Chan Tha is sifting and flattening used plastic bags for recycling. A widow with three children, she earns about 6,000 riels ($1.50) a day for this. She lives nearby down muddy dirt roads, in a cluster of ramshackle huts of corrugated iron, salvaged wood and tarpaulins. Ms Tha’s life seems as miserable an example of urban poverty as could be found anywhere.
In one respect, however, she is lucky. Her home has a constant supply of running water, drinkable straight from the standpipe outside. Perhaps just as remarkably, she pays for it. The provider is a government-owned utility, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA), which actually makes a profit and pays tax. For its many fans in the world of development experts, its achievement in doing this while serving the very poor makes it a model—proof that all that stands between poor people and a decent water supply is mismanagement.
This is a salutary message. Perhaps two-fifths of the people in Asia’s cities do not have access to piped water. Many of the rest suffer from intermittent supply and unsafe water. And, globally, the provision of water to cities is not keeping pace with urbanisation. In a message for “World Water Day” on March 22nd the United Nations’ secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, claimed that in the past decade the number of city-dwellers without a water tap in their home or immediate vicinity has risen by 114m.
Mr Ban identified the problem as “a crisis of governance, weak policies and poor management”. Asit Biswas, of the Third World Centre for Water Management, an NGO, agrees: “Lack of money, scarcity, and so on—they’re all excuses. The problem everywhere is bad management.” PPWSA has prospered in as unpromising an environment as any. Like much of Cambodia’s infrastructure, Phnom Penh’s water-supply system fell into disrepair under the Khmer Rouge reign of terror from 1975, during which tens of thousands were driven into the countryside.
The isolated, cash-strapped Vietnamese-backed regime that replaced it in 1979 patched up the system. But by 1993, when a new government took office after a peace agreement and UN-supervised elections, PPWSA was producing 65,000 cubic metres of water a day, with connections to just one-fifth of city residents. Of this 72% was “non-revenue water”—given away, or lost to leakage and theft. Chea Visoth of the PPWSA recalls carrying water up to his flat from a roadside tank filled by a pipe illegally tapping the public system.
The government appointed a new boss to PPWSA, Ek Sonn Chan, who remains in charge. It now produces 300,000 cubic metres a day, has 200,000 connections and non-revenue water of less than 6%. It is financing its latest water-treatment plant through commercial borrowing, and will be one of the first companies listed on a planned new stock exchange. To achieve all this Mr Chan solved problems that dog water-suppliers across Asia. One, the physical infrastructure, was relatively easy with the help of aid agencies and development banks. Another, identifying who was using water and putting in meters to measure their consumption, was painstakingly time-consuming.
Harder still, though, was to improve the quality of the staff (in his words, “underqualified, underpaid, unmotivated and mostly inefficient”). As in public utilities in many countries, PPWSA employed too many of them—some 20 per 1,000 connections compared with about three per 1,000 now. Many were corrupt, either pocketing water tariffs or taking bribes for not charging them. When Mr Chan tried to sack one egregious wrongdoer, his well-placed relation in the municipal government objected. Mr Chan made it a resigning issue and got his way (his victim, however, says Mr Visoth, landed on his feet and now works at the electricity utility.) Nor was it easy to persuade the government and army to pay up. One senior officer’s response to a water bill was to point a gun at Mr Chan’s temple.
Another difficulty was to overcome the prejudice against running a public utility as a business. When PPWSA’s proposal for universal tariffs went to the cabinet in 1993, it was unanimously rejected. But Mr Chan earned the trust of Hun Sen, then one of two prime ministers, and, since 1997, the only, increasingly autocratic, one. His support has helped Mr Chan show that the poor will gladly pay for water if it is cheap, reliable and safe.
Ms Tha, for example, pays about 7,500 riels a month for her supply. But much of that she recoups from neighbours. (For the 300 or so “waste-picker” families at Tuol Sen Chey, there are 113 connections.) Before 2008 and the advent of piped water, she had to pay about 20,000 riels a month to the owner of a nearby well for muddy water that had to be left to settle and boiled before it could be drunk. It left your hair feeling like cardboard after washing, her sister recalls. Even happier is their neighbour Oum Sok Ha, who specialises in recycling glass jars and bottles and so is a heavy water-user. Her daily profit has increased by 2,000 riels.
Not rocket science
More important than Miss Ha’s glee are the health benefits of a good water supply. This week the UN children’s agency, Unicef, estimated that in Pakistan, for example, 60m people may not have access to clean drinking water and that 100,000 child deaths a year can be blamed on unsafe water. A frequent estimate in India is that between one-half and two-thirds of hospital beds are occupied by people suffering waterborne diseases. Through the methodical, single-minded pursuit of basic common sense, PPWSA has shown how unnecessary that is.
http://www.economist.com/node/18440717?story_id=18440717
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