The Quickest, Easiest Way to Save Water

I admit it: I’m kind of obsessed with saving water. Not only have I done everything possible at home (low-flow toilets, showerhead, washer/dryer, dishwasher, etc.), I even stealthily installed a faucet aerator in the bathroom of a favorite restaurant of mine. Since bathrooms in businesses get a lot of use, I couldn’t resist the 4.5 gallons per minute savings. But what if I told you that you could save even more water than me, without being a total weirdo? What if it was free?

In the United States, the average person uses about 69 gallons of water at home indoors per day (25,295 gallons per year) and about 100 gallons of water per day (36,500 gallons per year) if you include outdoor use like watering a lawn. While that is already a lot of water, this number doesn’t even represent all our water use. In fact, the water we use at home is just 3.6% of our total water use! Another 4.4% is industrial, and a whopping 92% is agricultural (food and fiber).

Home water use is declining in the U.S., and you can join in on the fun by saving about 25 gallons per daywith standard conservation measures (like low-flow showers). But if you really want to use less water, you can save far more than that by making one tiny change in your diet on a weekly basis.

The trick here is to reduce the portion of water use that goes to agriculture (92%) by choosing different foods. Just as we can calculate a person’s “carbon footprint” to measure their total contribution towards climate change, we can do the same with water. Your “water footprint” includes both your direct and indirect water use (e.g. the water used to produce products you buy), and includes both the consumption andpollution of water. In the U.S. the average annual water footprint per capita is 750,777 gallons; the global average is less than half of that at 365,878 gallons.

So, here’s the quickest, easiest way to reduce your water footprint: Once per week, eat a soy burger instead of a hamburger. That’s it. That single swap saves you a whopping 579 gallons each time, and if you do it once per week it adds up to saving 30,111 gallons per year (more than your total indoor water use at home).

If you also drink a cup of soy milk instead of cow’s milk you can save another 47 gallons each time (2,447 gallons per year if you make the switch once per week). So between the burger and the milk, that’s a total savings of 32,559 gallons per person per year, enough to take 814 baths. Trust me, choosing soy products instead of cow products is a lot easier than trying to save that much water at home (and way easier than installing aerators at restaurants, which requires stealth).

Think about that: you could shut off your water at home (no toilet, no shower, no washing machine, etc.) and still have less impact than switching from beef to soy once per week*.

Inspired? The average American eats 57.3 pounds of beef and drinks 20 gallons of milk per year; swap that all out for soy and save 115,396 gallons of water each year! If you don’t like soy, there are plenty of other options.

You can educate yourself on how much water various foods and drinks require at a fantastic web site put out by the Water Footprint Network. (Before you click over, let me warn you: you may not want to know.)

So if you find yourself pulling your hair out because you can’t afford a front-loading washer, or if it starts to seem like a good idea to leave a spare aerator and a wrench in your backpack (just in case), remember there’s an easier way.

By Jon Fisher@nature.org

Can the World Save Lives and Combat Climate Change?

                             An innovative effort in western Kenya is attempting to provide clean water as well as reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases.

Environmental, humanitarian and economic challenges do not exist in isolation, but that is how the world most often deals with them. To take just one example: one of the key challenges facing cities around the globe in the 21st century is flooding. Flooding is determined by environmental factors, from climate change to overcrowding of floodplains with habitation. Flooding is also often a humanitarian disaster when it strikes and can be an aftereffect of big development projects, like hydroelectric dams.

Or take the metals in a cell phone. As Judith Rodin, president of the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, noted at her organization's event about "resilient livelihoods" on September 25, tungsten is the "metal that puts the buzz in your cell phone." Mining that tungsten is an economic development opportunity but also too often creates a humanitarian crisis when such economically valuable minerals become a source of conflict—as has been the case in the eastern Congo. At the same time, the mining practices used to extract such metals can be more or less bad for the environment and human health.

The U.N. buzz phrase of the last decade—"sustainable development"—is slowly morphing into a new sustainable buzzword for the development and humanitarian communities: resilience. Resilience means, at its core, an ability to bounce back fromstress in a healthy way, Rodin said. But, as development expert Edward Carr of the University of South Carolina rightly notes, resilience of what, to what? Enabling the poor to be resilient in the face of challenges like climate change may require a fundamental rethinking of the methods used to address both poverty and global warming.

After all, poverty and climate change are inextricably linked: The developed world has progressed, thanks to fossil fuels, and burning them has resulted in the elevated levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trapping heat, raising global temperatures and spawning weird weather. To resolve the energy poverty of billions will likely require burning more fossil fuels, but preventing catastrophic climate change definitely requires reducing concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gas. "You cannot tackle one without the other," Rodin noted.

Thus far, despite some recent success in reducing poverty thanks to rising living standards in China, the world has mostly failed to truly tackle either. Although drought in the Horn of Africa is predictable and cyclical even under the present climate, famine still stalks the region. "To have drought at the level of 2011 and no deaths in Ethiopia? That was progress," argued Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme at the Rockefeller event. Yet, thousands perished of starvation throughout the region and populations in Somalia, Kenya and elsewhere remain reliant on aid—a decades-long failure that also encompasses civil war and political instability. "How do you eventually graduate from aid?" asks Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO of Vestergaard Frandsen, a Denmark-based company that makes disease-control products.

Plus, "we are not winning the war on hunger. We are losing it," argued European Union Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva at the Rockefeller event. One of the big reasons that levels of hunger have started to grow again is the impact of climate change—variable weather means variable harvests whereas programs to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of cars have ended up taking away food to make biofuelslike ethanol. The lack of investment in agricultural innovation and the devastating impact of food aid on local farmers hasn't helped either. "Yes, we feed the hungry but we kill the farmers," Georgieva noted. Or, as food security specialist Amadou Diallo of the government of Niger said: "The basis of peace is food security." When people lack food, they turn to rebellion or terrorism.

Switching from food to cash grants except in those cases where food cannot be provided locally may be the key, argued Degan Ali of Adeso, an advocacy group for development in Africa, at the Rockefeller event. Such "flexible interventions" give the poor the ability to invest in their homes and villages rather than abandon everything and become permanent refugees.

In fact, one of the goals of humanitarian assistance now is preventative: keep people home rather than trekking to refugee camps, argued Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, at the event. Interventions that have been proved to work in that regard are as simple as selling off livestock or providing fodder for lactating goats. These ideas "solve the problem in a far more fundamental manner than rushing in with food aid," Shah argued—a fact that has been born out in academic research for the past several decades.

At the same time, the world will continue to urbanize, as one-time villagers abandon everything and move to the city for a better life. That may improve economic circumstances but it also tends to increase the impact of natural disasters. Floods are more devastating, thanks to migrant villagers building in neglected floodplains or other undesirable areas.

So finding new ways to fund environmental improvement and economic development at the same time will be crucial. And a new project in western Kenya may provide an all too unique example of how the two might be linked.

Life saver?
The LifeStraw is a plastic tube with a hollow-fiber membrane tucked inside. The membrane filters out bacteria, particles, viruses and other nasty stuff from freshwater, making it safe for drinking according to both U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization standards. That is no small thing in the all too many parts of the world where there is no guarantee that drinking waterwill not induce illness. All told, nearly one billion people worldwide lack access to such safe drinking water—a long-standing humanitarian crisis.

More than 870,000 households in western Kenya now have family-size capacity versions of these straws, part of a program to deliver, maintain and make sure such potentially life-saving technology is used. And this humanitarian program is funded byselling carbon dioxide emission reductions.

What's the connection between CO2 and humanitarian aid? One word: firewood. In the absence of the LifeStraw, these Kenyan families must boil their water to ensure its safety. To do so, they must gather extra firewood (more than that they would need just for cooking), which spurs both bigger the cutting down of trees as well as times when such critical safety practices have to be skipped due to a lack of resources. Skipping even one day of safe drinking water can mean a health disaster. "It's not a vaccine. You can't relax and stop using it," Vestergaard Frandsen says. As it stands, more than 1.5 million children die of diarrheal disease annually around the world, mostly due to bad drinking water.

In order to generate its 2.7 million metric tons worth of verified emission reductions to date, the LifeStraw effort sends field workers out every six months to ensure the technology is both working and being used—and have committed to keep doing so for a decade. Already, according to the company, they are "seeing a statistically significant reduction in the odds of a child under five presenting at a clinic with diarrhea," Vestergaard Frandsen says. Each LifeStraw can filter at least 18,000 liters—enough to supply a family of four for three years with their clean drinking water needs.

The carbon credits fetch between $11.50 and $14 per metric ton, generating at least $30 million for the project. But such a charismatic carbon project is all too rare these days, both because the carbon market is dominated by less robust emission reductions from heavy industry in China and India as well as development efforts that proceed with little thought of the environmental cost or co-benefits. At present, there is simply no way to scale up such innovative efforts because there is no larger market for such "premium" credits as well as no interest from aid agencies. "In development aid, we give upfront dollars and start hoping," Vestergaard Frandsen notes. In order to solve environmental and economic problems, that has to change.

By David Biello@scientificamerican.com

Experts Warn of Water Bankruptcy for Many Regions

A study of almost 200 major international water-related projects over the past 20 years has identified a suite of existing and emerging challenges and how science can offer remedies.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the largest public funder of projects to improve the global environment and promote sustainable development, partnered with the United Nations University and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to extract lessons from a portfolio of major transboundary water projects involving investments of more than US$7 billion.

Insufficient and disjointed management of human demands on water and aquatic systems has led to situations where both social and ecological systems are in jeopardy and have even collapsed, says the report.

River basins in particular are set to experience growing pressures due to urbanization, rising water scarcity and poor water quality.

Investing in science, in order to identify emerging issues and track trends relating to the use of water resources, can help to reduce such risks, according to the study. Links between science and policymaking also need to be strengthened.

Several success stories of research investments that paid rich dividends are also highlighted in the report.

These include efforts to rid Lake Victoria of alien water hyacinths, where an unsuccessful project using harvesting and chopping machines was replaced with biological control of the hyacinths using a weevil. The GEF-backed approach yielded immediate positive results for biodiversity and local communities.

The new report, Science-Policy Bridges over Troubled Waters, synthesizes findings of over 90 scientists worldwide assigned to five GEF International Water Science (IW:Science) working groups focusing on groundwater, lakes, rivers, land-based pollution sources, and large marine ecosystems and the open ocean.

According to the report: "The consequences of poor decision-making are dire: we face a 'water bankruptcy' in many regions of the world with implications for food and energy security, adaptation to climate variability and change, economic growth and human security challenges."

The report was launched on the opening day of the GEF International Waters Science Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand. The conference aims to set priorities for international waters science over the next decade and to enhance the use of science in GEF projects and beyond.

Other key findings include:

• Levels of dissolved oxygen levels in marine areas (a critical ecological indicator) have dropped significantly over a relatively short time. In 2008, over 400 marine dead zones were known to span a total area of more than 245,000 square kilometers.
• The report also highlights a major increase of stored heat in oceans. Such changes could have negative impacts on ecosystems, sea levels and human livelihoods.
• The management of groundwater remains isolated from other ecosystems, and the limitations in recharge capacity of aquifers are not well understood by decision makers.

Zafar Adeel, director of the United Nations University International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), and a report co-author, said: "This study underscores how often early 'alarm bells' with respect to emerging issues can be heard and must be heeded. The report offers helpful recommendations to the GEF to foster this process."

Ivan Zavadsky, GEF's International Waters Focal Area Coordinator, notes that over 20 years GEF had catalyzed the largest investment of its kind in human history. GEF's $1.3 billion catalyzed a total of $7 billion of investment in managing shared waters - fresh and marine - in almost every part of the planet, above and below its surface.

"One of the principal lessons from this review is that science must play a more central role in determining the nature and priority of these investments," he said. "This examination of work in the recent past contributes significant insights into the challenges ahead."

"World leaders agreed at the Rio+20 summit in June to strengthen the science-policy interface and to foster international research collaboration on sustainable development. This is especially important in respect to water resources at a point in time of unprecedented pressures from climate change and urbanization to pollution and over extraction," said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

"Some positive steps are being made, however. UNEP's recent Global Environment Outlook-5 report analyzed progress on 90 key environmental goals. It found that significant progress is being made in improving research to reduce pollution of the marine environment. These achievements need to be registered across the water management challenge including lakes, rivers and aquifers in order to bring water into the centre of development plans en route to an inclusive Green Economy", added Mr Steiner.

allafrica.com/

Midwest States Need Savvy Water Management for Future Demands and Droughts

More than 63 percent of the continental United States remained in moderate to exceptional drought in early September, as the nation’s most widespread drought since 1956 continued to threaten drinking water supplies, crops and livestock.

The summer’s epic Midwest drought has eased slightly in the eastern part of the region, with Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois suffering moderate to severe drought. Farther west, Iowa and parts of Missouri still endure extreme drought, while in the Plains states, much of Nebraska and Kansas are in exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Droughts come and go, of course, but water scarcity is a growing problem, as growing populations increase demand and climate change makes supplies more erratic.

U.S. communities are responding in myriad ways that could be adopted in the Midwest:

Lawsuits: A frequent response to water scarcity is lawsuits. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take a long-running case in which Alabama, Florida, and Georgia fought over the waters of Lake Lanier, allowing a lower court ruling to stand giving the Atlanta metro area much of the water.

Elsewhere, Mississippi officials have accused Memphis, Tenn., of overdrawing water from a shared aquifer and have asked the Supreme Court to weigh in. Kansas filed a $50 million legal claim against Nebraska over water rights. Las Vegas is seeking groundwater in eastern Nevada to slake the thirst of its booming population, but neighboring Utah is fighting the “water grab” in state courts.

Of course, the problem with lawsuits is they don’t increase water supply; they just reallocate it.

Watershed Management: Cooperative watershed management is an effective approach that considers an entire watershed for what it is: an integrated, natural system, as opposed to a mere source of a human commodity. It aims to meet the needs of all users in the water system, including cities, farmers, energy producers, plants and animals.

Cooperating federal, state, and regional agencies, along with nonprofits, use science to balance water supply, rights, and quality, often incentivizing conservation and using natural processes to clean and store water.

Conservation: Between 1950 and 2005, the U.S. population doubled while domestic, commercial and industrial water consumption tripled. However, conservation measures are closing this gap. Between 2005 and 2009, our population increased 5 percent while water withdrawals increased by just 2 percent, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

While many people equate conservation with sacrifice, it can be surprisingly easy. Pinellas County Utilities in Clearwater, Fla., for example, reduced water use by more than 40 percent between 1991 and 2008 simply by offering rebates and technical assistance for water efficiency – and by reclaiming water.

Reclaiming Water: The idea of reclaiming, reusing or recycling, water disgusts some people, but it is a cost-effective way to increase supply. Communities in Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Texas, and California have been using these practices safely for years.

For example, Gilbert, Ariz., grew from 5,800 residents in 1980 to 212,000 today. To meet demand, water managers reclaimed wastewater, moving it through recharge ponds, where it percolates into the aquifer for future use. The pond water is also used directly for irrigation and other nonpotable purposes, reducing groundwater use. During summer’s peak demand, Gilbert saves over 131 million gallons of drinking water per day.

Homeowners and businesses can harvest graywater from shower and sink drains and use it to flush toilets and to water gardens. Rerouting graywater or rainwater into the house or using utility-delivered treated wastewater requires a dual plumbing system. Such systems offer property owners increased water security, independence, and efficiency.

Utilities could greatly speed installation of reuse infrastructure and programs by redirecting some of the money spent tapping new freshwater supplies.

Water Pricing Strategies: Innovative water pricing can encourage conservation and save money – not only in legal fees but also in unneeded infrastructure development. For example, in 1991, Irvine Ranch Water District in Orange County, Calif., instituted a rate structure that gives everyone a base allocation and then charges profligate users up to eight times more. Thrifty households get a discount. Raleigh, N.C.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Amarillo, Texas use similar tiered pricing strategies.

This year’s epic Midwest drought is unlikely to be the last. But wise water management can soften the shocks of future water scarcity.

By Erica Gies@livinggreenmag.com

How To Conserve Water In The Home

Conserving water at home is not only eco pleasant, it will also help to minimize on your utility bills. Most of the ways through which you can be able to save water involves change of habits as well as acquiring better products that allow you to use less water. The following are top 10 ways through which you can save water at home.

Repair leaking parts

It would be vital to repair all the leaking faucets. Although most people don’t take so much notice on the dripping water, it is essential to note that there is so much water lost through this way. It is estimated that a leaking faucet may lose up to 2700 gallons of water each year. You ought to not only check the seen leaks but also those that are hidden. to check the hidden leaks, turn off all the water flows in the property and record the meter reading. Ensure that no one turn on the water for two hours and then check the meter reading once again. If the readings have changed, then you must look for a plumber to look for the leaking faucet.

Reduce water wastage in the toilets

So much water is lost in flashing the toilets. by replacing old toilets with modern ones that have smaller tanks, you will be able to save a lot of water. Some modern toilet tanks have two flash settings which allow you to use less water in flashing solid wastes and even smaller quantities in flashing liquid wastes. Ensure that your toilets are leak proof by Repairing any leaking parts.

Reduce the amount of water used during bathing You can achieve this

through;lowering the time you take in bathing,Use water efficient water preserving fixtures,Shallow bathing when you are using the bath tub. Don’t fill the bathtub with water.Reduce wastage during teeth brushing and shavingDo not leave the taps running while brushing or shaving. It would be appropriate to use a glass of water during teeth brushing reducing water wastage in the kitchen Kitchen is among the places at home in which most water is wasted. Ways through which you can reduce this wastage includes;washing your dishes using standing water as opposed to cleansing them on a running tap,Use modern dishwashers that use less water,Do not wash your dishes until you have a full load. This will reduce the number of washings that you need to do and consequently help to save water.

Use low-flow toilets and taps

By cutting down the rate at which water flows in your facets and toilets can greatly reduce the amount of water wasted in the home. acquire water If you have leaking facets, it is essential to develop the tendency of acquireing water. You can use Plastic tubs to collect this dripping water and the water can be used to water your crops. It would also be appropriate to use the plastic tubs to collect rain water. Water accumulateed this way can be used to water your floral Garden as well as your vegetables. Reduce the amount of water used in washing cloths cleaning clothes can also be a big source of dropping water. To reduce the amount of water lost this way, use a water conserving models of cloth washers. it would also be appropriate to wash your cloths only when you have a full load.

Reduce the amount of water you use to wash your car

While cleansing your car at home, use a hose nozzle. You ought to also reduce the frequency with which you wash your car. Water you crops at night Watering you plants during the day is not advised as most of the water will be lost due to evaporation. You can either water the vegetation early in the morning or at night.

Save the running water- this can be achieved by;When waiting for the shower water to get hot, use a bucket to acquire the cold water,Use an electric kettle or stove to heat bathing water instead of using running hot water faucet,Use bottled water instead of waiting for cold water from the faucets.

Darren Bradley is a firm believer of clean water projects and peoplewater.com drop for drop initiative plan.

hill2012.com

Water Matters

Earth is known as the blue planet because of the vast quantities of water that predominate the surface of the planet. It is surmised that life began in those waters. Regardless of how true that assertion is, the fact is that life on this planet is made possible through a combination of factors amongst which water is as critical as say oxygen or sunlight that is filtered to warm the earth without burning it. So having over 70 per cent of the planet's surface covered in water sounds good except that life is sustained on earth through freshwater and all the seas and oceans of the world are filled with saline water. And unlike the seawaters, freshwater is shrinking commodity. 

Of the 71 per cent water covering the planet's surface, only 3 per cent is non saline. And that 3 per cent is distributed across the forms; glaciers , rivers, lakes and ground water. Not only is the human body composed primarily of water but water is one of the fundamental premises for life on earth across life forms; birds, bees and all things that breathe need water. Unfortunately, so do all other things such as agriculture and industry. Simply put, life is water intensive . Possibly the biggest problem we face is one that is entirely man made: pollution of water sources. Urban centres in India and in many other countries are faced with the mammoth task of not only providing access to clean drinking water but of dealing with the waste that is generated. Statistically, one of the biggest challenges in development around the world is posed by the need to provide everyone with access to clean water for consumption . Its lack equals a whole lot of diseases. A disproportionately large number of deaths can be related to water : lack of clean drinking water and sanitation is now the single largest cause of illness worldwide. It is estimated that by 2020, more people will have died due to water borne diseases and the lack of clean water than the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 

The increasing pollution of our rivers, the overdrawing of water from underground sources which is leading to the lowering of the water table alarmingly, and the constantly increasing demand for access to clean water are all leading to a very severe crisis in the making - water scarcity. So how do we work towards averting that crisis even as we deal with the developmental challenge of providing people with access to clean water? 

Conserve water 
Every drop conserved is, in the long run more valuable than oil. So, make sure that your taps don't run while you brush your teeth, dripping taps should be fixed immediately and in every activity of daily life that needs water be conscious of how much you actually need and how much you waste thoughtlessly. Remember , water is a finite resource ; it will disappear thanks to our interruption of the water life cycle and when that happens you will regret every drop you wasted . On a more optimistic note, if each of us who are lucky enough to have access to running water around the clock undertook to reduce our consumption by a mere 1 litre per day (which, if you actually work it out, is less than the amount you waste in a day), it could make a substantial difference. It would ease the strain on the infrastructure and allow more people access to clean water since the same quantity would be able to serve more people. 

Rainwater harvesting 
It is perhaps the simplest way of not only conserving water but of saving the planet in the long run. Rainwater harvesting is a method of channelling rainwater under the ground, allowing for the replenishment of the ground water table. In urban areas, as a result of concretisation and tarred surfaces , most of the water runs off into the sewage system instead of soaking into the earth. Given that it is our abuse of the water resources that is causing a crisis , it is our duty to do everything that we can to help the water cycle. And rainwater harvesting is amongst the easiest of solution. While it is now mandatory for government buildings, it can easily be implemented at the level of individual households too. And only then can it become effective. The problem is immediate, and if the solutions are not immediate then the future looks extremely dry. 


timesofindia.com

New Conservation Genre

The drought of 2012, which continues to spread westward, is making its mark on the national consciousness in many ways. Rising food prices. Interrupted livelihoods. Fields of stunted, desiccated crops.

All of this dryness has resonance in our video culture. Just go to YouTube and look at the proliferation of public service announcements on water conservation. Making one of these seems to be the school project du jour. But in this array there are some standouts, like Oklahoma City’s recent offering, above, or this one from students at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.

Often, contributions to the art form show someone cavalierly overusing water in the sink or shower and are supplemented by statistics about the amount of water wasted every year. One variant features water wardens — like the “Saturday Night Live” comedians Horatio Sanz and Rachel Dratch — dropping in on the bathrooms and kitchens of unsuspecting water spendthrifts.

Cute toddlers are enlisted for a French offering and another from Malaysia. Others incorporate music — pitting Pachelbel’s Canon (a stately tone, amid water waste) against “I Don’t Want to Lose Your Love Tonight” (an upbeat tone, for greener water habits).

The water skits on “Sesame Street” include a video in which an animated fish’s pond is drained as a little boy runs the tap while brushing his teeth. Then there’s the sadistic approach, in which profligate users face retaliation from a garden hose and a miniature poodle.

School competitions to develop these public service announcements are common in the United States and in places like Singapore, where water scarcity has led to a national program for recycling water. Competitors tend to cast toothbrushes and faucets in leading roles. Toilets can be harder to work with tastefully, but it’s not impossible (see here and here).

Some entries have the cadence of biblical commandments (“I should not take more than five minutes to shower”). But given that they were produced by primary schools, they might be excused for being a bit didactic. A few Australian offerings are a little more free-form.

Then there’s this production from the guys at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, who seized on an instantly recognizable cultural meme and ran with it. They should enter this in some contest.

green.blogs.nytimes.com

Florida: Water Managers Appeal to Gov. Scott: Restore Money for Water Protection

Twenty former governing board members of Florida’s water management districts are urging Gov. Rick Scott to reverse another round of pending budget cuts.

In a letter sent to Scott Monday, they urged the governor to “restore adequate funding’’ for the five regional agencies responsible for the water supply, flood control and many environmental protection projects, including Everglades restoration.

The Florida Legislature this year removed a year-old revenue cap that had slashed district budgets statewide by 30 percent, a move environmental groups had hoped would restore some of the lost funding. Instead, water district governing boards, who are appointed by the governor, have continued cutting back, rather than holding the line or raising property tax rates to previous levels.

The South Florida Water Management District, for example, which just settled a long-running federal lawsuit by agreeing to $880 million in new projects to reduce the flow of pollution in the Everglades, gave preliminary approval to a $600 million budget that includes another 2 percent cut in its property tax rate. That follows a $100 million cut last year. A final budget hearing is scheduled for Sept. 25.

The former board members, including Miami attorney Eric Buermann, who was the South Florida district’s chairman under former Gov. Charlie Crist, argued the cuts save property owners a small amount at a large cost for important programs like Glades restoration, and alternative water supply projects. A Miami-Dade property owner of a $150,000 home paid $62.40 in district taxes in 2011. This latest proposed roll-back will reduce that to $42.89.

The governor’s office did not respond to a call and an email for comment about the letter, which echoes complaints from environmental groups. But in announcing final state approval last week of the Everglades pollution cleanup plan reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Scott said the plan was to pay for the work with existing state and district revenues “without raising or creating new costs for Floridians.’’

miamiherald.com

Today is World Water Monitorning Day

World Water Monitoring Day was established in 2003 by America's Clean Water Foundation as a global educational outreach program that aims to build public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources.

On Sept. 18, thousands of people around the world will get their hands wet testing the condition of their local water bodies in observance of World Water Monitoring Day. The Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the International Water Association (IWA) urge individuals and organizations worldwide to participate and help raise awareness of the importance of water quality.

In 2011, approximately 340,000 people in 80 countries monitored their local waterways. The World Water Monitoring Day is challenging us to test the quality of your waterways, share your findings, and protect our most precious resource World Water Monitoring Day takes place each year as a component of the broader World

Getting involved is easy. Program participants use a simple, low-cost monitoring kit to learn about some of the most common indicators of watershed health. Then they log their results in an online database and share their stories with others around the world through the program website. Citizens are invited to “take the Challenge” anytime from March 22 until December 31.

Water Conservation Video Ashley Nicole Greene Narrator

World Water Crisis Must Be Top UN Priority

A rapidly worsening water shortage threatens to destabilize the planet and should be a top priority for the UN Security Council and world leaders, a panel of experts said in a report Monday.

The world's diminishing water supply carries serious security, development and social risks, and could adversely affect global health, energy stores and food supplies, said the report titled "The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security Issue."

The study was released by the InterAction Council (IAC), a group of 40 prominent former government leaders and heads of state, along with the United Nations University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health, and Canada's Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation.

"As some of these nations are already politically unstable, such crises may have regional repercussions that extend well beyond their political boundaries," said Norway's former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, a member of the group.

The Norwegian leader underscored that the danger is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa, western Asia and North Africa, where critical water shortages already exist.

She added that water insecurity could wreak havoc "even in politically stable regions."

Canada's former prime minister Jean Chretien meanwhile said it was impossible overstate the magnitude of the crisis.

"The future political impact of water scarcity may be devastating," he told reporters in a telephone press conference.

The report found that water demand in the world's two most populous countries, India and China, will exceed supplies in less than two decades.

Experts said that some 3,800 cubic kilometers of fresh water are extracted from aquatic ecosystems around the world each year, largely as a result of global warming.

Population growth meanwhile has worsened the strain on water resources.

With about one billion more mouths to feed worldwide by 2025, global agriculture alone will require another 1,000 cubic kilometers (one trillion cubic meters) of water per year.

"Using water the way we have in the past simply will not sustain humanity in future," Chretien said.

"The IAC is calling on the United Nations Security Council to recognize water as one of the top security concerns facing the global community," he said.

"Starting to manage water resources more effectively and efficiently now will enable humanity to better respond to today's problems and to the surprises and troubles we can expect in a warming world."

The report is being released as foreign ministers of several countries prepare for a scheduled special discussion of the topic later this month on the margins of the UN General Assembly.

UN-Water, a coordinating body for water-related efforts by all UN groups, also will told a meeting of experts in New York on September 25 to discuss ways to tackle the problem.

rnw.nl/english

How Much Water Is Your Home Wasting?

From cooking to cleaning and manufacturing to shipping, humans consume excessive amounts of the earth’s most precious resource. Since only 1% of the earth’s water is available for human consumption, we need to reduce the amount of water we use. Excessive water consumption occurs in our homes everyday.

Curious to know how much water your own home is wasting?  The website elocal.com has compiled information on US residential water consumption.

Living Green Magazine via elocal.com

China to Subsidize Energy-saving Home Appliances

China will subsidize the use of energy-saving desktop computers and air-conditioners in its latest effort to save energy and boost domestic demand, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) told Xinhua on Sunday.

The country will earmark 14 billion yuan (2.22 billion U.S. dollars) in subsidies to encourage the purchases of six types of energy-saving products, including desktop computers, air-conditioners, fans, water pumps, compressors and transformers. 

The subsidy program will last for one year and is expected to raise the market share of the energy-saving products to more than 40 percent, the ministry said, without disclosing when the program will start. 

"The move marks the government's effort to combine stabilizing economic growth and stoking domestic demand with promoting energy savings and emission reductions," an official with the ministry said. 

The subsidies may give a boost to the slowing economy, which grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter of this year, marking the slowest pace in three years. 

The country has currently 130 million desktop computers, which consume 31.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year. The annual power consumption of air-conditioners reach 350 billion kwh, data showed. 

In 2011, the power consumption of fans, pumps, compressors and transformers accounted for 40 percent of the country's total, but they were only 80 percent as efficient as those in developed countries. 

"The subsidy program will help save 31.3 billion kwh of electricity every year and drive sales of the energy-saving products by 155.6 billion yuan," the official said. 

The MOF, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will release the detailed rules on the subsidy program soon, according to the official. 

China started subsidizing energy-saving products including light bulbs and automobiles in 2009. From June 1, 2012, the country provided subsidies for purchases of five types of energy-saving home appliances, including air conditioners, flat-panel televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and water heaters. 

"The subsidy policy has yielded remarkable results," the official said, as such programs have boosted sales by over 600 billion yuan and saved 28 billion kwh of electricity each year since 2009. 

The new subsidy program is also believed to be the government's latest effort to lift consumption amid a slowing economy. 

In recent weeks, China has adopted a series of measures to prevent economic growth from sagging further. 

The NDRC, the nation's top economic planning agency, announced in the past week the approval of 55 infrastructure projects ranging from subway lines to highways, which could be worth more than one trillion yuan in total, in a sign that the government is ramping up spending to boost the weak economy.

The government has set a target for economic growth of 7.5 percent for this year, down from actual growth of 9.3 percent last year.


english.cri.cn

Bali Looks To Ways To Save Water

As nations are looking to become water-efficient, some Indonesian famers may have an answer.

They are hoping UNESCO heritage status will help preserve their eleven-centuries-old Subak irrigation technique.

Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen reports from the island of Bali.

Watershed

Executive Produced and Narrated by Robert Redford and Directed by award-winning filmmaker, Mark Decena, WATERSHED tells the story of the threats to the once-mighty Colorado River and offers solutions for the future of the American West.

As the most dammed, dibbed, and diverted river in the world struggles to support thirty million people and the peace-keeping agreement known as the Colorado River Pact reaches its limits,WATERSHED introduces hope.

Can we meet the needs of a growing population in the face of rising temperatures and lower rainfall in an already arid land? Can we find harmony amongst the competing interests of cities, agriculture, industry, recreation, wildlife, and indigenous communities with rights to the water?

Sweeping through seven U.S. and two Mexican states, the Colorado River is a lifeline to expanding populations and booming urban centers that demand water for drinking, sanitation and energy generation. And with 70% of the rivers’ water supporting agriculture, the river already runs dry before it reaches its natural end at the Gulf of California. Unless action is taken, the river will continue its retreat – a potentially catastrophic scenario for the millions who depend on it.

In WATERSHED, we meet Jeff Ehlert, a fly fishing guide in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado rancher Dan James, Delta restoration worker Edith Santiago, Navajo Council member Glojean Todacheene, Rifle Colorado Mayor Keith Lambert, Los Angeles native Jimmy Lizama and a group of Outward Bound teens rafting down the Colorado River as they all reflect a compelling new water ethic—one that illuminates how letting go of the ways of old can lead to a path of coexisting with enough for all.

The Redford Center created WATERSHED as a inspirational social action tool for people who want to engage. Promoting personal water conservation pledges of 5% – symbolic of the small amount of the rivers’ flow required to reconnect the river to its delta – and garnering donations to help purchase the water rights necessary to restore the connectivity, WATERSHED is a central tool in a larger grassroots effort focused on saving the Colorado River and supporting the communities throughout the river basin.

watershedmovie.com

Water Conservation: Save Water, Save Money

Conserving water is easier than you might think. Take a look at these quick tips for saving water in your daily routine.

For the indoors: nearly 60% of all household water use happens in the bathroom

·               Install an aerator to your faucets

Aerators mix air into the water stream, providing just as much pressure while using a lot less water.

·               Install a low-flow shower head

Installing a low-flow shower head can save you up to 20,000 gallons per year and cut up to 10% on the cost of heating your water.

·               Take showers instead of baths 

Showering uses much less water than filling up a bathtub. Try cutting 2-minutes off your time. If you have kids (teenagers) have them listen to music to help them gauge the amount of time they are in the shower. Typically they should finish up within 2 songs. Give it a try yourself.

If you do take a bath, make sure you don't over-fill it – you can always add a little water once you get in.

·               Use less water with your existing toilet

Place a half gallon milk jug filled with rocks into your toilet tank to displace water, this will save you water on each flush. Also don’t use your toilet as a trash can by flushing misc. items.

·               Turn off your faucet 

Don’t run the water while you brush your teeth or shave. Similarly, using half a sink of water to wash your face is more economical than using running water.

·               Check for dripping taps
Fix leaky faucets, one drop per second can waste up to 3,000 gallons per year.

·               Consider Installing Tankless water heaters

Tankless water heaters provide endless hot water and can save you around 20% on energy costs. Also note – a family of 3 using 1-minute less hot water can save up to $75 and nearly 2,700 gallons a year.

·               Consider a low-flow toilet. 

Low flow toilets can use 1/3 less water than typical toilets

·               Use a bowl for washing vegetables and fruit
Leaving your kitchen tap running while you wash vegetables can waste a large amount of water. Instead, fill a bowl with water and use this to wash your vegetables. Then you can use that same bowl of water to water any household plants you may have.

·               Fill your washing machine and dishwasher completely before running

For the outdoors: 30% of household water usage can come from outdoor use

·               Invest in a rain barrel
Rain barrels collect and store rainwater, so you'll have less need to use tap water to water your garden. Prices can start from approximately $50-$75.

·               Water your plants in the early morning or evening
During warm weather; try to water your garden during the early morning or late evening, when the temperature will be slightly lower. At this time of day, you'll lose less water to evaporation.

·               Drought tolerant landscaping 
Choosing plants that require little water will help you keep your garden looking healthy, even during periods of drought.

·               Don't water your plants unnecessarily
Always check the weather forecast before watering your garden. If rains predicted, hold off. Also remember to only water plants if truly necessary – grass, trees and shrubs usually don’t require watering.

·               Use a bucket to wash your car or go to a car wash
Most hoses use 10 gallons per minute, while car washes typically use 35 gallons per wash. Instead of continually running your hose, use a bucket and sponge to wash your car. Use to hose to rinse.

 By Shawn Longson@homechanneltv.blogspot.com