Water Footprints
It’s August, hot in many places, and “everyone” is talking about water. A lot of water may be used in summertime for lawns and swimming pools, but we all have a year round footprint that uses an amazing amount of water. As WWF Canada recently wrote, even as we consume breakfast we’re devouring food that used water through running factories to growing crops. And it’s a lot:
A single cup of coffee = 140 litres (Enough fresh water to fill to fill your mug 777 times)
One slice of white bread = 40 litres (Enough water to fill a fish tank)
A single egg = 200 litres (Enough fresh water to fill a rain barrel)
Dinner’s worse – A steak dinner = 15,500 litres (Enough fresh water to fill a small swimming pool)
Meanwhile, the BC Sustainable Energy Association states that we must act now to protect our rivers, streams and groundwater, and to balance competing demands for this precious and limited resource. The BC Legislature is currently considering how to modernize our Water Act, and the BCSEA has an online petition that asks the BC Legislature to prioritize environmental and social needs for water and involve the public in decisions about water. If you’re in BC, check out the petition.
Tags: energy, environmental, petition, sustainable, water, WWF Canada
Wilderness Safaris Responds
Chris Roche of Wilderness Safaris contacted me following our article “Assessing Puma’s Practices”. You can read their 5 page press release responding to a 3 page letter from Survival International, and some additional information, online at Wilderness Safaris website.
Wilderness Safaris won the right to operate their camp as part of a public tender process by the Botswana Government in 2008. Bushmen apparently won the right to live in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in a 2006 high court ruling, which also suggested that the prior evictions of the Bushmen from their ancestral home (the Reserve) were wrong, reports Survival International. It would be nice if the new kids in town would play nicely with the ones already there!
Wilderness Safaris also explains that the nearest Bushman community to their camp is more than 50 km away at the village of Molapo. However, the camp is on the boundary of the core traditional area of the Kgei Bushmen.
The water borehole at Mothomelo was drilled in 1992 and used by the government to provide water to the Bushmen in the CKGR, more than 150 km away from the camp. So what’s the water issue, you may wonder?
Wilderness Safaris uses a nearby borehole plus a reverse osmosis process to produce around 400 litres per day for laundry, guest showers and the swimming pool. They also have the capacity to capture rainwater and make 150,000 litres of drinking water once it has been filtered and purified. This drinking water is supplemented by daily round trips of over 100 km to a public borehole north of the camp. This is for a low-impact, 10-tent camp.
Considering the quantities of water, I tend to agree with Survival International’s point that if some water was made available to the Bushmen community, it would transform their lives and might well even save several of them. Such a positive humanitarian action by Wilderness Safaris could generate some great publicity that ultimately would benefit their bottom line. Wilderness Safaris does a lot of things right, as in Namibia, and it would be great if this issue would be solved proactively and positively.
Fun Water Conservation
Amongst dragon boat and water walking races, Singapore recently launched their International Water Week. To show the effort that some people put into getting drinking water, Arctic natives were shown hacking blocks of ice, and southern women were shown carrying two buckets of water home from a well. School teams competed to build the best and the fastest water rafts using recycled materials including water bottles.
The message behind all the fun is important. If all the world’s water could fit into an 18 litre water bottle, the fresh water available for drinking would only fill three teaspoons, suggests the city of Red Deer, Alberta. So you might think that 1,000 litres of clean North American tap water would cost way more than the price of a one litre bottle of water, at least in Red Deer. Not so.
Perhaps so much water is used for gardens and lawns, and in households, because it’s cheap. Not to worry, though, because you had milk with your breakfast? A dairy cow must drink four litres of water to produce one litre of milk. And then you drove to work? One drop of motor oil can render up to 25 litres of water unsuitable for drinking. Tap leaking? Call a plumber quickly, because not only is it annoying, a tap leaking one drop of water per minute will waste 173 litres of water per week.
Time for a game. The EPA introduces Thirstin in an online Matching Fun Facts Game. He shows up all happy in a rather idyllic looking country scene. Then you are asked to match everyday activities with the amount of water they take. If you get the answer right, Thirstin arrives looking happy. However, if you get it wrong, Thirstin arrives looking sad and carrying a sign that suggests you try again. More details are available if you want to learn more.
Have a happyJuly 4th long summer weekend!
Tags: dragon boat, EPA, game, Singapore, Thirstin, water, Water Week
Water Matters
The need to ensure a sustainable water supply is a reality that affects everyone. Currently, the state of California is split over the issue of whether or not to support an $11 billion water bond that will be on the November 2010 state-wide ballot, according to the New York Times. The bond is supported by many businesses and prominent politicians, construction companies and irrigation districts, as well as some non profit groups such as the Nature Conservancy, National Heritage Institute, and Audubon California. On the opposing side are many groups such as the Sierra Club, Friends of the River, and Clean Water Action, who claim that the bond will do little to ensure water sustainability in the long-term.
The New York Times reports that the bond will fund billions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades such as new dams, reservoirs, canals, and water- and sewage-treatment facilities. Solutions for endangered salmon and the potential privatization of water reservoirs form part of the debate.
While some claim that more infrastructure would broaden water resources, opponents claim that the bond does little to promote sustainable water usage. Further, the No On The Water Bond Association (www.nowaterbond.com) insists that the bond would create more debt burden for Californians for an inefficient system that may damage downstream ecosystems. Also, only a little over 2% of the bond would fund conservation programs.
The real answer to the question of sustainability is not simply building more waste treatment facilities, suggests the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Citizens must become more responsible water users. This means that conservation must begin at home through living green and funding initiatives that get to the root of the problem as opposed to building over it.
We need to look no further than Habitat for Humanity’s Green Living Initiative in Tucson. The initiative has established a gray water system, which allows users with the turn of a handle the option of draining faucet/shower waters into their lawns/gardens as opposed to the sewers.
Education about the importance of water conservation should start in schools, which are enormous consumers of water. The EPA offers assistance to educators through programs such as ‘Tools for Schools’ which offer “background information for teachers and several student activities introducing water conservation principles”.
The water crisis began due to a lack of knowledge and respect for sustainable practices; we cannot afford to let it end the same way.
Tags: California, Conservation, EPA, gray water, Green Living, Habitat for Humanity, sustainable, Tools for Schools, water, Water bond
