A friend asked me the other day, “did you know that it takes about quarter of a bottle of oil to produce one bottle of water?”
I didn’t, and he was right.
His simple statement, and I found myself pondering this fact. To be honest, just thinking about the concept of a quarter of a bottle of oil in a beverage container disgusted me. And it further solidified my aversion to plastic bottles.
The production of plastic PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) bottles is an oil (natural gas and petroleum) intensive process. The Pacific Institute estimates the equivalent of 17 million barrels of oil were required to produce 31.2 billion liters of water in 2006. This figure does not include the immense amount of oil used to transport bottled water around the world. (’Fiji Water‘, oh my).
“The Pacific Institute estimates that the total amount of energy embedded in our use of bottled water can be as high as the equivalent of filling a plastic bottle one quarter full with oil.”
A friend sent along these great videos of a coffer dam being breached in super-fast speed. This video has since circulated the Internet extensively, but in case you haven’t seen it yet…
Marmot Dam Removal - ‘largest dam removal in Oregon’
This video shows the intentional breaching of a coffer dam, the final phase in a process to return the Sandy River to a free-flowing state.
Just like the Marmot Dam, most dams are finally demolished because of significant upkeep costs and concerns for fish.
So, what is the shelf-life of a dam?
Many dams constructed in the early 20th century are beginning to age and show signs of disrepair. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) is keeping a watchful eye over the dams in America. With over 79,000 dams in the United States, the ASDSO supposes there are thousands (3,316 to be exact) of dams susceptible to collapse.
“…the number of dams identified as unsafe is increasing at a faster rate than those being repaired.“
- ADSO
An estimated three hundred and four million of them across the globe, and yet still, researchers are noticing many inland lakes are beginning to dry.
In Siberia, Central Asia, East Africa, and North America - the results are the same - lakes simply cannot compete with man-made alterations to the environment.
And, these are not just small lakes, some of the lakes with dropping water levels are gigantic in size.
There are 122 large lakes in the world each over 1000 square kilometers (386 square miles).
Lake Victoria, in Africa, is the largest tropical lake in the world at 68,800 square kilometers (26,560 square miles). Mounting water-level decline in this lake is slowly eroding the livelihood of local fisherman and ranchers, agricultural producers, and industrial water users near the lake. A lack of suitable drinking water or dependable power supply is also becoming more common in the region.
“Declining water levels in Lake Victoria are disrupting shoreline infrastructure like this small dock.” Photo courtesy USDA Foreign Agricultural Service via NASA.
Sometimes occasional fluctuations of water levels in lakes are natural, but the current rate that many lakes are beginning to go dry throughout the world is not.
Humans alter the natural environment near lakes and water levels decline. We build dams, over-pump rivers, over-use groundwater, put roads and parking lots in natural recharge areas, build industries in locations without enough water, over-irrigate our crops, and, often, we use too much water in our homes. Not to mention the effect of a changing climate on water supply sources.
But, some things that could help ‘decline’ at least some of this water-level decline include:
conservation, conservation, conservation - grow crops in regions they are acclimated (low-water crops) - alternative water supply sources such as rainwater harvesting systems - pursue green “water conservative” development techniques - reduce the pavement - rethink industrial production - low impact living - conservation, conservation, conservation.
This ship, docked in Barcelona, Catalonia, is carrying 5.3 million gallons of water in 20 storage tanks. This water will serve up to 180,000 people for one day in the capital city. Photo courtesy AP/Manu Fernandez
Spain is enduring a drought. Reservoirs in Barcelona are at 20 percent capacity, and rainfall has been minimal over the past four years. The government has opted, as a short-term answer to this water crisis, to import water from Tarragona, Spain and Marseilles, France. The water will arrive on ten ships (like the one above) each month over the next six months.
During meetings in March 2008 of the UN Human Rights Council, Germany and Spain proposed a resolution to identify water as a global human right. Canada and the United States refused to pass this resolution because of wording that defined water as a human right.
The United States and Canada were concerned the inclusion of water as a ‘human right’ would interfere with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) according to Food and Water Watch. NAFTA “defines water as a good and an investment” as highlighted by Water Wired. The identification of water as a human right could possibly hinder future import/export of bulk water between the two nations.
So, to satisfy the United States and Canada, the UN Human Rights Council deleted all phrases in the document stating “right to water and sanitation,” and replaced the phrases with “Human Rights and access to safe drinking water and sanitation.” The Council also voted for an ‘Independent Expert’ to investigate the “issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation” over the next three years.
Water: Property or Human Right? - World Economic Forum 2006
National constitutions recognizing the right to water(from the great Food and Water Watch)
1994, Panama: A constitutional amendment recognized the State’s responsibility to guarantee water for adequate development;
1995, Ethiopia: “[P]olicies shall aim to provide all Ethiopians access to [..] clean water;”
1995, Uganda: The State is obliged to fulfill fundamental rights to social justice and economic development including clean and safe water;
1996, Gambia: “The State shall endeavour to facilitate equal access to clean and safe water;”
1996, South Africa: “Everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water;”
2004, Uruguay: Uruguayans approved a constitutional amendment by popular vote guaranteeing the right to water.
Three winners will be chosen to receive a 5,000 dollar grant for “innovative approaches to providing access to safe drinking water and sanitation”. Over 265 entries have been received from 54 countries, and now you may help to decide the winning projects.
Vote for your favorite three participants by May 11, 2008!
Less than half of Iraq’s population of 29 million people have access to clean, drinkable water. And, according to a recent report by Oxfam, the number of civilians in Iraq without water has risen from 50 percent to 70 percent during 2003 to 2007 (the continued US occupation).
A child cries as a woman fills pans of water from a public water hose on open ground in Najaf, Iraq, in 2006. (Alla al-Marjani/Associated Press)
Recent History of Water in Iraq
In the recent past, Iraq had over 140 drinking water and treatment facilities in operation. Air attacks, in 1991, during the Persian Gulf War destroyed many of these water treatment plants. At the same time, UN imposed sanctions disallowed trade between Iraq and other countries. This made import of needed chemicals and supplies for upkeep of the water treatment facilities difficult.
By 2003, Iraq’s 140 major water treatment facilities were operating at about 35 percent of their design capacity. In March 2003, the US government launched a direct-attack on Iraq. This continued war, for over five-years now, has rendered useless the already deteriorating water infrastructure systems across the country.
Years of political upheaval, sanctions against Iraq, consistent mortar attacks, and unstable-transitional governing bodies have made maintenance of the water treatment systems almost impossible.
“Over 600 workers from the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works have been killed attempting to repair these networks since 2005″
Unsafe water is also taking its toll. Iraq saw the worst outbreak of Cholera in recorded history in 2007.
A man in a village in southern Iraq demonstrates how Bechtel left his village without access to clean water. Photo courtesy the BanglaPraxis blog.
While some measures are being taken to ensure water availability in Iraq…
UNICEF provides water on tanker trucks and distributes home-hygiene kits to civilians. UNESCO has assessed water resources available in Iraq and evaluated possible management plans. USAID has refurbished 10 water treatment plants and installed 70 small water treatment systems in rural communities.
The transitional Iraqi Government has been developing water policy.
The Iraq Water Project (Veterans for Peace in conjunction with LIFE) has sent small, sterilized water units for hospitals and schools and has been working to rebuild six water treatment plants in Iraq.
…really, though, these actions are not yet enough.
For it is true, if water conditions are to improve in this country, then current upheaval, war, and fighting in Iraq must come to an end.
“We have photos of the units we sent to several hospitals, including the city of Hit where there has been a recent outbreak of cholera, and we got a dandy little video of our Sterilight in action at al Mansour children’s hospital in Baghdad.” - The Iraq Water Project
One man’s dream will soon raise the world’s awareness about the complexity of water challenges occurring in India.
Beginning on Saturday, April 26th in Bangalore, CS Sharada Prasad will travel 19,000 km (11,807 m) on motorbike to document the meaning and encompassing challenges of water to people in India.
Crossing 15 major rivers, 28 states, and 7 territories, Mr. Prasad will document his journey on a blog called “K2K - In Search of Water“. His route will be mapped with a GPS unit attached to his motorbike and uploaded to Google Maps. Geotagged blog posts will be updated everyday and photos from his journey will be available on EveryTrail and Flickr.
The trip will take over two months to complete, visiting places such as the Khardung La Pass at 18,380 feet to Kanyakumari at the southernmost tip of mainland India. Mr. Prasad will meet with local citizens, organizations, and community leaders to bring light to their accomplishments and challenges regarding sustainable water supplies.
This event will be a great opportunity for students, classrooms, and people around the world to follow along with his adventure and become educated about water supplies in India.
Sharada Prasad is a project officer for the India Water Portal and Blog developed by Archyam, a nongovernmental organization. Archyam “seeks to support strategic and sustainable efforts in the water sector that address basic water needs for all citizens”.
Visit the cool interactive Google Map of the Journey across India here.
Into the local grocery store for my weekly accruals, I browse the aisles for items on my shopping list…
Milk - 65 gallons of water for production per serving
Cherries - 90 gallons of water for production per serving
Eggs - 136 gallons of water for production per serving
I diligently note the amount of water used for production of each product clearly labeled on the back of the container and then place them into my cart.
Sound a bit far-fetched? Well, not so much if you were in Australia this week attending an international water conference in Adelaide.
James Hazelton, a professor from Macquarie University, suggested this approach for labeling of food products in Australia and beyond, according to ABC News. He cited the success of labeling water efficient appliances such as low-flow toilets and washing machines.
Indeed, perhaps if we were more aware of the amount of water used for production of our food products, we might be inclined to conserve water and eat a ‘low-flow’ diet.
“Shot on location in the West Bank over a period of almost a year, Drying up Palestine illustrates the stresses and strains imposed on Palestinian society by Israel’s almost total control over access to water and sewage facilities in the Occupied Territories. Told in the words of ordinary inhabitants, the film creates a compelling portrait of the impact of military occupation on everyday life.”
Purna Bahadur Vaidya is a Newar Poet from Nepal with a collection of “84 poems refracted through water” in the language of Nepal Bhasa called LA LA KHA (WATER IS WATER).
Wayne Amtzis (photographer and writer himself) sat down with the author to translate the poems into English. He has so graciously given permission for some of these translations to be featured on the Cultural Earth page on Water for the Ages. His translations have also appeared in The Drunken Boat, a web magazine of international works.
In addition, the Library of Congress has recorded Purna Vaidya reciting portions of LA LA KHA in his native language of Nepal Bhasa.
Photo above courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Mount Everest is the peak with the clouds to the left. Ama Dablam is the peak to the far right.
Several interviews on the ‘politics of oil and water’ are featured this week on Big Think, a website of ideas from people on everything including the environment. The following people and others were asked about “access to oil and water as a human right, sources of alternative energy and the future of global conflicts over resources”.
The people of San Rafael de la Laguna, an indigenous community of 4,700, constructed a water treatment facility along the edge of Lake Imbakucha to offset polluted discharge from local tourist facilities and agricultural practices.
The water treatment facility removes up to 90% of the contamination, and the clean water is then used for irrigation of reeds. Local artisans create furniture, crafts, and paper from the reeds, and sell the products through the Totora Sisa Cooperative.
Photo above is Lake San Pablo (Imbakucha) in Ecuador.
In Africa, there is a young girl named Christina. She lives with her family in a small village in rural Ghana in West Africa. Ghana is close the equator with a tropical climate, but each year over eight months may pass without a drop of rain.
During these dry spells, the one watering hole in her village will slowly evaporate in the hot sun. Villagers are forced to seek water elsewhere. It is Christina’s job to fetch her family’s daily ration of water.
Each day, she will walk up to four hours to gather enough water. Christina is a hardworking girl, but because she walks so far for water means she has no time to attend school.
Christina is a real girl and this is a true story, as told in the short film below by Water Aid. Water Aid is an international organization with a vision of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation.
Africa Water Facts
Desert, rainforest, and savanna… over 900 million people live in Africa, the second largest continent in the world. Of all who live in Africa, 340 million people (38%) lack access to clean water and 500 million people (56 %) lack access to sanitation facilities.
The Nile, Niger, Volta and Zambezi River Basins cross multiple political borders making water policy difficult and even volatile, according to research conducted by the UN as featured on the BBC.
Ashoka’s Changemakers and Global Water Challenge have partnered to open a worldwide search for ideas and projects that, when scaled-up, have the potential to transform the provision of sanitation and water.
All entries are due by Wednesday, March 26, 2008 6:00 pm EST (21:00 GMT).
Currently, over 149 entries have been received from 45 countries with ideas such as:
Affordable household filters that remove arsenic and microbes.
Biosand water filters in India.
Implementation of water harvesting ponds in Ethiopia.
About 4,500 children die each day from unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation facilities. – UNICEF
‘A mother in Delhi, India, helps her son drink from a public tanker on World Water Day 2007′, photo on BBC News.
World Water Day 2008
Events happening across the globe draw international attention to a lack of available and clean drinking water supplies on World Water Day, whether celebrating March 20th (as so noted in this post on Water Wired) or on the typical March 22nd.
Confusion about the date of the event this year (to account for a religious holiday on the weekend) certainly has not hindered many from observing the need to focus on global water issues.
Shekhar Kapur launches a blog on Changemakers.net inspired by his latest film, ‘Paani’ (Water), which will examine the daily struggle for water in the slums of Mumbai.
The Our World - Our Water group on Flickr is launched to encourage those from around the world to share photos and stories about water.
March 22nd Events (to name a few)
WaterPartners Village — a virtual exploration of the water crisis – will launch across social networking sites like Second Life on World Water Day. A virtual concert, with proceeds to support global water organizations, will start at 5:00 pm (PDT) on March 22, 2008 at the WaterPartners Village stage.
Worldwaterday.net is organizing events across the United States that observe World Water Day including organized walks to raise money for the global water crisis.
WorldWaterDay.org features events happening across the globe and on the Internet.
The Film Connection supports World Water Day by featuring several films about water for viewing and discussion about global water issues. ‘With this film program, we invite you to take a closer look at how individuals experience and utilize this diminishing resource.’
The Middle East is an area rich in oil reserves but without ample water supplies to sustain a growing populace. Over 21 politically distinct countries and jurisdictions maintain 5% of the world’s total inhabitants with less than 1% of the world’s water reserves.
At times, coming to an agreement on how to share the three river systems (the Jordan, Nile, and Tigris-Euphrates) that traverse the region make water policy a virtual nightmare. Now three countries are coming forward to resolve past arguments on transboundary water issues.
Turkey, Iraq, and Syria will soon form an institute to study water in the Middle East, as detailed in Today’s Zaman (a major Turkish newspaper). Experts, scholars, and professionals from each country will begin meetings at Turkey’s Atatürk Dam to share information and work on resolving past water-allocation problems.
Develop and share information on irrigation and potable water technology.
Map water resources in the Middle East.
Release a report on effective water management in each country (for release on April 15th).
Management of water storage and dams in the region will be an aspect of the institute’s endeavors. Turkey and Syria will attempt joint construction of a dam on the Asi River. Syria expressed an interest in greater downstream shares from dams on the Euphrates River. Iraq, which had previously filed concerns against Turkey’s dams on the Tigris and Euphrates, approved the construction on the controversialIlisu Dam on the Tigris River.
Also, see this post on Intercontinental Cry on the contested Ilisu Dam and related protests in Turkey!
Above cover photo of January 2, 2000 issue of al-Majalla, a leading Arabic language weekly news magazine. Main headline reads: “The Waters of the Middle East: Scenarios of Wars to Come”. Courtesy of Ted Thornton at History of the Middle East Database.
You may have heard the phrase S&P 500 floating around, background noise as you listen to the news. But if you are a person with even an inkling of interest in the stock market, you will know the S&P 500 is an index exhibiting stocks of the top 500 publicly owned companies primarily from the US.
The S&P 500 shows the market value of the 500 companies in the index and is a good indicator of how the stock market is doing as a whole. The index will rise if the market value of a company goes up (with an increase in individuals interested in purchasing shares), and the index will decrease if the market value of a company goes down.
Well, what does this have to do with water, you ask.
The S&P 500 actually has little to do with water itself, but Standard and Poor’s (the company that created the S&P 500) recently released an index of the top 50 companies in the global water sector called the S&P Global Water Index.
The Global Water Index is similar to the S&P 500 except investors use it to track viability of investments in the international water sector. The Global Water Index is comprised of 25 companies in water utilities or infrastructure and 25 companies in water equipment or materials.
“One man’s challenge is another man’s opportunity. With water shortages an enormous challenge in both the developed and developing world, companies that transmit, purify, or supply equipment should benefit.”
Should individuals with money benefit on global shortages of drinkable water?
Individuals are already investing in the global water sector, and this will influence sustainable and available water supplies into the future.
It is likely such investments will drive-up the cost of implementing water infrastructure or treatment facilities for developing countries with dwindling budgets.
Investments in the private water sector could begin to widen the gap between often affordable, reliable water and water infrastructure (public water supply) and often expensive, unreliable water and water infrastructure (private water supply). As more individuals invest in private water industries, private water supply services will increase across the globe.
Water Privatization + Investors = Water Investments
= Bad News for Water Drinkers
For more information on water privatization, see this post on Waterblogged.info or listen to this CBC radio series (a little past due but still great), Water for Profit.
“Wash-in-Schools” (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) is a campaign to ensure safe drinking water and sanitation facilities for schoolchildren throughout the world. This program, first introduced by UNICEF and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council at the 3rd World Water Forum in 2003, has been joined by growing list of non-profit organizations, foundations, corporations, and schools.
Water Advocates, a non-profit organization in Washington DC, will be launching their Wash-in-Schools Initiative on March 12, 2008. This non-profit has the goal to expand the WASH program to 1,000 schools in developing countries while creating the momentum to help as many additional schools as possible worldwide.
The event will feature videos of schoolchildren in the developing world as well as comments from individuals including Dr. Peter Gleick, President and Co-founder Pacific Institute; Gil Garcetti, Photographer of “Water is Key: A Better Future for Africa;” and Alexandra Cousteau, co-founder Earth Echo International.
For more information on how you can be involved, please contact Andra Tamburro at 202-293-4047 or atamburro@wateradvocates.org.
To attend the event, please RSVP to Katie Delisio at WaterAdvocatesRSVP@gmail.com.
Over two million people are expected to visit Beijing this year for the Summer Olympic Games. In August, the population of the metropolis will crest 19 million souls.
The arrival of so many visitors to China’s capital will result in exaggerated water use of 2.75 million cubic meters (2,229 acre-feet) a day or, in layman’s terms, enough water to fill 2000 Olympic size swimming pools each day.
Chinese officials may soon begin to worry as North China is currently enduring a severe drought including Hebei (which surrounds Beijing) and other provinces in the north.
China’s answer to this Catch-22 is to pipe water to Beijing via extensive water supply canals, often at the expense of local citizens, businesses, or agricultural practices. China hurries to finish 309 km (192 miles) of canals to draw water from behind several dams in the province of Hebei to serve water to Beijing for the Olympics, as stated on Reuters. These canals are actually part of a larger project China is undertaking to pipe massive amounts of water from the Yangzte River in the south to arid regions in the north, widely known as the South-to-North Water Transfer Project (previously reviewed on WaterWired).
Central route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, courtesy of The New York Times.
Concerns about the colossal diversion project by residents of the area are many. During an interview with the Environmental News Network, one farmer said:
“For the country, it’s a good thing. It will bring water to Beijing so everything runs smoothly,” said Shi Yinzhu, herding sheep near the 100-metre wide canal in Tang county. “But for us here, they had to pump away underground water to dig the canal and we’ve lost a lot of land too … Sometimes you wonder if they need all the water more than us here.”
The world’s attention will soon be on Beijing, China for the Summer Olympic Games.
Will the world’s attention also be on the many people currently affected by drought conditions and difficult times in North China?
The team used piezoelectric materials, which generate electricity with mechanical stress, to capture energy from raindrops as they hit the surface. Raindrops the size of drizzle produced approximately 2 microjoules of energy, while large raindrops produced approximately 1 millijoule of energy.
“Although the output is puny compared with that of solar panels, rain power has the advantage of working in the dark and could be used to supplement solar-powered devices.”
In this “table-top” book filled with awe-inspiring photographs, authors from around the world contributed to each provide their own unique perspective on the water of the earth. Many prominent and knowledgeable individuals, such as Kofi Annan, Maude Barlow, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pete Seeger, and Desmond Tutu, each drafted a portion of the book.
Water Voices from Around The World is published in consideration and support of the United Nations’ effort for the “International Decade of Action ‘Water for Life’, 2005-2015.”
The Water Voices Web-site also hosts a blog for up-to-date information on the book tour and other global water issues.
See the Water Books Page at the top of this web-log for more books on water.
Canada and the United States refused to pass this resolution because of wording that defined water as a human right.
Sound a bit far-fetched? Well, not so much if you were in Australia this week attending an 
that traverse the region make water policy a virtual 
enduring a 
Central route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, courtesy of 
Experimental research is underway by a team at the 
In this “table-top” 