Water scarcity is a reality that can cause a great deal of stress on a population’s food supply and water infrastructure. With decreased rainfall hindering crops, creating food shortages that directly affect one tenth of the world, governments are turning towards smarter ways to cope with the problem. This wouldn’t be the case prior to the new technology and techniques available today. In previous times, when water shortages could not be addressed as effectively, the lack of resources would often lead to violent conflicts. Around 4,500 years ago it was written that a local dispute between Lagash and Umma, cities residing in what is modern day Iraq, sparked a violence due to a redirected water source. These types of skirmishes were more common in previous centuries, turning neighbors against one another. In ancient China and during the time when Pharaohs ruled Egypt there were wars fought to maintain clean water sources. The life blood of crops and a huge factor on commerce, it was always seen as a priority to protect the resource. Without it, a civilization could fall quickly do to unrest causing an upheaval of the ruling class. While we do not see as many conflicts today as we did in the past there are still some areas of the world where water scarcity is still an issue. In the Middle East and Sub Saharan Africa, water infrastructure can be ill maintained and have had direct correlation to violence in the area. Over the last 20 years that have been studies that show after a long lasting drought there are spikes in civil war, violence, and regime change....
By 2025 over 1 billion people will be without access to clean, safe, water. That number just got a little smaller thanks to Brunswick County’s plan to build a Reverse Osmosis plant for their citizens. After a lot of back and forth about the plant, it was put to a vote and won 3-2. After the hard fought issue was voted on, Chairman Bill Browning stated, “The right thing to do and the smart thing to do is to own our own water plant.” After what has happened in Flint Michigan, and the fact that water purity has become a public health issue it was clear to the council that now is the time for action. A majority of the opposition was based on previous water test results. With the claim that the County’s water has passed the test for several years without any issues, those not in favor of the new plant tried to stall the vote. The other topic of concern was cost. The cost of Reverse Osmosis plants can be staggering, but the long term solution they provide is unmeasurable. As with all RO and Water Filter solutions, the goal is clean, pure, water at a cost that is affordable. But what is the price for clean water? Browning stated, “I’ve been told by financial consultants that we can do this at a cost savings to our customers.” Over the long run, the plant is expected to have an ROI that is both monetary and a benefit to the community. Source;...
As reported on CircleOfBlue.com, while the state of California implements a landmark law to balance demand for groundwater with available supplies, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians has filed a lawsuit in federal court with the potential to add new layers of complexity to managing a necessary resource currently in short supply. The lawsuit, filed on May 14, 2013 against the Coachella Valley Water District and the Desert Water Agency, addresses two primary concerns: halting the decline in groundwater levels, and stemming pollution in the groundwater beneath the tribe’s 31,000-acre reservation. The Agua Caliente suit reflects the growing interest of Indian tribes across the American West to pursue clear legal recognition of water rights held in trust by the U.S. government. Tribal legal rights to water, which occurred first as a push for surface water rights in the 1980s, has expanded to seeking more authority over the use of groundwater. The result of these actions is shaping a new era of water management in the West — one that will force the cities, counties, and irrigation districts now managing water to make room for another seat at the table. This federal lawsuit and California’s 2014 law to fortify supplies and improve distribution of groundwater are both prompted by rapidly diminishing aquifers and inadequate authority to curtail indiscriminate use. The Agua Caliente case could be a model for tribes in California that seek greater influence in water management decisions. And the tribe’s suit could set a precedent for how groundwater rights for Indian tribes are interpreted nationally. Some believe this case, now in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,...
It may come as no surprise that top water experts, globally, are putting some thinking power into solutions that would results in greater availability of fresh water around the world. Some of their solutions include: Reecycling Wastewater In March, World Water Day panelists urged a new mindset for wastewater treatment. Some countries, like Singapore, are turning to recycled water to cut their water imports and become more self-sufficient. The rich East Asian republic is a leader in developing advanced technology that cleans wastewater for other uses, including drinking. Improving Water Harvesting Water catchment systems are essential for areas with no other reliable water sources. Pakistan and India—two countries that contend with some of the worst effects of climate change—are overhauling rainwater harvesting systems. These efforts provide independent control of water resources. Developing Energy-Efficient Desalination Plants To date, desalination has been an energy-intensive solution to water scarcity. Typically the Middle East has capitalized on its large energy reserves to build desalination plants. But Saudi Arabia could be fostering a new kind of desalination with its recent announcement to use solar-powered plants. Britain has taken a different approach to desalination by using small-scale facilities for agriculture. But these innovations bring to light another needed resource—the capital for technological experimentation. For a look at 16 more solutions from the world’s top experts, read the full story on...
The United Nations General Assembly stated in a landmark resolution adopted on July 28, 2010, “The right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.” “Five years ago today, the United Nations Member States explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation at the General Assembly. And that means that as a human right, all people, without discrimination, must have access to safe drinking water and sanitation, which is affordable, acceptable, available and safe.” Said the UN Special Reporter on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, Léo Heller. There is still a long way to go to make this right a reality. The U.N.’s proposed Sustainable Development Goals will provide an opportunity to reach this reality in the coming 15 years through the strong commitment of all countries, Heller said. In May, The President of the Greek Parliament, Zoi Konstantopoulou, solemnly pledged her support to the implementation of the Human Right to Water as a just societal demand. This came just one year after the people of Thessaloniki, Greece, organized to protest the plans of the previous Greek government to privatize water. Konstantopoulou wants Greece to become the first country to recognize the right. The President of the Parliament declared she is open to the demands of social movements and supports the Right to Water movement. Konstantopoulou’s landmark declaration shows the European Commission that it was wrong not to introduce legislation to recognize this right after nearly 1.9 million signatures were collected. Greece has sent a message of...
Nearly 2,000 communities in the United States will be eligible for money to filter atrazine, a popular weedkiller, from their drinking water. Syngenta, a Swiss chemical company, recently announced a proposed $105 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by communities in six Midwestern U.S. states who claimed that atrazine — one of the most widely used herbicides in the nation — had contaminated their drinking water. The plaintiffs, representing 16 communities in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Ohio, asked for money to cover the cost of installing treatment systems to filter out the weed-killing chemical, which has been used since 1959 in the United States, primarily in areas growing corn, sorghum, and sugar cane. The lawsuit, filed in 2010 in U.S. district court in Illinois, alleged that Syngenta designed, marketed, and sold atrazine “knowing that it would contaminate public water supplies when used as intended,” according to Bloomberg BNA. In a 2010 article in The Huffington Post, Stephen Tillery, attorney for the plaintiffs, said that the 16 cities which brought the lawsuit had spent roughly $350 million to filter atrazine from their water. In a recent press release, Tillery indicated that the 300 water systems with the highest contamination levels would recover 100 percent of their costs. In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set a limit regulating atrazine in drinking water to no more than 3 parts per billion, measured as an annual average. This is equal to approximately three drops of the chemical in an Olypmic-sized swimming pool. The European Union, in sharp contrast, banned atrazine in 2004. Though an EPA review of the...
