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H2OhNo! A Draft Poster Presentation by Greg Hill-Ries, Beloit College “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water” – Benjamin Franklin Introduction:

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Presentation on theme: "H2OhNo! A Draft Poster Presentation by Greg Hill-Ries, Beloit College “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water” – Benjamin Franklin Introduction:"— Presentation transcript:

1 H2OhNo! A Draft Poster Presentation by Greg Hill-Ries, Beloit College “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water” – Benjamin Franklin Introduction: Water Crisis 97% of all the worlds water supply is salt-water contained in the oceans or is otherwise undrinkable. Approximately 2% is contained in glaciers and the polar ice-caps. This leaves 1% of the global water supply to satisfy the needs of humanity. This already strained position is being exacerbated by human water use. Most water use is residential, we drink water, we wash clothes and dishes, we bathe, and we use a lot of water to do it. According to the USGS report on American water use in 2000, America uses 408 billion gallons per day. To give some idea of scale, 1 inch of rain falling on 1 acre is equivalent to 27,154 gallons of water. By far the largest consumer of water in this nation is thermoelectric power plants, accounting for approximately 48% of American freshwater consumption, irrigation 34%, and the public supply (the water that comes into your home) 11%. So we use a lot of water, so what? The United Nations Environment program has estimated that if current water consumption patterns continue, then two out of every three people on earth will live in water-stressed conditions by the year 2025. I propose that we are facing a crisis in our water supply and that we must find a way to solve it. There are many advocates for many possible solutions, from extreme conservation to environmental restoration to desalination. This poster looks at the situation, some of the options for how to deal with the situation and some of the interests on each side of those options. An American Focus The global water crisis is an obvious reality, the near demise of The Aral Sea and Lake Chad, two important regional sources of fresh water have dramatically underlined that point. However, there is no global water authority, and Beloit College is located in Wisconsin, so this poster will speak in terms of American water use. References -United Nations Environment Program. 2002. http://www.unep.org/vitalwater/summary.htm.http://www.unep.org/vitalwater/summary.htm -”Water Savers: 50 ways to live with less”. Consumer Reports. August 2005. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/personal- finance/50-ways-to-save-water-805.htm.http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/personal- finance/50-ways-to-save-water-805.htm -American Water Works Association. “Conservation Info and Tips”.2006. http://www.awwa.org/advocacy/learn/conserve/RESOURCES/CONSERVATIONINFO.CFM. http://www.awwa.org/advocacy/learn/conserve/RESOURCES/CONSERVATIONINFO.CFM -UCLA Water Technology Research Center. “Background: Desalination”. http://watercenter.ucla.edu/background.htm.http://watercenter.ucla.edu/background.htm -Water Conserve – Water Conservation Portal. http://www.waterconserve.info/.http://www.waterconserve.info/ A Graphic Reminder Take a look at these graphics, which demonstrate the scarcity of freshwater and the alarming global trend towards water scarcity: Conservation Water conservation is a popular idea with environmentalists, who want to cut our consumption of water by eliminating waste. Opposition to conservation is more complex. Most opponents of water conservation are industrial and agricultural users of water who contend that they need to use water to provide essential services. Most manufactured goods require the use of water during production, and it is the irrigated crops of the farmer that feed the world. They argue that it would simply be too expensive, in money, in jobs, in loss of services, to drastically cut back on industrial and agricultural water consumption. Water use in America can be divided into two main sectors: Residential use and Industrial/Agricultural use. These divisions do not reflect an equal consumption of water by the two groups, but rather the easiest way of classifying the use of water. Residential use is personal, for bathing, doing laundry washing the dishes, and flushing the toilet. Industrial processes and irrigation use water for business, to grow the crops that feed the nation and the world, to cool machines, and in countless other ways. We will split our examination of water conservation according to these lines. Residential Conservation Domestic use accounts for approximately 69 gallons per capita per day in the U.S. or approximately 350 gallons per household.* That water use is divided among several household activities, according to Consumer Reports, the division looks like this: There are many suggested water-saving devices that can be installed in the home to reduce water consumption by up to 50% they include simple and proven methods: -Low-Flow toilets -Water-saving showerheads -Faucet Aerators -behavior modification (don’t leave the faucet running while you brush your teeth) -Water recycling The main opposition to residential conservation comes from those who oppose forced conservation, as is practiced in some particularly arid countries and in the U.S. under drought conditions. Agricultural/Industrial Conservation Industrial and agricultural water users are among the strongest supporters of domestic water conservation due to their vested interest in using that water for their own purposes. To the environmentalists and others pushing for industrial and agricultural water conservation that position seems hypocritical, but to the industry it is a reality. Simply put, it costs money to conserve water. Often the industry claims that the cost of modernizing facilities to be less thirsty means too much money, that forced conservation would harm the economy and drive up unemployment. Obviously there are important concerns on both sides: On one hand, Industry (including farming) is by far the biggest user of water in this country. On the other hand, there is no magic water switch, and there are serious costs entailed with making industry more water- efficient. There can be a happy medium however between the two sides and it is the path I suggest. The EPA has outlined steps that it has found would be revenue-neutral or entirely cost-effective based on water savings for industry: -Water reuse. Industrial users often use water that does not need to be of drinking quality, and by instituting water reuse and recycling programs, targeting uses that do not require high quality water, industry can save both water and money. Some suggested applications for reuse include: -Irrigation (both landscape and agricultural) -Fire suppression systems -Aesthetic uses (fountains) -De-ionized rinsing water (many factories remove impurities using de-ionized water which is then discarded even though after its first industrial use it often remains purer than municipal drinking water -Re-circulating cooling water. Many industries use water to cool machinery, the EPA believes that by identifying opportunities where that water can be recycled, or even eliminated in favor of air-cooling, industry can perform the same function with much less water. It is in these steps that both conserve water and money that industry and the environment can both find a path to success. Desalination Desalination is the method of getting freshwater from the sea by removing the salt. Used on many naval ships and in many nations in the perpetually arid middle east, desalination is also the only hope to actually solve the water crisis. The proponents of desalination offer the trump card of water management, a potentially inexhaustible source of water. We will not run out of ocean water. Of course there is a limit to the water in the ocean, but it as close to unlimited as practicality will allow. To balance the fact that desalination can open the ocean to water use, extracting the salts from seawater remains an energy-intensive process. Desalination has two methods, thermal and reverse osmosis. Thermal desalination is essentially large scale distillation, heating seawater and condensing the freshwater that evaporates. Reverse osmosis forces the water through a permeable membrane that allows the water but not the dissolved salt through. The opponents of desalination argue that is still more expensive than our other sources of water, as demonstrated by this graph from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California showing the costs of treatment and transport for each of their water sources. But the cost argument is losing steam as evidenced in the other graph showing the steadily declining cost of desalination. The widespread use of desalination in the Middle East also points to the inevitable adoption of desalination as a solution. The Middle Eastern nations are energy-rich and water-poor, so desalination is a better option for them. The pressure of vanishing freshwater resources will push the U.S. to embrace desalination as the future of its water supply. Conclusion The global water crisis is a severe problem, one of the most dire emergencies facing humanity today. We are reaching the point in Human evolution when the earth is running out of the resources we depend on the most, and it coincides with a population explosion. Water conservation must be practiced by everyone, and a serious effort must be put into developing desalination as the viable future of water that we need it to become. Source: Metropolitan Water District of Southern CaliforniaSource: UCLA Water Technology Resource Center Abstract There is no natural resource more important than water. This poster starts from the question "how can we solve the global water crisis?” and examines methods of conservation and the most promising potential long-term solution from many sides. The interests of the major parties were taken into consideration, but were suborned to the greater interest that all of humanity has in water. This poster is not entirely objective, but rather hopes to underline the urgency of this crisis in order to better facilitate negotiation


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