Sunday 22 September 2013
▶ Rainwater Collection System / Rain Water Harvesting in Spain - YouTube
▶ Rainwater Collection System / Rain Water Harvesting in Spain - YouTube
How can we quench everyone's thirst? The answer to this question is complex but never unsolvable! It falls from the sky and tastes divine compared to mains water which is contaminated with chemicals including fluoride and chlorine. Take the drinks test, place a filter jug out in the rain and compare it's taste with the water from your tap. This is how we now harvest rainwater: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEzhdUhPFn4
What can be done to improve the lives of people affected by water scarcity and contaminated drinking water? When rain does occur in these regions it rapidly vanishes from the soil due to run off. Water quickly becomes contaminated and rendered dangerous to drink. Unless we encourage peoples to take control of water and mange it responsibly by harvesting this precious life giving requirement for life to sustain people during the dry season, business as usual will continue to cause untold deaths and unimaginable suffering. We have a surplus of used IBC plastic storage tanks that could be put to good use for capturing rainwater and keeping the water safe. These can be buried safely in the soil to keep the water stored clean. Plastic drinking bottles filled with water and left in strong sunlight can kill all pathogens in the water, rendering it safe to drink. Polythene / plastic sheets can be used to channel water into storage containers from roof's and the ground and could suffice to gather and store sufficient water to keep a family alive through the dry season. The cost for this system is negligible.
Harvesting rainwater would help to afford aquifers to replenish.
According to WHO, Water scarcity affects one in three people on every continent of the globe. The situation is getting worse as needs for water rise along with population growth, urbanization and increases in household and industrial uses.
Almost one fifth of the world's population (about 1.2 billion people) live in areas where the water is physically scarce. One quarter of the global population also live in developing countries that face water shortages due to a lack of infrastructure to fetch water from rivers and aquifers.
Water scarcity forces people to rely on unsafe sources of drinking water. It also means they cannot bathe or clean their clothes or homes properly.
Poor water quality can increase the risk of such diarrhoeal diseases as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery, and other water-borne infections. Water scarcity can lead to diseases such as trachoma (an eye infection that can lead to blindness), plague and typhus.
http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/water/water_facts/en/index2.html
More about what we can do to restore rainfall in arid coastal regions by delivering treated waste water as ballast in returning bulk shipping to restore coastal forests in some of the driest coastal regions: http://operationoasis.com
Please help others by sharing this video.
Andrew K Fletcher
How can we quench everyone's thirst? The answer to this question is complex but never unsolvable! It falls from the sky and tastes divine compared to mains water which is contaminated with chemicals including fluoride and chlorine. Take the drinks test, place a filter jug out in the rain and compare it's taste with the water from your tap. This is how we now harvest rainwater: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEzhdUhPFn4
What can be done to improve the lives of people affected by water scarcity and contaminated drinking water? When rain does occur in these regions it rapidly vanishes from the soil due to run off. Water quickly becomes contaminated and rendered dangerous to drink. Unless we encourage peoples to take control of water and mange it responsibly by harvesting this precious life giving requirement for life to sustain people during the dry season, business as usual will continue to cause untold deaths and unimaginable suffering. We have a surplus of used IBC plastic storage tanks that could be put to good use for capturing rainwater and keeping the water safe. These can be buried safely in the soil to keep the water stored clean. Plastic drinking bottles filled with water and left in strong sunlight can kill all pathogens in the water, rendering it safe to drink. Polythene / plastic sheets can be used to channel water into storage containers from roof's and the ground and could suffice to gather and store sufficient water to keep a family alive through the dry season. The cost for this system is negligible.
Harvesting rainwater would help to afford aquifers to replenish.
According to WHO, Water scarcity affects one in three people on every continent of the globe. The situation is getting worse as needs for water rise along with population growth, urbanization and increases in household and industrial uses.
Almost one fifth of the world's population (about 1.2 billion people) live in areas where the water is physically scarce. One quarter of the global population also live in developing countries that face water shortages due to a lack of infrastructure to fetch water from rivers and aquifers.
Water scarcity forces people to rely on unsafe sources of drinking water. It also means they cannot bathe or clean their clothes or homes properly.
Poor water quality can increase the risk of such diarrhoeal diseases as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery, and other water-borne infections. Water scarcity can lead to diseases such as trachoma (an eye infection that can lead to blindness), plague and typhus.
http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/water/water_facts/en/index2.html
More about what we can do to restore rainfall in arid coastal regions by delivering treated waste water as ballast in returning bulk shipping to restore coastal forests in some of the driest coastal regions: http://operationoasis.com
Please help others by sharing this video.
Andrew K Fletcher
Thursday 19 September 2013
Poo to combat climate change (ScienceAlert)
Poo to combat climate change (ScienceAlert)
Australia produces almost a third of a million tonnes of ‘biosolids’ – the solid waste left over after sewage treatment – per year. Large heaps are stockpiled round Australia’s cities when they could be helping to lock up our carbon emissions as well as building more fertile soils, Professor Nanthi Bolan of CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment and University of South Australia announced in CleanUp 2013 in Melbourne today.
“Our research shows that if applied to agricultural soils or revegetation projects, biosolids – as well as increasing soil fertility and boosting plant growth – can lock up carbon,” Prof. Bolan says.
“Biosolids contain nitrogen and other nutrients for crop growth, organic matter to improve soil structure, and non-degradable forms of carbon that will stay in the soil for a long time.
“Currently Australia stockpiles about 70,000 tonnes of biosolids a year from its major urban sewage works. This is a huge and valuable resource that is presently largely unused. America, for example, produces 7.5 million tonnes of biosolids a year.”
Prof. Bolan says that because Australian biosolids are generally low in toxic heavy metals – compared with some other countries round the world – they are particularly suitable to be incorporated into agricultural soils.
“The big issue with biosolids is the cost of transporting them to where they will be used and spreading them on the soil. Our research indicates this can be offset not only by the boost to fertility and soil organic structure – but also by its ability to increase carbon retention in the soil.
“In other words you could earn carbon credits by using treated human waste as a soil improver – which would pay for part of the cost of transporting and distributing it.”
Biosolids contain the major nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, but also micronutrients and trace minerals which are increasingly lacking in the modern Australian diet, and whose lack is now linked to a number of important lifestyle diseases: “By recycling our waste through agriculture, we could in fact be helping to improve the nutritional quality of Australian food, conserving scarce nutrients and improving public health.”
Prof Bolan says that the amount of carbon that can be locked up depends on several variables – how the biosolids were stabilised at the sewage works, the type of crop they fertilise, and the levels of iron and aluminium in the soils, which combine with, and consequently lock up, the carbon in biosolids.
“Up to 30% of biosolids can consist of non-degradable carbon – and we need to encourage the use of the right sorts of processes in our sewage works to maximise this.
“If you used biosolids for tree crops or for landscape revegetation it would then lock up more of the mobile carbon for a much longer time than an annual crop like wheat or canola.
“Some people may not like the idea of using human waste in the food system, but in reality we have done this for thousands of years – and modern biosolids are far cleaner and safer than untreated waste.
“At a time when fertilisers are becoming ever more costly and soils degraded, biosolids offer a major source of low-cost nutrients and a source of better soil quality. However the major barrier till now has been cost associated with transport and spreading.
“The big benefit they offer may be carbon lock-up – and with any form of carbon trading scheme in Australia we could use carbon credits to subsidise this form of soil improvement from an underutilised resource, and use our poo as another way to combat global warming.”
Prof Bolan says that with many resources – including some plant nutrients – expected to peak in the 21st century owing to demand from a growing world population, it makes sense to recycle everything of value – including our own waste.
Poo to combat climate change
SciNews
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Human waste could be the next weapon in the fight against climate change.Australia produces almost a third of a million tonnes of ‘biosolids’ – the solid waste left over after sewage treatment – per year. Large heaps are stockpiled round Australia’s cities when they could be helping to lock up our carbon emissions as well as building more fertile soils, Professor Nanthi Bolan of CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment and University of South Australia announced in CleanUp 2013 in Melbourne today.
“Our research shows that if applied to agricultural soils or revegetation projects, biosolids – as well as increasing soil fertility and boosting plant growth – can lock up carbon,” Prof. Bolan says.
“Biosolids contain nitrogen and other nutrients for crop growth, organic matter to improve soil structure, and non-degradable forms of carbon that will stay in the soil for a long time.
“Currently Australia stockpiles about 70,000 tonnes of biosolids a year from its major urban sewage works. This is a huge and valuable resource that is presently largely unused. America, for example, produces 7.5 million tonnes of biosolids a year.”
Prof. Bolan says that because Australian biosolids are generally low in toxic heavy metals – compared with some other countries round the world – they are particularly suitable to be incorporated into agricultural soils.
“The big issue with biosolids is the cost of transporting them to where they will be used and spreading them on the soil. Our research indicates this can be offset not only by the boost to fertility and soil organic structure – but also by its ability to increase carbon retention in the soil.
“In other words you could earn carbon credits by using treated human waste as a soil improver – which would pay for part of the cost of transporting and distributing it.”
Biosolids contain the major nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, but also micronutrients and trace minerals which are increasingly lacking in the modern Australian diet, and whose lack is now linked to a number of important lifestyle diseases: “By recycling our waste through agriculture, we could in fact be helping to improve the nutritional quality of Australian food, conserving scarce nutrients and improving public health.”
Prof Bolan says that the amount of carbon that can be locked up depends on several variables – how the biosolids were stabilised at the sewage works, the type of crop they fertilise, and the levels of iron and aluminium in the soils, which combine with, and consequently lock up, the carbon in biosolids.
“Up to 30% of biosolids can consist of non-degradable carbon – and we need to encourage the use of the right sorts of processes in our sewage works to maximise this.
“If you used biosolids for tree crops or for landscape revegetation it would then lock up more of the mobile carbon for a much longer time than an annual crop like wheat or canola.
“Some people may not like the idea of using human waste in the food system, but in reality we have done this for thousands of years – and modern biosolids are far cleaner and safer than untreated waste.
“At a time when fertilisers are becoming ever more costly and soils degraded, biosolids offer a major source of low-cost nutrients and a source of better soil quality. However the major barrier till now has been cost associated with transport and spreading.
“The big benefit they offer may be carbon lock-up – and with any form of carbon trading scheme in Australia we could use carbon credits to subsidise this form of soil improvement from an underutilised resource, and use our poo as another way to combat global warming.”
Prof Bolan says that with many resources – including some plant nutrients – expected to peak in the 21st century owing to demand from a growing world population, it makes sense to recycle everything of value – including our own waste.
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