[Assam] [WaterWatch] Our Drinkable Water Supply Is Vanishing

Mon Oct 22 18:36:56 CDT 2007

Mukulda is right. His house uses this system at Madgharia, near Guwahati.

During my recent visit to Thailand rural areas, I was amazed to see that non
urban Thais don't use only rainwater. They use rain water for washing,
cooking, bathing, toiletry and drinking. Rural Thais have stilted houses and
metal roofed structures. At the ground floor (they call floor one); huge
earthen pots are kept. These pots are filled with third flush of rain
onwards from the roof through a piping system. It rains regularly there. The
system can be easily adopted in rainy areas like NER. Rainwater is almost
pure water (at least after 2-3 showers).

We have a host of drinking water missions, all  failing miserably to provide
safe drinking water to people. They should study these best practices abroad
and adopt to our conditions. At least in rainfed areas these can be easily
adopted.

-manoj

On 10/22/07, mc mahant <mikemahant at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>  Dear All Waterwatchers,
>
> I have posted quite a few times :short statements to the effect that Yours
> Truly has simple Technological solution for Converting ANY Water(including
> Yamuna  or Najafgarh channel's)  to safe drinking water in a few minutes
> of ElectroCoagulation followed by a few hours of rest-then quiet decantation
> and  then normal (Sand,porous media,candle--) filtering.
>
>  I would have demonstrated at Delhi the efficacy at a forum in Delhi on
> 15th October '07. I posted So.
>
> There was no response from anybody/any NGO/ any GO(I understand THAT!)
>
> HAPPY WaterWatching.
>
> mm
>
>
> ------------------------------
> To: WaterWatch at yahoogroups.com
> From: infoharsha at yahoo.com
> Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 05:29:00 -0700
> Subject: Re: [WaterWatch] Our Drinkable Water Supply Is Vanishing
>
>   Dear all,
>
> It's true that there might have been mismanagement of water, but how fair
> is it to suggest that India should revert back to medieval period or else
> stone age. Is it practical to destroy all water supply system and ask our
> women and children to bring water from lakes and ponds as it existed during
> medieval India? It is anti-people suggestion. It is like asking people to
> use 'bullock carts' or 'horse driven raths' to cut down greenhouse gas
> emissions.
>
> Instead solutions have to be looked into for improvement in the existing
> system.
>
> Water is said to have become scarce. But is water scarce? No, water is not
> scarce. It is the technology that is scarce. 70% of this planet is filled
> with water. Its time we have to change our paradigm.
>
> J.Harsha
> New Delhi
> (Views are purely personal)
>
>
> *anuradha paul <anuradha_paul at yahoo.com>* wrote:
>
>  Our country was a country of lakes and ponds. The
> introduction of taps ruined the entire practical and
> fantastic indegenous system of water management and
> conservation. Rural areas had their own tanks which
> acted as catchments. Rainwater trapping must be done
> by reviving these tanks, many of which lie wasted and
> in ruins in many places.
> --- mediavigil <mediavigil at yahoo.co.in> wrote:
>
> > Our Drinkable Water Supply Is Vanishing
> >
> > Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the Hungarian biochemist and
> > Nobel Prize winner
> > for medicine once said, "Water is life's matter and
> > matrix, mother and
> > medium. There is no life without water."
> >
> > We depend on water for survival. It circulates
> > through our bodies and
> > the land, replenishing nutrients and carrying away
> > waste. It is passed
> > down like stories over generations -- from
> > ice-capped mountains to
> > rivers to oceans.
> >
> > Historically water has been a facet of ritual, a
> > place of gathering
> > and the backbone of community.
> >
> > But times have changed. "In an age when man has
> > forgotten his origins
> > and is blind even to his most essential needs for
> > survival, water has
> > become the victim of his indifference," Rachel
> > Carson wrote.
> >
> > As a result, today, 35 years since the passage of
> > the Clean Water Act,
> > we find ourselves are teetering on the edge of a
> > global crisis that is
> > being exacerbated by climate change, which is
> > shrinking glaciers and
> > raising sea levels.
> >
> > We are faced with thoughtless development that paves
> > flood plains and
> > destroys wetlands; dams that displace native people
> > and scar
> > watersheds; unchecked industrial growth that
> > pollutes water sources;
> > and rising rates of consumption that nature can't
> > match. Increasingly,
> > we are also threatened by the wave of privatization
> > that is sweeping
> > across the world, turning water from a precious
> > public resource into a
> > commodity for economic gain.
> >
> > The problems extend from the global north to the
> > south and are as
> > pervasive as water itself. Equally encompassing are
> > the politics of
> > water. Discussions about our water crisis include
> > issues like poverty,
> > trade, community and privatization. In talking about
> > water, we must
> > also talk about indigenous rights, environmental
> > justice, education,
> > corporate accountability, and democracy. In this mix
> > of terms are not
> > only the causes of our crisis but also the
> > solutions.
> >
> > What's gone wrong?
> >
> > As our world heats up, as pollution increases, as
> > population grows and
> > as our globe's resources of fresh water are tapped,
> > we are faced with
> > an environmental and humanitarian problem of mammoth
> > proportions.
> >
> > Demand for water is doubling every 20 years,
> > outpacing population
> > growth twice as fast. Currently 1.3 billion people
> > don't have access
> > to clean water and 2.5 billion lack proper sewage
> > and sanitation. In
> > less than 20 years, it is estimated that demand for
> > fresh water will
> > exceed the world's supply by over 50 percent.
> >
> > The biggest drain on our water sources is
> > agriculture, which accounts
> > for 70 percent of the water used worldwide -- much
> > of which is
> > subsidized in the industrial world, providing little
> > incentive for
> > agribusiness to use conservation measures or less
> > water-intensive crops.
> >
> > This number is also likely to increase as we
> > struggle to feed a
> > growing world. Population is expected to rise from 6
> > billion to 8
> > billion by 2050.
> >
> > Water scarcity is not just an issue of the
> > developing world.
> > "Twenty-one percent of irrigation in the United
> > States is achieved by
> > pumping groundwater at rates that exceed the water's
> > ability to
> > recharge," wrote water experts Tony Clarke of the
> > Polaris Institute
> > and Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians in
> > their landmark water
> > book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate
> > Theft of the World's
> > Water .
> >
> > The Ogallala aquifer -- the largest in the North
> > America and a major
> > source for agriculture stretching from Texas to
> > South Dakota -- is
> > currently being pumped at a rate 14 times greater
> > than it can be
> > replenished, they wrote. And, across the country,
> > "California's
> > Department of Water Resources predicts that, by
> > 2020, if more supplies
> > are not found, the state will face a shortfall of
> > fresh water nearly
> > as great as the amount that all of its cities and
> > towns together are
> > consuming today," add Clarke and Barlow.
> >
> > Demand is outstripping supply from the rainy Seattle
> > area to desert
> > cities like Tucson and Albuquerque. And from Midwest
> > farming regions
> > to East Coast cities.
> >
> > The crisis is also worldwide, most noticeable in
> > Mexico, the Middle
> > East, China and Africa.
> >
> > As population growth, development, consumption and
> > pollution take its
> > toll on our water resources, the ability to fight
> > this problem has
> > been further complicated by the spread of
> > neoliberalism. The same
> > ideas that have resulted in the booty of private
> > contracts being doled
> > out in Iraq also have contributed greatly to our
> > water crisis.
> > Neoliberalism is the belief in "economic
> > liberalism," which espoused
> > that government control over the economy was bad. It
> > opened up the
> > commons to commodification and let corporations
> > privatize what once
> > belonged to the public.
> >
> > In 2000 Fortune magazine printed this telling
> > statement: "Water
> > promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to
> > the 20th century;
> > the precious commodity that determines the wealth of
> > nations."
> >
> > It has oft been expressed that the next resource
> > wars will not be over
> > oil -- or energy at all -- but over water. As the
> > idea of
> > neoliberalism, proliferated by institutions like the
> > World Bank and
> > the IMF, spread, the public sector has become
> > dangerously privatized.
> > And it may not be the wealth of nations on the line
> > -- but the wealth
> > of corporations.
> >
> > A senior executive at a subsidiary of Vivendi, the
> > world's largest
> > water controller summed it up, "Water is a critical
> > and necessary
> > ingredient to the daily life of every human being,
> > and it is an
> > equally powerful ingredient for profitable
> > manufacturing companies."
> >
> > But when private companies control water resources,
> > people's needs for
> > survival are pushed aside in place of the bottom
> > line. In Africa, an
> > estimated 5 million people die each year for lack of
> > safe drinking
> > water. And yet Africa, with its many cash-strapped
> > countries, is
> > targeted by multinationals that force governments to
> > turn over their
> > public water systems in exchange for promises of
> > debt relief.
> >
> > When corporations control water, rates go up,
> > services go down, and
> > those who can't afford to pay are forced to drink
> > unsafe water,
> >
> === message truncated ===
>
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