WE NEED WATER MORE THAN OIL
Water is fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a healthy life in human dignity. It is a pre-requisite to the realization of all other human rights.”
We used to think that energy and water would be the critical issues for the next century. Now we know water will be the critical issue. Water is the ultimate consumer product. Everyone needs it. Fortunately, it is still underpriced and taken for granted.
But, unlike oil, the planet cannot survive without water. water is life. ” The quality of life on the planet and its ecosystem, and human health, depend on water. It is widely accepted that water will be the “oil” of the 21st century
Southern California’s scarce indigenous water resources make for a great problem and solution because it involves conservation, scarcity, recycling, purification, distribution, desalination and sustainability. Yet, California has plenty of water. . . albeit offshore Southern California imports 71% of its water.
Residential consumers must find a safe, easy way to recycle their own gray water. There are 55 billion gallons of water per person on the planet. We’ve had the same amount of water on the planet for millions of years. All water is used water. Sewage is 99% water. We must overcome the ‘Yuck!’ factor of recycled water. Maybe labeling it ‘previously experienced water.’” Would help.
Israel had succeded in recycling 70% of their water as opposed to California’s recylcling of 1-2%. Israel has also successfully implemented desalination plants and provides 35% of their drinking supply from seawater. Increased water demand means higher energy demand. In the U.S., thermo-electric power production is about the same as that used for agriculture production. Advanced desalination processes are yielding high recovery rates - 95%,
It is important to note that while the energy industry is largely privatized, most water (80%) in the U.S. is delivered through public agencies. Water delivery is a major energy user 19 % of our total consumption of energy in California is used for this purpose.
“Over 1 billion people have no access to clean drinking water, and more than 2.9 billion have no access to sanitation services. The reality is that a child dies every eight seconds from drinking contaminated water, and the sanitation trend is getting sharply worse, mostly because of the worldwide drift of the rural peasantry to urban slums.
In the U.S. we use double the amount of water per capita that the world uses and 8 times what someone in India uses.
Lets get serious and give water the respect it deserves as our most important resouce.
Source Huffingtonpost.com Mar. 2008
See companion BLOG “Are we running out of fresh water”, drneedles medical blog 8.29.08
Visit me @ www.drneedles.com for more controversial medical subjects. Your comments are always appreciated.
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