The World Bank’s role in water: part 1 of a series on development banks and water.

Posted on August 20, 2012 by

“While the percent of population with access to improved facilities increased since 1990 in all regions, the number of people living without access has increased due to slow progress and population growth. In 2008, 2.6 billion people had still no access to improved sanitation facilities.” World Bank

Development banks play a large role in improving access to and optimal utilization of water. Through funding a number of projects and initiatives they are enabling people to escape the poverty trap created by lack of clean drinking water and energy. They come under a lot of criticism and receive a lot praise but their goal of lending money to states seeking to develop is a noble one. This series will detail what role banks play in improving water utilization.

The World Bank is the largest of these institutions and devotes a lot of funds towards its goals in water. It works on a number of different projects around the world through a number of different approaches, produces a large quantity of data, and publishes reports on its water initiatives.

World Bank total water spending has been increasing over recent years (see graph below) and reached $7.2 billion for their fiscal year 2011. They fund all types of projects with WASH receiving the bulk of funding. These funds are distributed to programmes in member states globally to solve rural, urban, and transboundary water issues.

Source: World Bank

Their programmes are broad reaching with 6 topical focus areas;

  • Rural water because 80% of people without access to water are in rural areas.
  • Urban water whose focus is important based on the need to keep up with rapid urbanization.
  • Sanitation and hygiene including; hygiene, sanitation, sewer systems, and increasing wastewater treatment.
  • Agricultural water management in order to improve efficiency and access to both irrigation and rainfed agriculture.
  • Hydropower to harness the largest source of renewable energy on the planet, of which 80% is not being utilized.
  • Water resources management so as to utilize the competing socio-economic balance of ecosystems to optimize benefits.

The bank has a number of different projects within these focus areas and many times they overlap. Projects range from small irrigation funding to long-term full scale basin integration. An example of a large scale initiative is the Nile Basin Initiative, an ongoing project since 1999 which includes the recently independent South Sudan. The World Bank oversees the funding mechanism from the large international donor community and promotes cooperative initiatives to manage the basin as a whole. An example of a slightly smaller project is the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Additional Financing in Peru. This project is aimed at developing sustainable methods of WASH sector activities in rural areas of Peru.

The bank is able to call on to call on a global network of experts to work on its projects. The Water Expert Team is able to provide support on a diverse range of water issues. An example of their work is the Workshop on Rehabilitation of Hydropower where they discussed what to do with old dams.

There is a lot of data produced by the bank and it has a great deal of charts data points and maps pertaining to development. This is a great resource for a variety of purposes on water and beyond. The data is not specific to water allowing for a broader understanding of how water fits into socio-economic development. The data is downloadable to an excel sheet and if you are feeling particularly nerdy you can play with the statistics to find correlations and other interesting facts. Two examples are the charts below that I made after downloading the data (EU, LDCs, and countries were randomly chosen). I encourage anyone to take a look and explore these data sets.

Source: World Bank

The bank publishes a number of papers and reports dealing with water (it even has a blog). The publications themselves range from sector based, such as managing groundwater, to regional specific pieces, such as health impacts in the Nile Delta. There is a lot of great information hidden within this, at times, cumbersome list and if you are searching for something specific use the advanced search on the right. One of my favorite publications is Water and Development: An Evaluation of World Bank Support, 1997-2007 which details all of the bank’s loans from that decade.

Source: World Bank

The Global Environment Facility or GEF is a separate entity but administered within the World Bank group. One of the GEF’s major areas of work is International Waters. The issue is important because water respects no national boundaries but states have their own rules on how to utilize it. The GEF supports capacity building, cooperative initiatives, and promotes climate sustainability.

The World Bank and GEF are working on all facets of water in the developing world. The bank is a great source of information and knowledge with a wealth of data for researchers and the public to consume. The bank seeks to foster growth and promote cooperation over utilization of water.

Posted in Agriculture, Data Links, Development Banks, Drinking Water, Irrigation, Nile River Basin, River Basin, Rural Water Access, Taxonomy of Water Organizations, Transboundary, Uncategorized, WASH | 1 Comment

Friday Swim, links to 6 interesting water articles from the week of August 17th.

Posted on August 17, 2012 by

Bill Gates looks to new toilets to improve world sanitation

BBC

This article describes the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s competition to design new toilets. The winning design was from a team from California Institute of Technology.

Don’t Waste The Drought

By: Charles Fishman

Fishman argues in this piece that the drought is an opportunity to focus on what we are able to in terms of our water system. He provides solutions ranging from installing smarter plumbing fixtures in homes to water utilities fixing leaks in order to manage water more effectively.

A Different Approach to Coping With Drought

By: Matthew L. Wald

Wald details an approach to drought developed by Moshe Alamaro at MIT to cover water surfaces with a layer of vegetable oil. The oil can prevent evaporation loss by up to 75 percent and is much cheaper than finding new sources of water.

Completed solar panel covered canal. Source: Infrawindow News Bureau.

Solar energy to be used for irrigation

Times of India

Regional governments in India are taking an interesting route to power generation by covering irrigation canals with solar panels. This technique had a dual benefit of generating power and minimizing evaporation loss.

Climate Change: Countries That May Be Hit Hardest

By: Jeremy Hsu

This article describes the countries who are at the highest risk to the affects of climate change. Hsu notes that the gap between those most affected is widened by the wealth gab between high and low risk countries.

Turn Your iPhone Into An Environmental Sensor

By: Jaymi Heimbuch

Cool new app and kit for the iphone that turns it into an environmental sensor.

Posted in Agriculture, Article Links, Climate Change, Drinking Water, Drought, WASH, Water | Leave a comment

Water, gold, and the new colonialism

Posted on August 17, 2012 by

Source: Inkline Press

There are many predictions that the next wars will be fought over water. It makes sense as they have been fought over other commodities in the past; such as shiny metals, drugs, and oil. There are terrible atrocities associated with water, but full scale war over it, is probably not going to happen. This has to do with the nature of water as a renewable resource. Water isn’t gold, it is far more valuable.

The acquisition of material wealth drove colonialism.

Gold is a stationary piece of material that you get by digging it out of the ground or conquering indigenous people as was the norm during colonialism. Once you have removed it from the ground it’s yours to stockpile, spend, or craft it into crowns or scepters.

Gold and many of the other products like oil generally have defined economic values. There is also the added benefit of once you take the gold, oil, or diamonds out of the ground you can leave the location in whatever condition you wish. One of the goals of colonialism was to conquer land, extract resources, and accumulate wealth based on the balance of trade to the mother country.

Resources have value based on different properties. Gold has value because it is scarce and people desire it. It can be used in currency or crafted into jewelry. It holds its value because the amount of gold is fairly stable and it is not a consumptive good. Oil is similarly extractive but can only be used once and is not renewable. It is the renewable or flow-through property that makes water different and subject to a new kind of colonialism called ‘land grabs.’ There haven’t been any ‘water rushes’ yet or have there?

What defines waters value?

Water flows through rivers, lakes, and aquifers and is generally considered a public good. It is like air and spends most of its time outside and in an uncontrolled form. It is very hard to capture and even harder to ensure that the water you have captured remains yours. Once you have it the value depends on how you use it.

Water is water at the beginning of any use. The price of water depends on where you are and what you are using it for. Water that is used for irrigation is of relatively low value from an economic standpoint with water used for semiconductor manufacturing much higher. It is in that extremely wide spread that valuing water becomes a difficult task. In other words, if you were in the dessert and were a minute away from dying of thirst the price of water is nearly all of your worldly possessions. However, if you live in a water rich region you are literally willing to defecate in it. At the end of any use water is put back into the natural system, in one form or another to be filtered through natural processes.

There is an innate potential value of water but it has to be used to gain value (this includes the value of minimum flows for the environment). The value increases when you place it in a container and claim that it is your economic property such as bottled water or in a water jug that you dipped in a river. Water can be altered to make coke or beer because once contained, it changes from being a public good to a private good.

Water is a renewable resource which further differentiates it from other extractive materials. The renewal of water varies based on location and storage mechanism. Water in a river replenishes faster than the water stored in a glacier or various types of groundwater aquifers. As we are learning in parts of the world weather patterns are making the rate of water replenishment even harder to understand.

By being renewable to obtain, you have to create a lasting infrastructure and be at either the source or control all other uses from that source. Conquest for the sake of water would be akin to taking over a wind farm or solar array, you have to maintain ownership of the land indefinitely to realize the economic benefits. It is not ‘one and done’ like gold or oil.

Source: Joe Romm, thinkprogress.org

How do you get land when you aren’t prepared to launch an invasion force?

You start grabbing land and the associated water rights. This is a new form of colonialism where corporations invest in foreign land. They then use the land and its water to grow crops for export in order to diversify food production.

This process has been going on for several years now. The poor are the most affected by this through water giveaways by governments. People, who live on these lands (see photo below), are losing their sources of water. GIZ, the organization formerly known as GTZ, published an interesting report detailing case studies of land grabbing. It is not just a developing country issue, but is also happening in industrialized countries like Canada, where there are a growing number of cases of land acquisitions for investment purposes.

Source: Greenpeace

Land grabbing is a form of neocolonialism that is much more subtle than the overt conquest of land. This conquest is in the form of purchased rights and complex legal arrangements, worded to favor the buyer.  Unlike colonialism the accumulation of wealth in the form of gold is not the driving economic force of land grabs. Gaining access to water is the motivation.

The good news is that there are organizations fighting for the human rights to be protected from land grabbing such as WaterLex, a human rights group focusing on water, and Greenpeace. NGO’s aren’t the only ones trying to save lives. Earlier this year the UN created guidelines which support the right of local people to maintain their livelihoods.

The losses have caused a lot of harm. There is now a concerted effort to protect human rights regarding land grabs. Hopefully the effort to protect those most vulnerable will not be in vain. Through this new type of colonialism people aren’t losing gold, oil, or diamonds. They are losing their water, in essence the ability to sustain their own lives.

Posted in Agriculture, Opinion, Water | Leave a comment

The United Nations Role in Water Part 5; agricultural approaches to water

Posted on August 14, 2012 by

As the population grows water resources remain the same. Source: UN-Water Statistics

“The daily drinking water requirement per person is 2-4 litres, but it takes 2,000 to 5,000 litres of water to produce one person’s daily food.” FAO

The United Nations role in water is important for billions of people who find that their current water situation is below minimum standards. Through this series I have discussed water from the economic, social, scientific, education, and health aspects, as well as the environment and adaptation approaches to water. This will be the final part in this series and it will describe how the UN approaches water for agriculture.

Water is the key ingredient in global agriculture and its use is vital to ensure stability and generate economic growth in the developing world. Currently, 70% of water globally is used for agriculture. In many developing countries more than 85% of their water is used for agriculture which creates a very high dependence on a possibly unreliable yearly resource. With recent droughts in the United States and Russia causing shocks to the global food supply and increasing prices for basic goods, understanding how water plays into agriculture is important.

3 UN-Water Organizations

There are 3 UN-Water member organizations that deal primarily with agriculture. They work on ensuring sustainable agricultural growth while providing accurate information on the situation in developing countries. They are the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and World Food Programme (WFP). These three organizations are working to improve our world through better management of water in the production of food.

The FAO

The FAO works on ways to solve issues with water for agriculture. With increasing demand for water causing a relative scarcity, monitoring and developing innovative techniques to deal with crisis are becoming more important. By focusing on a broad range of topics within water and agriculture the FAO is able to have a wide variety of projects, help those who need their information, and compile lots of interesting data.

The FAO undertakes a number of major projects to help food producers in the developing world. An example of a major project that the FAO works on is Water Scarcity – the role of agriculture. The project is designed to put together assessment tools for understanding and acting on water stress in a country or region. This will enable governments and farmers to better understand how to manage the water that they have.

Knowing what to expect when planting crops is very important for famers. The FAO has produced a model for forecasting expected yields called Aquacrop. From its own literature the Aquacrop tool is easy to use for a variety of people such as engineers, NGOs, and farmers associations, and produces robust results. The FAO also recently published a paper called Crop Yield Response to Water which details types of crops and yield variations based on a number of conditions.

The FAO has a lot of data and information regarding water and our reliance on it. Aquastat, the FAO’s information system on water and agriculture, is one of the most interesting data hubs for water that I have found. If you are interested in seeing maps they have many covering a variety of themes and geographic areas (see map below). If you are interested in an interactive map the FAO has produced one on water and its relationship to rural poverty in Africa.

Source: Aquastat

Another interesting part of the data FAO collects is Water Balance sheets. These balance sheets, through a calculation of the percentage of water used within the country that originates from a resource within the state, provide an interesting picture of how reliant some states are on others. In other words, the balance sheets calculate the relative amount of water a state uses that flows in from abroad. For example, Egypt is 97% reliant on water generated outside its own borders (most of that comes in the form of the Nile River) whereas, South Africa is only reliant on outside sources for 10% of the water it utilizes. How reliant is your country? Use the Water Balance Sheets to find out.

(For those of you who want to better understand how water influences the food cycle here is a 10 minute guided tour.)

The IAFD

The IAFD’s goal is promote access to land and water for rural poor in order to help alleviate poverty. This mission was created to help support rural communities that depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. If you are interested in data, facts, or publications IFAD has a variety of interesting thematic papers such as a tool for mapping power asymmetries or gender and rural water.

IAFD implements a number of projects all over the developing world. An example of these projects is the Pilot Project for the Development of Mountain Agriculture in the Watershed Basin of Oued Saf Saf in Algeria. This project cost roughly $24 M and directly benefited 3,584 households through such avenues as soil and water conservation, rehabilitation of water infrastructure, and microenterprise development. There are many similar projects that are directly improving the lives of other small communities.

The WFP

WFP is leading the fight against hunger globally. It focuses on providing food aid for development, ensuring that refugees receive food, and promoting food security. An interesting program that they have implemented in a number of locations is Food for Assets where people are paid in food to build infrastructure that can sustain their future food needs. WFP utilizes supply chain management to get food to locations that need it, most particularly in emergency zones such as Syria. Click on this link if you are interested in a few startling and sad statistics, including one that show that there are more hungry people than the combined populations of the USA, Canada and European Union.

Closing Thoughts

Agriculture is the largest use of the earth’s freshwater resources. With an increasing population and stable amount of water something has to be done in order to alleviate current poverty and future stress. These 3 organizations within the UN system are doing just that. Helping farmers understand crop yields, promoting rural access to water for agriculture, and ensuring that refugees have food are just a few of programs under their umbrella.

This concludes my series on the United Nations Role in Water. As my Monday posts explaining who is doing what in water continue, I will begin a series on large multilateral banks starting with the World Bank.

Posted in Agriculture, Data Links, Drought, Irrigation, Nile River Basin, Rural Water Access, Taxonomy of Water Organizations, Uncategorized, United Nations, Water | 1 Comment

Friday Swim, links to 5 interesting water articles from the week of August 10th.

Posted on August 10, 2012 by

Human Right to Water and Sanitation Remains a Political Mirage

By: Thalif Deen

Even though the UN passed a resolution 2 years ago on the human right to water and sanitation it still remains to be fully implemented. As this article describes the MDG goal for drinking water will be reach but there are still states where recognizing this right remains an issue.

Heatwave turns America’s waterways into rivers of death

By: David Usbourne

High temperatures across the US have not only been an issue for farmers seeing a record drought but also harming fish populations. The low levels of waterways are decreasing navigable waterways and causing issues for the habitats of fish who are not able to swim away from the heat.

El Nino emerges, raising fears over food prices

By: Risa Maeda

This article discusses the El Nino weather pattern. It could last until winter and severely affect crops in both Australia and South East Asia, placing further stress on global food prices.

Mars Rover Curiosity’s mission: to search for water

The Telegraph

This is a link to a video about the rover searching for water on Mars. It shows some of the tools that will be used and what they will look for as indicators.

Water Footprint Calculator

National Geographic

Here you can calculate your individual water footprint which is very similar to the concept of carbon footprint.

Posted in Article Links, Climate Change, Drinking Water, Drought, Friday Swim, WASH, Water | Leave a comment

How can Star Wars like technology save lives on earth?

Posted on August 9, 2012 by

Courtesy of Eole Water

Owen Lars: “What I really need is a droid that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators.”
C-3PO: “Vaporators? Sir, my first job was programming binary loadlifters—very similar to your vaporators in most respects.“

Who can forget Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, the story of how a young farm boy from a desert planet went on to save his galaxy. He sat baking in the suns where the only way for his family to make a living was to condense water out of the air to grow crops. It could be argued that moisture vaporators indirectly saved that galaxy because if C-3PO didn’t speak the language of moisture vaporators he and R2D2 would not have been in the possession of Luke Skywalker.

Source: Star Wars wiki Moisture Vaporator

Moisture farmers on Tatooine faced the scorching heat of two suns, we here on earth face the searing heat of just one. However, we still have a large water problem. Moisture vaporators are part of a fictional story, but real world technology similar to them is being brought to life as we speak!

A company in the South East of France is harnessing the power of wind to create water out of thin air. Eole Water’s motto is “from wind to water” and is currently testing its latest device in some of the most punishing conditions for water in the world. They are in the first phase of testing the WMS1000 in Abu Dhabi. Previous tests of another prototype in Abu Dhabi resulted in a yield of 62 liters per hour. The company believes that the WMS1000 will be able to produce 100 liters per hour.

Eole Water estimates that 150 million people live in remote areas that lack access to clean water. With increasing population and climate change placing further stress on water resources this number is set to increase (see water scarcity at the UN Water for Life Decade). This group has found an interesting way to help solve this problem.

The device’s origins come from its founder’s, Marc Parent, fascination with the condensed water that was created by his air conditioner while he lived in the Caribbean. That was around 15 years and 5 generations of product ago. The brilliance of the idea was to take a simple observation and develop a product that could change the world.

The concept is basic enough but the execution is where the magic happens. Most of us can remember the science experiment from grade school where our teacher poured ice water dyed with food coloring into a can. We as students then watched in amazement when clear water started to bead up on the outside of the can. It is no different than when you purchase a cold beverage on a hot day and watch as the can appears to ‘sweat.’ But say you are in a desert or a place that is not near a safe water source, what do you do?

You cannot cool off a bunch of cans in a refrigerator and take them out to collect water off the side. Eole Water uses that simple concept but has made an engineering marvel. How do you get the power to condense water while making it energy efficient? You build in a renewable energy source and use that to make water out of thin air. Then you place the water condensers in remote areas and you make them technically sound enough where they do not require a droid to ensure continued use.

The WMS1000 produces enough electricity to power pumps that move the water it condenses to storage tanks and through a filtration system. Fitting in with the company’s ethics and values the water comes out compliant with WHO drinking water standards. Here is a link to a video that gives a brief description of how it works.

Source: Eole Water

Perched atop a 23 meter (roughly 75 feet) tower the WMS1000 is capable of producing 1,000 liters per day in a temperate zone (see the chart on the right for other ranges). The yield varies based on a number of factors and as you would guess deserts, produce less water. News reports about the testing in Abu Dhabi indicate that it has generated between 500 and 800 liters per day, which is in line with expectations. One of the ways in which Eole Water seeks to improve the water condensing ability of turbines is a hybrid energy source. The option exists to combine the power generation with a solar panel or other forms of power supply which can increase capacity.

Depending on the estimates, 1000 liters per day is enough water for 50 people (based on WHO minimum daily water requirements of 20 liters per day). Even more people if it is used exclusively for drinking water which is rated at about 2 liters per day for adults. Hundreds of people can have ‘free’ (this is not describing the costs) drinking water from thin air!

WMS1000 Hybrid Power Controller. Source: Eole Water

This could alter the dynamics of gender equity in remote regions where women proportionally are burdened with spending the bulk of their day trekking 5km, on average, to get water. Often they do this multiple times a day and must forgo education or productive pursuits.

The prohibitive factor is the high initial cost of £400,000 (around $640,000) per turbine. So it is not likely to be a household product in the near future. The company’s target is local and national governments who can afford to spend money on long term infrastructure projects and multiple turbines in order to get communities the water they need. From a back of the envelope calculation the turbine costs roughly $0.087 per liter or about $0.03 less than inflation adjusted numbers from a UNESCO study on rural water supply in Eastern Africa. The cost per liter varies based on location as will the cost of alternative sources, that is if there are any alternatives that can be categorized as improved water sources. Eole Water does expect that the cost will decrease over time based on economies of scale.

Eole Water can provide sustainable life to rural communities and may create a veritable oasis. It is carbon neutral and independent from any other water system in the area. This appears to be good for sustainable growth, good for rural communities, good for women, and good for humanity. In an age of technology breakthroughs seen as a daily norm, there are rarely ideas that excite me this much. You do not need a droid to understand Eole Water’s plan. This is a winning idea of galactic proportions, or as I imagine R2D2 would say; “beep beep beep!”

Posted in Climate Change, Company Profile, Drinking Water, Opinion, Rural Water Access, Star Wars, Water | Leave a comment

The United Nations Role in Water Part 4; approaches to environment and adaptation in water

Posted on August 6, 2012 by

“About one third of the world’s population lives in countries with moderate to high water stress with disproportionately high impacts on the poor.” UNEP

The United Nations plays a large role in water as it applies to both the environment and adaptation. As I attempt to understand the global water picture, I bring you the 4th part in my series on the UN’s role in water. Earlier parts of this series have focused on direct human uses of water for basic needs and development or on education and scientific understanding of water. This one will focus on both the environmental needs and organizations working on different adaptation strategies.

There are 7 UN-Water members that focus on either the environment or adaptation to changing conditions such as climate or population. These organizations include United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). These organizations have multiple focuses but the overarching theme is preserving the vital resources which water maintains and the mitigating future harm.

UNEP has a large role in water with a goal of ensuring sustainable and equitable utilization. It has published a lengthy policy and strategy document that details it’s role based on the organizational mandate. UNEP’s goal can be summed as trying to achieve environmental sustainability in water utilization through an ecosystems approach. An ecosystems based approach is one which takes account of the flora and fauna that inhabit the ecosystem and could be affected by a change in circumstance. Consequently, one of its major programs involves promoting Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). For a good overview of what IWRM is check out the Global Water Partnership’s (GWP) website which provides a good description.

UNEP approaches water and the environment from multiple angles such as sustainable development and to maintain and improve current ecosystems. There is a lot of information which is published on the subject focusing on future issues and ways to improve the environment without sacrificing human development goals. It has also published guidelines for the assessment and creation of sustainable infrastructure.

Some interesting facts that come out of UNEP are in a publication called Freshwater for the Future that in freshwater ecosystems and species lost are proportionally higher than in other types of ecosystems. A fascinating map (see below) from a publication on water efficiency shows the amount of water used to produce cereal grains. It is interesting to note that in some areas that can least afford to use water inefficiently there is a high water use per yield.

Source: Kijne et al. 2009, via UNEP.

Within UNIDO’s broad goal of aiding in industrialization of developing nations it has an important role in promoting that such development happens in an environmentally sustainable manner. UNIDO provides services for cleaner production methods, water management, and reducing pollutants and toxic substances. It does this through technology transfer promoting best available options for managing the environment through a period of growth.

The CBD is a UN convention, or agreement between members states on a specific issue, that deals with the maintenance of ecosystem biodiversity. There are many types of water ecosystems that encompass inland water biodiversity such as rivers, marshes, and swamps. These diverse groups of ecosystems are full of interesting and unique facts and accordingly the CBD publishes information on them. Maintaining biodiversity is important because recent decades have seen extinction rates higher than any time in 65 million years.

The UNCCD is vital for the earth moving forward and is the only binding international agreement that incorporates the link between the environment and development. Many people live in and rely on the resources in the arid and semi arid regions that are vulnerable to climate change. With a forecasted rise in irrigation of agriculture of 14% over the next 30 years (already 70% of total water use) the UNCCD has noted that the need for adaptation in order to minimize vulnerability.

The need for adaptation exists because of the increasing affects of human caused climate change (for more on that see current news reports on recent scientific findings such as this article). The UNFCCC created at the famous Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992, has been a leading instrument for understanding the changes that are happening and is currently developing adaptation strategies to cope with them. It is one of the central repositories of information, including proceedings from a workshop on the impacts of climate change on water.

In order to understand both what is going on and how to adapt, accurate information is an imperative. This is where the Hydrology and Water Resources Programme (HWRP) of the WMO enables an understanding of how to adapt and where adaptation is needed. It covers many aspects of water including observing the hydrologic cycle, assessing the tools and techniques for measuring flow, and data management. It provides a lot of data which can be viewed on the UN’s data website.

The frequency and harm caused my natural disasters are rising as indicated by the chart below. UNISDR’s focus is summed up in this statement; “Natural hazards are inevitable: high death and destruction tolls are not.” There are many types of disasters that can affect water including floods, storms, and earthquakes. When disasters hit they can have massive impacts on infrastructure such as affecting drinking water for long periods while repairs are made. Interestingly climate change is not, yet at least, the leading cause of deaths from floods.

Source: Economics of Climate Adaptation. Shaping Climate-Resilient Development.

Understanding water as it relates to the environment in terms of an ecosystems approach will enable better decision making in the future. These UN organizations promote utilizing water in a manner that is sustainable yet enables growth for both poverty alleviation and reducing risk through adaptation. The earth it seems is facing an increase in environmental degradation and risk to its water resources. These organizations are those which are leading the charge to prevent harm to vital ecosystems and, where changes do occur, build capacities to handle the change.

Posted in Climate Change, Data Links, Taxonomy of Water Organizations, Uncategorized, United Nations | Leave a comment

Friday Swim, links to 5 interesting water articles from the week of August 3rd.

Posted on August 3, 2012 by

San Antonio has turned its water treatment plant into a gold mine

By: Charles Fishman

This is an article that describes how San Antonio is selling the byproduct of water treatment and making a large amount of money. It is the first plant to do so and is making about $20,000 a month for gasses that it had previously burned off.

Virtual-water transport soars

By: Kate Ravilious

This article describes a new study which demonstrates that there has been a rise in the trade of virtual water. Virtual water is the embedded water used to create products for example, a bar of chocolate needs roughly 2,400 liters of water and a pot of coffee requires 840 throughout the entire process.

London Olympic Park’s 10,000 toilets and one unique challenge

By Sam Jones

This article describes the unique challenge of the London Olympics to be carbon neutral. It profiles the challenges faced by the games organizers and the head of sustainability David Stubbs in an effort to ensure that the games are green.

The Olympics, London Taking Back the Tap

By. Hannah Scott

This blog post talks about the battle for bottled water versus tap waged between the Olympic organizers in London and bottled water.

Men’s 100-meter freestyle

NYTimes

This is a different kind of water topic, but really cool graphic about the history of the winners of this event and their improving times.

Posted in Article Links, Drinking Water, Friday Swim, Green Olympics, Opinion, Uncategorized | Leave a comment