Students Design Solutions To Global Water Crisis

Students Design Solutions To Global Water Crisis

NEW YORK.- AIGA, the professional association for design, today issued an ambitious call to action, tasking the next generation of creative thinkers with developing solutions to the global water crisis in its first annual Aspen Design Challenge, dubbed “Designing Water’s Future.” The international contest challenges cross-disciplinary student teams to develop design solutions that encourage responsible water use, provide access to freshwater to those in need and increase awareness about the importance of water conservation.

The rules and guidelines for the Challenge were distributed to thousands of faculty and students at more than 250 universities from Beijing to Boston, and are available to all with the launch of the Aspen Design Challenge website (www.aspendesignchallenge.org). Winners will have the opportunity to refine and develop their concepts with world leaders and policy makers at the Aspen Environment Forum, and their solutions will be discussed at the World Economic Forum, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and the World Business Summit on Climate Change.

The Aspen Design Challenge is a joint project developed by AIGA and INDEX:, a global nonprofit design network, with the purpose of engaging the millennial generation in solving an emerging set of global issues. The Challenge is issued as part of the Aspen Design Summit, an international conference organized for leaders from business, the public sector and nonprofit organizations. The idea for “Designing Water’s Future” grew out of discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, led by Brian Collins, chairman of Collins:, a New York-based transformation design firm, and journalist J. Carl Ganter, co-founder of Circle of Blue, an international network of leading journalists, scientists and communications designers that connects humanity to the global freshwater crisis. AIGA has partnered with Circle of Blue and Collins: for their expertise, knowledge on the issues and ability to provide resources to ensure that the students’ ideas are realized and brought to international attention.

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There are no restrictions on the type of solutions that students may submit. Print design, web applications, environment design, physical devices, data presentation tools and other approaches are all encouraged, as are proposals for the conceptual framework or method of dissemination that may propel these designs into public consciousness. Design students are encouraged to lead cross-disciplinary teams of engineers, artists, ethnographers, anthropologists and scientists, and to consider the social, cultural and scientific significance of water use.

“The global water crisis is a universally threatening and immensely complex problem,” said J. Carl Ganter, director and co-founder of Circle of Blue. “The causes are many—climate change, population growth, overuse—and the ramifications are felt in all areas from environment to security to economic development. This is where we need design students to step in. Design is the intermediary between information and understanding. Young people have the fresh perspective we need, and it is their future which is most at stake.”

Spain Sweats Amid 'Water Wars'

Spain Sweats Amid 'Water Wars'

Spain is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years. Climate experts warn that the country is suffering badly from the impact of climate change and that the Sahara is slowly creeping north - into the Spanish mainland.
A dry fountain: Spanish children are learning about climate change

Yet in Spain itself there is little consensus about what is to be done. Indeed, such is the disagreement that journalists and politicians alike are calling it "water wars".

A farmer and politician, Angel Carcia Udon, said: "Water arouses passions because it can be used as a weapon, a political weapon, just as oil is a political weapon".

And water in Spain has set region against region, north against south and government against opposition.

When the city of Barcelona nearly ran out of water earlier this year, the fountains were switched off and severe restrictions were introduced.

The government of Catalonia pleaded for water to be transferred from rivers like the Ebro, in neighbouring regions, but they refused.

Instead, the city imported tonnes of litres of water from France and accelerated work on the giant desalination plant on the edge of Barcelona, which promises to provide 180,000 cubic metres of water a day.

Parched land

But Barcelona is not alone in its insatiable thirst. Apart from the far north, the entire country is suffering, especially the parched areas on the Mediterranean coast, from Catalonia, down through Valencia, Alicante, Murcia and Almeria.

Mr Udon, whose Popular Party (PP) believes in transferring water around the country, said: "It's incomprehensible that, in one country, there is an excess of water in one place and a deficit in another.
The landscape of eastern Spain looks more parched than usual

"Even more incomprehensible is that they expect us to use water from desalination plants, which is expensive and would force us to raise prices."

But when the present PSOE Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero got into power in 2004, they cancelled all the PP's plans to send water from the north-west to the arid zones of the south-east.

Instead, the government is building more desalination plants, adding to the more than 900 already in Spain - the largest number in any one country outside the Middle East.

They are working night and day at the one at Llogrebat, close to Barcelona airport. The general manager, Juan Compte Costa, assured me that it was the most cost-effective and energy-efficient desalination plant yet.

end of excerpt.



Countries all over the world I fear will be led into the same trap of desalination because people refuse to conserve water and press governments to shore up infrastructure, present conservation initiatives, and work on efficient agricultural irrigation along with facing overpopulation and climate change by cutting CO2 emissions. And let's face it, that is because there is money to be made from building desalination plants by the companies building them and the politicians calling for them.

Companies (like Dow Chemical) will be pushing drought stricken areas to build them even if they still have a chance to save enough water to provide for their cities. And while I would be for it in truly dire circumstances with the proper safeguards, building such plants is not enough because they cannot be built in time to do what is necessary to provide for people now. Also, desalination plants are expensive, energy intensive, and the full effects of returning brackish water back into the seas on marinelife is not fully known. And what of the land to build them?

This world is now truly in a situaiton that is a viscious cycle of its own making, all because the human species cannot seem to do the one thing that will get us out of this... act and change.

Cyprus is running out of water

Climate change and a rising population in the region are lending to a drought that is now at crisis stage in Cyprus. I find it very hard to comprehend why so many people do not take this seriously. Water is the mainstay of our lives. Without it we die. The people of Cyprus and actually the entire Mediterranean area are now seeing rising temperatures with less water due to water evaporation due to global warming/climate change and a rising population. It is now changing the very way farmers and others there live.

This is now a global crisis that must be addressed along with the climate crisis. We cannot continue to take water for granted and expect it will be there when we need it. For the people of Cyprus as well as people in Australia, Asia, Africa, South America, and now North America, this is just a foretaste of what is to come if we do not get serious about water conservation, more efficient irrigation, and cutting Co2 emissions.

And there are many who would not fight over oil, but any of us pushed to our limit would fight for water to survive. I know I would. This will be a great test of moral will and humanity. There is not one continent besides Antarctica (which is melting) that has not been hit by drought in some form or other... that is not just a natural fluke. Also, if we keep polluting the freshwater that is left while population increases, we are only pushing ourselves that much closer to extinction, and I truly do not believe that is 'shrill' any longer.

Entries on this blog concern droughts in Spain, Italy, China, Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, India, the US, South America, Southeast Asia, Australia, the Mediterranean... this is a global crisis with global ramifications due to political corruption, lack of political and moral will, corporatization of freshwater sources in an attempt to commoditize a scarce resource for profit, major pollution, glacier melt, climate change, political apathy, human apathy, mismanagement of resources, old and decaying infrastructure that wastes water, wasteful irrigation practices (wastes about 70% of water globally)... and on and on and on... but instead of people learning from examples like Cyprus and Australia, we continue the same wasteful behavior thinking that water will always be there for us when we need it... and of course, thinking 'desalination' will be a savior when it is merely just a bandaid.

It is interesting to me to observe the human species and our way of always trying to find short cuts to never have to do anything to change our own behavior and comfortable lifestyles thinking that any change will ultimately threaten that. Instead we think we can simply continue to waste and pollute this resource and then take it from the sea... to do what exactly? Then run the seas dry as we continue to not face the 400 lb gorilla in the room: population?

Well, people have been warned on this just like they were regarding global warming/climate change, and it seems all people on the whole wish to do is read it and move on... So when Monsanto, Nestle, and other multinationals own all of the water in the global market thus stripping any human rights to water as well as our food then I suppose that is when we will see the showdown... or when climate change completely destroys our eco systems... or when a catastrophic event occurs to try to rouse us into our senses... only, by then it may just well be too damn late.

In the case of Limassol, Cyprus. their reservoirs are empty and they must now depend upon Greece for tankers to supply their water...which I do not believe is very clean regardless of what is reported. Greece is also a country already feeling the effects of drought and desertification as well. This now also has political repercussions as the Greek South and Turkish North both go without the water they need as desertificaiton spreads. As water becomes scarcer desalination is now the option, only dessalination is expensive, harmful to marine life, and energy intensive, thus perpetuating the very atmosphere that lent to the drought in the first place. However, now it is the only choice in a place where climate change is making itself known firsthand.

And what happens when the Turkish North which has the same problems protest that Greece is only selling water to the Greek South as desertification continues to creep Northward? A war over water?

Both sides working on solutions to Cyprus drought

On the other hand, perhaps this severe drought will transcend political divisions to bring peace to the people of Cyprus working for a common solution to a moral crisis. We can only hope, and hope that a solution for these people comes soon.

Ceremony Marks "Death" of Australia's Greatest River

Ceremony Marks "Death" of Australia's Greatest River

Thousands of people rallied in southern Australia Sunday to protest the dwindling water levels in one of the country's greatest rivers, claiming the loss was causing an environmental disaster.
The 5,000-strong crowd gathered near the mouth of the 2,530 kilometre (1,569 mile) Murray to hold two minute's silence to mark the 'death' of the river, which forms part of Australia's most important agricultural region.

Kym McHugh, mayor of the local Alexandrina Council, said the ceremony near the South Australian town of Goolwa was to "underscore this eleventh hour bid to save the nation's greatest river." "It sent a very clear message by saying we've had a lot of talk about the river system, a lot of science, we all know what the problem is -- we just want politicians to have the will to fix it up," he told national news agency AAP.

"They need to secure water upstream and send it down."

Water levels are so low in the Murray River, due to drought and irrigation, that the freshwater lakes the river feeds into are turning to acid.

The federal government last week said there was not enough water in the system to save the freshwater lakes, leading to suggestions that ocean water could be used to prevent the lakes from drying out.

But the council wants the government to release water held in storage in upstream states into the river so it can flow down and prevent an environmental, economic and social disaster in the region.

"We need to give these lakes another chance," McHugh said.

The Murray, along with the 2,740-kilometre Darling River and 1,690-kilometre Murrumbidgee River, form the Murray Darling Basin, which accounts for some 40 percent of the nation's agricultural production.
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This is a tragedy. All it would take is the political will to save the Murray-Darling basin and yet it is left to die? The Australian government must act now to save this great river. Anything less is immoral. I thought Kevin Rudd would do the right thing. I am disappointed to see it come to this. What are people thinking? This river basin supplies 40% of their agricultural production. Just how do they expect their people to live?

Australia's Epic Drought-The Situaiton is Grim

I posted this in April of last year... and this is where we are today. Anyone who does not believe that climate change is now upon us is simply living in denial. This is why I am disappointed in Kevin Rudd. The first order of business for him after being elected to replace John Howard was to have Australia sign the Kyoto Treaty. So why is the great Murray Darling basin being left to die?

We really better start getting serious now about connecting the dots between the climate crisis and the global water crisis. This tragedy is just a foretaste of what will come should we continue to sit and wait for "political will" to lead us. It must be MORAL will that now takes over for the sake of our planet and ourselves.

Will I be sitting here in another year reading and writing about another tragedy like this in Africa, Asia, South America or even in America? I surely hope not.


UPDATE:

Outrage Over Paroo River Diversions

Excerpt:

The Queensland Government is facing accusations that it has allowed a large dam and diversion channels along the Paroo River.

Satellite images reveal a dam and more than 10 kilometres of channels have been built along the river on the Queensland-New South Wales border, despite a moratorium stopping any development.

The moratorium was imposed by the Queensland Government in the middle of 2001, to stop the building of dams, levees and channels on the Paroo River.

But satellite images taken in July 2002 and June 2008 reveal that storage dams and water diversions have been built since.

Richard Kingsford from the University of New South Wales says the moratorium has failed.

"This essentially does breach that agreement because it does allow for water to be diverted out of the flood plain for irrigation," he said.

end of excerpt

It appears the Queensland govt has allowed the building of dams and diverting water from this region in spite of a moratorium placed on such construction. I suppose the Aral Sea doesn't ring a bell to these people?

UPDATE:

Rudd Government Looking To Buy Back Water Rights to Send Water Downstream

Is it too late? It may just be, and this is truly sad.

Central Africa's Lake Chad Is Disappearing

Central Africa's Lake Chad Is Disappearing

By SHASHANK BENGALI
McClatchy Newspapers

Sinyaka Island in Lake Chad formed less than five years ago as lake waters receded to unprecedented levels. The lake that once covered some 9,000 square miles — roughly the area of New Jersey — has shrunk to less than 2 percent of its original size. SINYAKA ISLAND, Chad There’s nothing remarkable about this lump of hot sand, tangled weeds and tree-branch huts except that, until a few years ago, it didn’t exist.

More precisely, the island was underwater, hidden beneath the vast surface of central Africa’s Lake Chad. The emergence of the island, whose sweltering shores have been settled by dozens of families, is evidence of an unsettling ecological trend: The lake is drying up.

Once among the largest lakes in the world — at some 9,000 square miles, roughly the size of New Jersey — Lake Chad has been decimated over the past four decades by rising temperatures, diminishing rainfall and a growing population that’s using more water than ever before. Today, estimated at less than 2 percent of its original size, the lake’s surface would barely cover Brooklyn and Manhattan.

End of excerpt

Lake Chad Is Dying

My entry on this from last year... and it still gets worse. We need hope here, not to continue to allow this to go on. Where is the education? Where is the real aid? Where is the plan on the part of the western world to really curb carbon emissions that are contributing to what we see in Africa and in other places where emissions are not as great? Why is the world abandoning Africa?

Bacteria and Nanofilters: The Future Of Clean Water Technology

Bacteria and Nanofilters:The Future of Clean Water Technology

Bacteria often get bad press, with those found in water often linked to illness and disease. But researchers at The University of Nottingham are using these tiny organisms alongside the very latest membrane filtration techniques to improve and refine water cleaning technology.

These one-celled organisms eat the contaminants present in water — whether it is being treated prior to industrial use or even for drinking — in a process called bioremediation.

The water is then filtered through porous membranes, which function like a sieve. However, the holes in these sieves are microscopic, and some are so small they can only be seen at the nanoscale. Pore size in these filters can range from ten microns — ten thousandths of a millimetre — to one nanometre — a millionth of a millimetre.

These technologies can be developed into processes which optimise the use of water — whether in an industrial system or to provide drinking water in areas where it is a scarce resource.
The research is led by Nidal Hilal, Professor of Chemical and Process Engineering in the Centre for Clean Water Technologies — a world-leading research centre developing advanced technologies in water treatment.

Current membrane technology used in water treatment processes can decrease in efficiency over time, as the membranes become fouled with contaminants. By using bioremediation the membranes can be cleaned within the closed system, without removing the membranes. Researchers at the centre have developed the technology in partnership with Cardev International, an oil filtration company based in Harrogate.

As well as being highly effective in the water treatment process, transforming industrial liquid waste contaminated with metals and oils into clean water, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes have a useful side effect. The waste products have a very high calorific value, and can be used as fuel.
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More on bioremediation from the USGS:

Why bioremediation works

This sounds like a good technology, though I admit I do not know all there is to know about it. As with anything of this nature the carbon footprint of it is something that needs to be considered. However, the fact that this process has the ability to provide clean water to those who would otherwise have to drink contaminated water is one I am certainly interested in, and one that may be viable in places experiencing drought.

Himalayan Glaciers Shrinking Every Year

Himalayan Glaciers Shrinking Every Year

Glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating at an alarming rate of 15-20 metre every year, says the study jointly done by Himachal Pradesh Science and Technology Council and Space Research Station, Ahmedabad.

With rising global temperature, glaciers in Himalayas are retreating at an alarming rate of 15-20 metre every year, which could adversly impact agriculture in the region.

Mapping of 400 glaciers done jointly by the Himachal Pradesh Science and Technology Council and Space Research Station Ahmedabad since 1994 on rivers Chandra, Beas, Ravi, Satluj, Spiti and Baspa has shown that the glaciers are retreating.

"There had been a retreat of 10-15 m per year in 400 glaciers," A B Kulkarni, head of Glaciology wing of Space Research Station, Ahmedabad, said.

A Report of Geological Survey of India (GSI) says that prominent glaciers like Chota Sigri in Lahaul-Spiti district showed a retreat of 6.81 m per year, Bara Sigri 29.78 m per year, Trilokinath 17.86 m per year, Beas kund 18.8 m per year and Manimahesh 29.1 metre per year.

The mapping of glaciers through satellite picture suggests that there are in total 334 glaciers in the entire Satluj and Beas basins covering an area of 1515 sq km. Out of this 202 glaciers fall in Himachal Pradesh.

Syed Iqbal Hussnain of TERI, who is studying retreat of glaciers in Himalayas, said the situation is serious.

Hussnain, who is a member of National Action plan on climatology, suggested Himachal Pradesh government to set up a glacier commission on the pattern of one existing in Sikkim to carry field-based scientific study of glacier retreat and draw future plans to tackle the problem. Hussnain, who heads Glacier Commission of Sikkim which was set up in January this year, said the commission is making a scientific study of actual retreat and also regularly monitoring water discharge in the rivers to assess speed of retreat.

A comprehensive report will be submitted to the Sikkim government in December this year for drawing future plans, he added.

He stressed on similar field based study in Himachal Pradesh to collect true statistics which would help in drawing plans accordingly.

The temperature of Shimla has risen by one degree Celsius in last 100 years reflecting impact of global warming in the hill state, Met office sources said.

HP government is pressing the Centre to set up an institute at Lahual for study and research on glaciers in the state.

end of excerpt
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I am very saddened when reading these reports because it appears that glacier melt has reached a tipping point. I am also angry because in the US people are still bickering over whether climate change exists and what is causing it while millions of people around the world suffer the effects of it. Just what is wrong with Americans on the whole? I am one too, but at this point I am embarrassed at the way many people in the US continue their petty politically partisan bickering about this as people suffer. Is this truly a result of the atmosphere that exists regarding the undemocratic media coverage we get in this country? Or are people basically on the whole just selfish to the point that they don't care what happens to anyone else in the world as long as it isn't them? Do they simply not understand that what we do to planet Earth and to others we do to ourselves?

I have been wracking my brain trying to understand how after all of the evidence presented why people still feel it necessary to be in the 'debate' stage when we should be in the 'planning and action' stages. Just what has to happen to bring us to that point in the US and around the world? A true catastrophe?

Well, here's one for you: Billions of people depend on the water provided by the Himalayas and without it there will be no water for those people. No water, no food. No food, people will move and forage for it and that means millions to hundreds of millions of climate refugees looking to other lands for the food and water they need to survive. How many other countries in this world would be willing to take in hundreds of millions of climate refugees, or for that matter, physically be able to do it?

This is where the 'planning and action' stages usually come in handy. However, as we have seen from the G-8 summit to the current one in Rome, governments of this world are still twiddling their thumbs on this. It is as if they wish to get to that point of no return to have an excuse to institute the 'One World Order' they wish to have. Now, that may sound a little 'conspiracy theory' to some. However, consider the current 'global food crisis' we keep hearing the World Bank go on about suddenly all in line with pushing genetically modified foods on us. Up to this point, Europe and most of the world besides the US, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina have spurned this unneccessary technology in favor of natural foods as it should be, which of course does not leave them beholding to multinationals like Monsanto, ADM, Cargill, and other companies looking to monopolize the food and seed markets of the world (along with water.)

Therefore, heightening the fear of a worse food crisis along with higher prices is only serving to make countries think twice now about a technology they up to this point were against for a very valid reason: the science proving it is safe is simply not in.

The same kind of panic is being fanned regarding the 'global water crisis.' Now, mind you, I do believe we are in a crisis stage regarding water in many countries in Africa right now and aproaching it elsewhere, but we still have time to work on having water declared a human right and to bring effective conservation methods to these countries along with the infrastructure necessary to conserve enough water to live, along with more efficient irrigation practices. However, Dow Chemical is pushing it now because they want to buy up desalination plants to make money, and I have no doubt that will be pushed more and more over the next few years as this crisis gets progressively worse if we do not act accordingly. So, it isn't hard to understand why governments are not really dealing with this crisis regarding our climate with any real urgency and basically dragging their feet. They serve to make much money from it.

Look already at the countries flocking to the Arctic to claim the oil reserves and other minerals under it. Is there any real urgency on their part to slow down the melting in the first place by calling for more stringent limits on greenhouse gases in order to preserve our fragile climate balance? No. It all comes to this: greed has taken over the core of humanity and it will be our downfall if we do not see the true moral importance of what is now being reaped from what we have sown.

In the case of the Himalayas, the Arctic, Antarctica, and glaciers around the world... these are our harbingers... our missives of the future telling us that we have gone astray and the only way to save ourselves is to see the damage we are doing to this planet and have the moral courage to correct it provided we do it now before it is truly too late. In the case of the Himalayas, that may already be true and it is a sad reflection on the human species. That is simply not the legacy we must leave to future generations.