Any Facts about Water Conservation?

Question

I'm doing A PROJECT ABOUT how we need to conserve water and why is it so important 2 conserve water

Answer 1

WATER HARVESTING AND CONSERVATION

WHY SHOULD WE HARVEST WATER

Because there is so little potable water, that we can use

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25% of the planets surface is land

75%of the surface is water and it is rising

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97%of the Earths water is salt

fresh water is only 3% of all the Earths water

most of it is beyond out reach

now much ice is melting and running into the seas fresh water lost for ever.

STORAGE or Location of % of the fresh water

ice and glaziers 74%

groundwater 800 meters + 13.5 %

groundwater less than 800meters 11.o%

Lakes 0.3%

soils 0.006%

Atmospheric in circulation 0.0035%

rivers 0.03%

frozen land or permafrost is not included and represent an unavailable storage of 40%

so of the 3% about 11.6 ,is easily available to us ,in rivers, lakes and ground water surface aquifers,more and more of this is becoming contaminated

overpopulation of an extra 70 million people a year (increasing all the time )and expanding agriculture ,which uses 70% of available potable water supplies ,has brought the good(sweet) water supplies to critical levels ,some countries have been in trouble already quite a while .

Now climate change and desertification, because of irresponsible agriculture ,overgrazing and deforestation is damaging world fresh water production .

It is a good reason for concern and if we do not rectify matters by changing agricultural methods ,reforest ,stop deforestation,become more economic with water use ,stop producing more people ,stop wasting and contaminating water, we will be in serious trouble all round

and could end up looking like Mars

And these are some of the things we can do

tp conserve water use

EFFICIENT WATER USE

IN THE HOUSE

one can connect the sink straight to the toilet cistern and so use the water twice ,first to have a shave and then to flush the toilet

also if you bend the ball valve you can regulate the level of the cistern

Always have your Grey water and Black water separate,so that the sink and shower water goes directly into the garden saving on irrigation and at the same time ,making the sewage smaller and easier to deal with ,

This also goes and irrigates the garden but via a cistern of two compartments and a French drain ,on which you plant trees,

HAVE DRUMS OR A POND COLLECT WATER FROM THE ROOF OF THE HOUSE

And cars can be washed with rain water ,it does not have to be drinking water.

ON THE LAND

Only use small tractors for initial shaping and earth works

then preferably no till methods

Or use deep chisel plows sparingly to minimize disturbing the

top soil further so that organic structures remain intact and continue working ,building soil.

Do not use heavy machinery which compacts the soil and will raise salt content to the surface do not have too many Cows

which will do the same

Compacted soil does not absorb much water.

Economic systems of irrigation, like drip irrigation

and water harvesting design, using a lot of stone walls ,that condense water in the night

and planting leafy plants ,for the same purpose,

Building wind breaks ,to counter act the drying effects of the wind and farm towards Aggro forestal ,using as many trees as possible to limit evaporation .

Using shade nets before we have tree cover

and use MULCH

By cutting down the weeds before they produce seeds and leave them where they fall.

They will cover the ground add even more organic matter on top,(you can use saw dust,leaves green or dry),

Plant big leafed plant around the plots to use for mulch

Conserve soil by using compost,,Utilize all manure from the farm,

Plant DIVERSE,in guilds and companion planting to spread the chemical requirements and releases to preserve soil balance,

Have some tall scattered shading trees at intervals to break the suns rays.

And when you plant make a little space and plant in the mulch.this is the easiest quickest and by far most beneficial way(for the quality of you soil)to prepare the land for planting.

To prevent weeds from coming all you have to do it turn out the lights,you can even use cardboard or black plastic(this is good for strawberries because they will rot if they touch humid ground,and the bugs can get to them).

The humidity is preserved underneath and promotes the development of worms(there exists no better compost than their excrements)and a variety of micro biotic life which together within the mulch produce more topsoil.

The mulch also keeps the ground temperature even and guards against the impact of the rain ,which would other wise brings salt to the surface if on unprotected land.

Mulch also prevents the soil from drying out because of the sun and,wind erosion.

WATER HARVESTING

We should not only conserve Water ,we should also collect it when it rains ,make your lawn and garden receptive to absorb water ,like a giant sponge.

As far as catching rain is concerned ,we do this all the time ,and have done so already since Babylonian times,and is a part of the more advanced Agriculture,that existed with the Egyptians,,Moors, Arabs and probably many more

Central ,and South American indigenous people had this idea coupled to their pyramids ,catching the water of the slopes and leading it into tanks or onto the fields .

And many others ,today we call this WATER HARVESTING.

Only Modern Man is totally extravagant with the rain water given ,and complains of the wetness ,letting it run off into the rivers lost forever ,With out even attempting to hold on to it .

And then later complains of not having water ,when times are dryer

So initial energy  on Extensive earth works to shape the land to be receptive to water absorption,is to be recommended.

Make terraces when farming on slopes

use living and any other type of barriers on steep slopes to collect and contain any organic material that is about and mobile

In Permaculture the rule is to harvest water to the point of Zero runoff.

This means that all of the rain that falls on an area is absorbed by the terrain and not a drop leaves it.

By building dams,ponds or Swales, with inter connecting ditches,

Bio  swales to absorb water

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

If there are enough of these ;the places ,where before ,the rain water ran over the ground into the rivers and on to the sea ,in a matter of hours or days.

It now runs into absorbent dams or Swales and saturates the ground and eventually reaches subterranean water deposits ,taking many months to do so.

Or it fills up ponds that can be used for Aquaculture.

And so a convex situation that repels water is transformed in a concave ,absorbent one and turning the area in to a sponge.

The more holes the better and if they do not hold the water but leak ,the water is not lost it is in the ground for months

In Spain and Portugal ,which still display many examples of the conquering Moorish influence one can find many remnants of Water harvesting,such as Aqueducts and tanks underneath the patios ,which collect the rain water from the roofs ,to be used in dryer times.

In Arabia ,on a large scale ,land has been shaped to catch and lead,rain water into sandy areas or to agricultural lands.sand is almost as good as dams because it absorbs water and holds it.

Here in Mexico we collect the rainwater in our school for sustainable agriculture,but it is too near Acapulco to trust the rain water for drinking ,and this holds true for most places ,so we use it for irrigation.The rain water from a gutter runs via a filter into a tank.

In Europe in my parents house ,when i was young ,we had a rain barrel,where the water from the gutter ended up .

this was usual in those days ,but i have seen few in modern times.

We can use this concept also in other ways ,

for example the roof water from the rain,via a ditch can run trough the chicken house ,cleaning it and end up fertilizing the vegetable plot

(this is called the creation of energy flow).

This water used to be Ok in times gone by before Air pollution ,

Today i would recommend it only for washing and irrigation

For more information on Water Harvesting

read The Permaculture designers manual by Bill Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars.

and is the best all round book you can get,on Environmental design,.(tagiari publishing, [e-mail])

Answer 2

Message to Agua Luna - Dont link all types of bottled water together.  Big differences in types, unfortunately people are too stupid to look into this and label them all evil, and continue drinking the c**p flowing from your tap.

Questioner - do your own homework

Answer 3

what country or state are u from cause it depends where u live there are different rules in each country

Answer 4

randome

All of my homes water comes 100% from rain catchment (we live completely off the grid). It's absolutely safe, and actually better then some bottled water and most city tap water.

We storage it in 2000 gallon containers we purchased from Wiley (I think that's the right spelling), but before we did that we got 55gal containers for free from coca cola and Walmart (make sure they're "food grade" or you'll be doing a lot of cleaning). freecycle, craigslist, habitat for humanity, a local ranch and feed store, etc.

Before we decided to catch and drink our rain water I sent in samples of it to UT for testing, the results came back 99 ppm (500 being "drinkable" by the dept of food and drug) 0 toxins, 0 chemicals, 0 pollutants. Since then i purchased a handy little pocket water tester and have kept a close eye on it. I also take it with me on travels and check the water I'm drinking in other cities. Some of the better cities tap water are SLC at 250ppm, Detroit (surprisingly) 280. I don't want to say what some of the lesser ones were. Aquafina bottle water was 440.

Anyway, unless your living in Las Angeles or other highly industrial area your roof should be completely clean and a perfect surface for catching water. Any dust that builds on our roof simply settles to the bottom (the house inlet is about a foot off the bottom) of the tank and doesn't affect the taste or health of the water what so ever (we all ate plenty of dirt as a kid). We do ad a table spoon of bleach to the tanks per every 500 gallons of water, not for the caught rain water (as it is clean to drink immediately),but because we storage it for long durations of time in tanks. Without the bleach (silver works just as good) algae tends to grow (which still isn't bad for you, just taste weird).

We do not filter our water as it is cleaner then most "filtered" bottled water.

If you'd like more info I wrote a self help DIY guide that's available at  www agua-luna com

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at  www agua-luna com  on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

Dan Martin

Living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World... Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY... All With Just One Click of A Mouse...For more info Visit:  

www agua-luna com

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Answer 5

then you shouldn't cheat

Answer 6

the rains keep coming year after year

Answer 7

I work as a writer and recently did an article on water conservation for residents around the Great Lakes region (yes, they need to be conservation savvy as well).

The links below are the ones I found the most interesting, useful and up-to-date.  The first one. "Toiletology" was rather funny as well.

Wasn't sure if you were looking at water conservation from the household level or the wider view, so the links also are ones that address both.  Hope this helps.