Quality & Quantity

Photo credit: AP

World Water Week kicked off this past Sunday as 2500 experts from 130 countries gathered at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) in Sweden to discuss the future of water.
The main focus: Pollution & Change.
Every day approximately 2 million tons of human waste is poured into rivers, lakes and the sea, all around the world. It is reported that in developing countries as much as 70% of industrial waste is put into the water system directly without first being treated.
"There is really no physical shortage of water in the world," states World Water Week director Jens Bergren, "there is actually lots of water. It is how the water is managed that is the big problem."
Getting everyone to work together to solve this issue before it becomes a crisis is also a big problem. Raising awareness about how interconnected global water systems are is the reason World Water Week just reached its 20th year.
SIWI: "There is often a disconnect for people that pollute and the effects of that pollution on people and ecosystems downstream or in other parts of shared lakes and aquifers. Water pollution is on the rise globally." Water World
For more information on WWW go to WorldWaterWeek.org.
Please let me know what you are doing for World Water Week this year!

Evidence: Water on Mars!

Droplets on a leg of the Mars Phoenix lander are seen to darken and then join.
Nilton Renno, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences says this is evidence that they are made of liquid water. MarsDaily

Water: Human Right or Human Need?

The seven day focus on the world's water crisis ended Sunday with a pledge by more than 100 countries to strive for clean water and sanitation for billions in need and fight drought and flood.
While the Forum was met with over 25,000 people, the largest turn-out ever, it was also met with accusations of turning into a dismissed "trade-show."
The major debate being: Is water a basic human need or a basic human right? Brazil, Egypt and the United States agree to it as a need while numerous countries, led by Latin America, are already writing water in as a constitutional right.
Non-binding agreements were met including greater cooperation to ease disputes over water, measures to address floods and water scarcity, better management of resources and curbing pollution of rivers, lakes and aquifers.
One thing everyone agreed upon: as the population grows so to does the demand for the access to clean freshwater. The world's current population of 6.5 billion people is expected to grow to 9 billion by the year 2050 with the number of people living under severe water stress climbs to 4 billion. Water World

Sustainably Certified.

Water pollution and drought from overuse causes unmeasured environmental alturations, not to mention death and unsustainability. Irresponsible irrigation drains aquifers at massive rates, rivers dry up before they reach the sea as rainwater is unable to replenish the rapid loss.
But the perception on water is about to change.

How well do you know the complanies that you buy your merchandise from? I'm going to guess that, like me, not very. Well the World Water Forum was thinking the same thing. They were also thinking that if you knew the impact that some of these products had on the environment while they were being made then you might not think twice about ever purchasing them again.

A couple of years from now your "safe" drinks, food and clothes will be marked with a logo telling you that that particular product was made with the use of sustainable water in a sustainable environment with zero pollution impact.

It's the same certified idea that the Forest Stewardship Council have been using; the extraction of timber from a commercial forestry being managed in a sustainable forest in hopes that comsumers will opt for the "safer" wood product.

"The Alliance for Water Stewardship will lead the charge towards development of the first-ever standards to improve the way water is managed around the world." states Jonathan Kaplan of the Nature Conservancy. Source.

I Wouldn't Drink That If I Were You

A study, by Brunel University, The Universities of Exeter and Reading and The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, shows, for the first time, how a group of testosterone blocking chemicals find its way into UK rivers, affecting wildlife and in time will potentially affect humans. The study identified a new group of chemicals that act as 'anti-androgens'; the inhibitation to the function of the male hormone testosterone, reducing male fertility. Some of these chemicals are contained in medicines, including cancer treatments, pharmaceutical treatments and pesticides used in agriculture. The research suggests that when they get into the water system, these chemicals play a primary role in causing feminising effects in male fish.
Senior author Professor Charles Tyler of the University of Exeter said, "Our findings also strengthen the argument for the cocktail of chemicals in our water leading to hormone disruption in fish, and contributing to the rise in male reproductive problems. There are likely to be many reasons behind the rise in male fertility problems in humans, but these findings could reveal one, previously unknown, factor."
Until the research is finished and the principal chemical is controled, I suggest that everyone stop drinking water. Kidding. The solution? Take precaution when throwing items away; try not to put ANY plastic in the garbage and ALWAYS recycle. Which reminds me, that has to go out tonight.
To Read more about the infertility of your future boyfriend Go HERE.

Drink Up.. While You Can

World Water Day is this Saturday, the 22nd, and the United Nations calls out a warning just in time for the big day:
By 2025, fully a third of the planet's growing population could find itself scavenging for safe drinking water.
Oh jeeze. And the people who are effected? The people living in third world countries. In fact there are already a person dying every 20 seconds as a result from unsanitary drinking water. And the result of death does not seem to be the only crisis projected to come from it.
"In the coming decades, water scarcity may be a watchword that prompts action ranging from wholesale population migration to war, unless new ways to supply clean water are found," comment a team of researchers in a review of water purification technology published Thursday in the British journal Nature.
While new projects, technology, governments and heroes of the world try to avert this emergency, a new catastrophe has appeared in the horizon: Global Warming. Rising sea levels are already forcing salt water into aquifers beneath megadeltas that are home to tens of millions, and changing weather patterns are set to intensify droughts in large swathes of Africa, southern Europe and Asia, according to UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).
Become a hero yourself and give the gift of life this Easter season. Check out Charity: Water where 100% of the donations goes to water and sanitation's projects.