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(CNN)In Cape Town, South Africa, they’re calling it “Day Zero” — the day when the taps run dry.

A few days ago, city officials had said that day will come on April 22. This week, they moved up the date to April 12.

Cape Town is South Africa’s second-largest city and a top international tourist draw. Now, residents play a new and delicate game of water math each day.

They’re recycling bath water to help flush toilets. They’re being told to limit showers to 90 seconds. And hand sanitizer, once somewhat of an afterthought, is now a big seller.

“Unwashed hair is now a sign of social responsibility,” resident Darryn Ten told CNN.

People collect drinking water from pipes fed by an underground spring in St. James, about 25 kilometers from the city center of Cape Town.

The genesis of the crisis

So how did this happen? How does a major city in the developed world just run dry?

It’s been a slow-motion crisis, exacerbated by three factors conspiring together:

The worst drought in over a century, which has pushed Cape Town’s water scarcity into a potentially deadly horizon
Its population, which is 4 million and growing quickly
A rapidly changing climate

Even with the predicament they find themselves in, residents haven’t dropped their water use significantly, said Patricia De Lille, Cape Town’s mayor.

The city has lowered the water pressure in their mains to help stretch the water supply. But usage is still 86 million liters above its target goal.

“It is quite unbelievable that a majority of people do not seem to care and are sending all of us headlong towards Day Zero,” a statement from the mayor’s office said. “We can no longer ask people to stop wasting water. We must force them.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Michigan Faces ANOTHER Water Crisis

January 24, 2018

Michigan Faces ANOTHER Water Crisis

An emerging new water crisis for Michigan

Michigan residents are staring down a new water crisis as the state is scrambling to combat potential health risks in water sources that stem from chemicals long used in firefighting, waterproofing, carpeting and other products.

In December of 2017, toxic chemicals have been identified at 28 sites in 14 communities across Michigan. Nearly half are on or near military installations where the source is believed to be from firefighting foam.” (Source) The main affected area is near Van Etten Lake. Other areas near WAFB are also being investigated.

“Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have been detected at military bases, water treatment plants and, most recently, an old industrial dump site for footwear company Wolverine World Wide. The Environmental Protection Agency classifies them as ’emerging’ nationally. They have sparked enough concern that Gov. Rick Snyder created a state response team and approved $23 million in emergency spending.

What We Know So Far

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says private well testing results coupled with a site history that indicates not only that sludge was used as fertilizer, but there may also have been waste dumping in a nearby gravel pit necessitates the well testing. (Source)

Map shows initial study area and expanded "buffer zone" testing area for PFAS chemicals around an old Wolverine World Wide tannery sludge dump site at 1855 House Street NE in Plainfield Township.

Image Source: http://www.mlive.com

Levels of PFOA and PFOS in the groundwater at Wurtsmith Air Force Base (WAFB) in Oscoda Township, Michigan are up to 10,000 times higher than the LTHA.
Groundwater with high levels of PFAS might be moving off-base toward local resident’s drinking water wells.
We know that the PFAS from WAFB are found at low levels in some private drinking water wells. We don’t know if the PFAS in the drinking water wells will stay at low levels. Also, we do not know how long PFAS may have been in the drinking water wells.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Betting the Earth on a Game of Wrap-Cut-Smash

January 24, 2018

Betting the Earth on a Game of Wrap-Cut-Smash

Photo by Kevin Gill | CC BY 2.0

The Earth is having to deal with continuous, largely unchecked emissions of greenhouse gases, along with soil degradation, mass extinction of species, destruction of ecosystems, and disruption of nitrogen, phosphorous, and water cycles. Meanwhile, efforts to head off the planet-wide ecological crisis remain trapped in a game of rock-paper-scissors. [1]

Let’s start with the “paper,” which represents the kinds of paper exercises purporting to show that prosperous “green growth” can carry humanity and the Earth together through a better and better future. These include, for example, the 2015 “Ecomodernist Manifesto” [2] and a series of “100% renewable wind, water, and sunlight energy roadmaps” [3] published in recent years. Such cornucopian analyses undergird the mainstream climate movement’s vision of a smooth transition to a greener, happier, more prosperous world.

The paper, however, is cut up by the “scissors”— the restraints on resource exploitation and consequent cutbacks in production of goods and services, along with other human activities, that will be necessary if ecological catastrophe is to be avoided. Rooted in the knowledge that infinite growth is impossible and efficiency a chimera, the idea that economic activity must be restrained was developed early on by the ecological economists Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and Herman Daly [4] and has long been urged by the Post-Carbon Institute [5], “peak oil” campaigners [6], Tim Jackson, Ted Trainer, and various proposals for firm ceilings on energy consumption, with business and household quotas [7].

The scissors argument for the necessity of cutting throughput and pulling back within ecological limits is unassailable. However, most such analyses are focused on the world’s high-production, high-consumption economies, with few specific recommendations for how the billions of people in both rich and poor economies who already lack adequate access to resources can achieve material sufficiency.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Hell On Earth: Major City Will RUN OUT Of Water In Less Than 95 Days

January 19, 2018

Hell On Earth: Major City Will RUN OUT Of Water In Less Than 95 Days

earthquake drought natural disaster

If you’ve ever needed a reason to store extra food and water, this just might be it. Cape Town, South Africa is on schedule to run out of water in less than 95 days, and when they do, the government will turn off the taps.

“There are only 95 days left before we reach Day Zero,” the City of Cape Town announced on January 15 in a statement. “Day Zero has moved a day closer this week to April 21, 2018. Day Zero is when the City will be forced to turn off most of the taps.”

The coastal South African city has been battling droughts for nearly three years, amounting to the worst one in their history. With little rain on the horizon, the city has now ordered its 3.7 million residents to drastically cut their water consumption, take short stop-start showers, not wash their cars, and flush toilets as little as possible. If they don’t, all of their taps could be shut off by the government in April.

The city doesn’t appear to have any plan in place for such a SHTF event. But if the government cannot find a solution to the problem, Capetonians will be forced into “bread lines” for water. As if that isn’t scary enough, city residents will have a limit of 5.5 gallons of water a day that will only be given to them at specific government outposts around the city.

Cape Town’s mayor Patricia de Lille‏ tweeted: “I cannot stress it enough: all residents must save water and use less than 87 liters [19 gallons] per day… We must avoid Day Zero and saving water is the only way we can do this.” Not missing the opportunity to levy extra taxes on the populace, the city mayor has also impeded a “drought charge” in order to fund new water projects, such as constructing desalination plants.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

This and That Vol. 4–Mid Winter Musings

January 16, 2018

THIS AND THAT VOL 4 – MID WINTER MUSINGS

Probably the one topic Mrs. Cog and I return to more often than any other is our amazement how so many people who profess awareness and understanding of the coming chaos and hard times remain firmly rooted in their present situation. Despite acknowledging the runaway train barreling down the tracks directly towards them, they do little to nothing to get out of the way.

They know they are dependent upon a failing state for most, if not all, of their needs. Whether it is food, water, sewer, electricity, security, employment, whatever area we wish to examine, they remain tragically dependent upon a failing state to ‘not fail’ in order to continue to provide what the failing state soon will be unable to supply.

The thing is, there is no particular reason we can point towards as the reason for remaining shipwrecked and locked in the winter ice, slowly crushed by the ever thickening, shifting, grinding mass surrounding us.

This is not to say one can escape in totality from the insanity. There remains no ‘new world’ to travel to for a fresh start. Or at least none that is conveniently located within two miles of a grocery store, mall, movie theater, schools, Home Depot and Starbucks.

And therein is the rub and possible the central reason why people simply won’t get off the tracks. The railway we lay upon leads directly to all the conveniences so many of us take for granted that they are no longer wants, but bleeding needs.

We are so thoroughly entangled by and dependent upon our consumer culture that it is unthinkable to voluntarily withdraw from what we believe nurtures and sustain us. We are main-lining our own poison in every way imaginable and it’s killing us softly.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Are You One Of The 170 Million Americans Drinking Radioactive Tap Water?

January 15, 2018

Are You One Of The 170 Million Americans Drinking Radioactive Tap Water?

According to a new bombshell report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), tap water for more than 170 million Americans contains radioactive elements that may increase the risk of cancer. The group examined 50,000 public water systems throughout the United States and found from 2010 to 2015, more than 22,000 water utilities reported radium in treated water.

Radiation in tap water poses serious health threats, particularly for children, and women during pregnancy.

The most common radioactive element the EWG found was radium. Studies show that radium above the EPA legal limit may cause depression of the immune system, anemia, cataracts, fractured teeth, and of course cancer.

Radium is a naturally occurring radioactive element that resides on the earth’s crust. The EWG emphasizes that higher radium levels in tap water occur when uranium mining or oil and gas drilling exploration companies disturb the earth’s geology. The process triggers radiation called “ionizing because it can release electrons from atoms and molecules, and turn them into ions,” explained the EWG. The EPA warns that all ionizing radiation is carcinogenic, implying that radium above the EPA limit is all too prevalent in America and it could be causing lots of cancer.

In 158 public water systems serving some 276,000 Americans in 27 states, the EWG found that radium exceeded the federal legal ceiling for radium-226 and radium-228.

The EWG’s Tap Water Database covers six radioactive contaminants, including radium, radon, and uranium. The database shows radium-226 and radium-228 are the two most common forms of radiation in every state.

The EWG expresses frustration with the 41-year old federal drinking water standards that are not designed to protect human health. New public health goals were set in 2006 by the California Office of Environmental Hazard Assessment, but have been widely overlooked by the federal government.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

VIDEO: What Everyday Life Is Like in Puerto Rico Now

December 15, 2017

VIDEO: What Everyday Life Is Like in Puerto Rico Now

In Puerto Rico, everything has changed since Hurricane Maria struck nearly 3 months ago.

Many people have no running water. And if they do, it can’t be consumed without boiling.

There’s no electricity in many regions.

Supplies are scarce.

I’ve written about the SHTF aftermath in Puerto Rico, both the day after the storm, a week after, and a couple of months later. But while there is a lot of good information in all those articles, it’s just words on a page.

The video below brings it to life. This is what life looks like for people who have just watched everything be turned upside down by Mother Nature.

‘Great American Desert’ threatens to swallow eight US states as massive aquifer dries up

December 11, 2017

‘Great American Desert’ threatens to swallow eight US states as massive aquifer dries up

The Ogallala aquifer is one of the world’s largest underground bodies of water, and many ecosystems and communities in the American West depend upon it – however the aquifer is in rapid decline due to over-exploitation of its resources. According to the Denver Post, farmers in eight American states(Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and South Dakota) are putting strain on the aquifer by overdrawing water from beneath the soil they cultivate in a $35 billion dollar per year industry. If allowed to continue, this could threaten both the livelihood of farmers and the ecosystems of the West, which could be replaced by a ‘Great American Desert.’

Because of the region’s intensive farming practices, agricultural wells are extracting water from the Ogallala aquifer significantly faster than it is being replenished. This trend appears to have accelerated in recent years. Federal data indicates that the aquifer contracted twice as fast in the past six years as it had in the previous sixty, with a significant impact on everyday water use in the West. “Now I never know, from one minute to the next, when I turn on a faucet or hydrant, whether there will be water or not,” said Lois Scott, who lives on a family farm in Cope, Colorado, in an interview with the Denver Post. “The aquifer is being depleted. This will truly become the Great American Desert.”

As a result of the exploitation of the Ogallala, at least 358 miles of rivers and streams have dried up within a 200-square-mile area in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. If trends continued, an additional 177 miles of rivers and streams are expected to dry out by 2060.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Using Gray Water When It’s Too Late to Design Your Home For It

December 8, 2017

USING GRAY WATER WHEN IT’S TOO LATE TO DESIGN YOUR HOME FOR IT

Recently, I wrote an article about passively heating and cooling homes when they haven’t been designed well for it, and to my delight, lots of people left comments, many of them appreciative, regarding the tips. Within those post-article conferring, someone asked for a similar article in relation to gray water usage, so here I sit with that task at hand.

Before delving too deeply into it, I just want to say that I believe these sorts of intermediary steps from conventional living to a more sustainable and self-reliant lifestyle are perhaps some of the most important we can address. The sad fact is that most homes haven’t been designed optimally for energy-efficiency and resource management, which means that many people—existing homeowners—don’t realistically have the option to acquire or build a “permaculture” home from the ground up. Retrofitting might not even be possible right away. They’ve already got a place and just want to make the most of that situation. It’s important, in the name of progress, to meet them along those lines.

Water conservation is a huge part of what we have to do as permaculturists, and in ideal conditions, our homes are designed to deal with day-to-day gray water rather mindlessly. Sinks and showers drain into reed beds and cycle back into the eco-system. Modern conveniences like washing machines and dishwashers are hooked up to immediately feed into filtering systems. Unfortunately, for those who don’t have these ideal systems, dealing with gray water is a little more labor-intensive. However, there are some options available for those who want to work within the confines of a home not designed to deal with gray water.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How climate change will mess with water ‘recharge’ in Western U.S.

December 2, 2017

How climate change will mess with water ‘recharge’ in Western U.S.

Over pumping our aquifers beyond recharge is a dangerous situation and not “sustainable” as Northern California wine makers sell us. Both Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties have been merchandising our water resources beyond recharge for years according to our state. We are on the edge of drought patterns.

Source: University of Arizona

As the climate warms, the dry southern regions of the Western United States will have less groundwater recharge while the northern regions will have more, researchers report.

“Our study asked what will be the effect of climate change on groundwater recharge in the Western US in the near future, 2021-2050, and the far future, 2070-2100,” says first author Rewati Niraula, who worked on the research as part of his doctoral work in the University of Arizona hydrology and atmospheric sciences department.

“…for those places that are already having problems, climate change is going to tighten the screws…”

The new study covers the entire US West, from the High Plains states to the Pacific coast, and provides the first detailed look at how groundwater recharge may change as the climate changes, says senior author Thomas Meixner, professor of hydrology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona.

“For the southern region of the Western US there will be a reduction in groundwater recharge, and in the northern region of the Western US we will have an increase,” says Niraula, now a senior research associate at the Texas Institute of Applied Environmental Research at Tarleton State University.

Groundwater is an important source of freshwater, particularly in the West, and is often used to make up for the lack of surface water during droughts, the authors note. In many areas of the West, groundwater pumping currently exceeds the amount of groundwater recharge.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Water Saving Irrigation Practices

November 29, 2017

WATER SAVING IRRIGATION PRACTICES

Saving water in the soil is without a doubt the easiest and most effective way to manage the water flowing through your land. If you need extra irrigation, however, the water stored up in your soil isn´t easy to access. For irrigation needs, you´ll want to use water that you store in cisterns or tanks. This water can be harvested either from the sky in the form of rain or through capturing water from a spring, river or another source of fresh water.

Irrigation, unfortunately, is one of the most wasteful practices in modern day agriculture. From traditional sprinkler systems to large-scale irrigation by airplane and helicopter, millions of gallons of water are lost each year by irrigating pieces of land where nothing is growing.
For a plant to grow properly, it obviously needs water. That water resource, especially when limited, should be focused on the root area. While sprinkler systems, to name just one example, indiscriminately spray water over entire fields of plants, drip irrigation systems can focus water directly to the root zone of the plant where water is needed.

Drip irrigation systems have been reported to use 80% less water than traditional irrigation practices. Furthermore, since these systems direct water only underneath the plant, fungal diseases caused by excess water accumulating on the leaves can also be avoided. We will briefly look at two easy to set up drip irrigation methods below.

BAMBOO DRIP IRRIGATION

If you have the money, you can purchase drip irrigation systems that include everything from primary lines to secondary lines to emitters. These complete sets are usually pretty reliable though costly, and if treated correctly will last for several years. If you want the easy approach to drip irrigation, you can search the web for any number of drip irrigation systems.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Council of Canadians: Stop Nestle from bottling water on expired permits!

November 25, 2017

In the Water-Scarce Southwest, an Ancient Irrigation System Disrupts Big Agriculture

November 17, 2017

In the Water-Scarce Southwest, an Ancient Irrigation System Disrupts Big Agriculture

In New Mexico and Colorado, the “acequia” is more than just democratic water distribution—it is at the center of Southwest culture.

Water in the American Southwest has never been abundant. Its availability fluctuates depending on conditions like drought and mountain snowpack that feeds streams and rivers. But experts predict a future of greater extremes: longer and hotter heat waves in the summer, less precipitation, decreased snowpack, and more severe and frequent droughts that will place greater stress on water users.

Experts predict a future of greater extremes.

In New Mexico and Colorado, legal statutes enable an area’s original water users to transfer their portions of the resource, via pipelines, to the highest bidder virtually anywhere in the state. When scarcity hits, industrial mining and agricultural operations can afford to purchase additional water while small-scale farmers and ranchers remain vulnerable; in both states, water use already exceeds availability.

But for over a century, acequias—an ancient form of community water management originating at least 1,000 years ago and now used by small-scale and backyard farmers and ranchers—have resisted the flow of water toward corporations in New Mexico and Colorado. After receiving wider legal protections for self-governance in the 2000s, acequias are disrupting modern agricultural practices by assuring the equitable distribution of water to rural communities.

An ancient system of water management

Acequias appeared in the United States centuries before New Mexico and Colorado were incorporated into the nation: more than a century, in fact, before the United States even existed. Brought by Spanish settlers to Mexican territory in the 16th century (including what is today the American Southwest), acequias were a system perfectly suited to the arid, high-elevation landscape where drought was common and the availability of water varied drastically from season to season and year to year.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Looking for a Glass of Water and a Place to Shit

October 23, 2017

Looking for a Glass of Water and a Place to Shit

Photo by woodleywonderworks | CC by 2.0

A recent Brown University Study showed that, between 2001 and 2016, the cost of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan has cost the US $3.6 trillion.

~ Ramzy Baroud

Imagine if you will that the U.S. had instead put $3.6 trillion into measures to improve infrastructure around the world. It has been estimated by the UNDP that to give the entire world fresh water and sanitation would cost half a trillion. That leaves $3.1 trillion for further projects. Now what would the U.S. have gained by being the country known for giving the entire world a glass a water and a place to shit? Think on it.

The first obvious effect would be a tremendous uplift to U.S. prestige. That is so obvious as to be unnecessary to argue. The public relations value of such an act would echo for generations. In addition, it would give the U.S. reputation a saintly glow that would render it all but immune to attacks of any kind. Who after all would sympathize with any who attacked such a country? Who would not come to its defense?

This of course would only be the beginning as there is $3.1 trillion still to go. The next thing the U.S. could do would be to give light to the world. I.e. To create small scale solar and wind power along with battery storage so that every village of the world no matter how remote would be able to light their way through the night. One of the biggest obstacles to schooling in the undeveloped world is that the children cannot read and study after sundown. I know of no studies as to what this would cost. What one can say with assurance is that as compared to the massive infrastructure requirements for water and sanitation the costs would be less for such an initiative.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Preparing for Floods, Droughts and Water Shortages by Working with, Rather than Against, Nature

October 17, 2017

An almond farm in California’s Central Valley is flooded in the wintertime to replenish groundwater supplies while scientists study the effects on soils, tree health, and water quality. Photo by Joe Proudman/UC Davis

[This piece is an excerpt from the first chapter of my new book, Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity, released this week by Island Press.]

As I wound my way up Poudre Canyon in northern Colorado, the river flowed toward the plains below, glistening in the midday sun. It ran easy and low, as it normally does as the autumn approaches, with the snowmelt long gone. I was struck by the canyon’s beauty, but also by the blackened soils and charred tree trunks that marred the steep mountains all around. They were legacies, I realized, of the High Park Fire that had burned more than 135 square miles (350 square kilometers) of forest during the previous year’s drought.

It was September 7, 2013, and my family and I were heading to my niece’s wedding. Tara and Eric had chosen a spectacular place for their nuptials—Sky Ranch, a high mountain camp not far from the eastern fringe of Rocky Mountain National Park. As we escorted my elderly parents down the rocky path to their seats, I noticed threatening clouds moving in. They darkened as the preacher delivered his homily. Please cut it short and marry them, I thought to myself, before we all get drenched.

The rains held off just long enough. But that day’s brief shower was a prelude to a deluge of biblical proportions that began four days later. A storm system stalled over the Front Range and in less than a week dumped nearly a year’s worth of precipitation in some areas. The Poudre— short for Cache la Poudre—flooded bigger than it had since 1930.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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