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Screw the people of Flint, or so goes the mantra of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), which last month approved a controversial permit that will allow Nestlé to pump and bottle 400 gallons of fresh water per minute from the state’s White Pine Springs, near the Osceola Township. Meanwhile, back in Flint, residents still aren’t buying the Governor’s bullshit that their water is safe to drink.

The privatization of the public’s water is only becoming more prevalent as reservoirs dry up around the globe. Bottled water sales have skyrocketed in the last ten years while access to fresh, affordable H20 has decreased. In places like Cape Town, South Africa, which is in the midst of a dire water shortage, it’s not just climate change that’s making the city quench for thirst — the impoverished can’t afford private water but residents with money are able to subsidize their meager rations.

“Many of the rich own water-bottling companies, they can afford to buy water,” Ebrahiem Fourie of the Cape Town Housing Assembly recently told journalist Dahr Jamail. “The available ground water [springs] are usually in affluent areas, which makes them easy to access, and with the current water restrictions the rich have cars to load their water.”

Mega-corporations like Coca-Cola and Nestlé may seem like a nice solution for communities that don’t have access to clean drinking water. Their water is potable, portable and generally safe. However, as we are witnessing in Cape Town, private companies in the water business cater to those with cash. The poor are left out to dry. Deals like Nestlé is scoring in Michigan won’t fix the water problem in Flint — which is one of the poorest communities in the nation — it will likely exacerbate it.

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

Understanding What the ‘New Normal’ Means for Water in the West

April 13, 2018

Understanding What the ‘New Normal’ Means for Water in the West

After 20 years of drought conditions, some scientists are calling for better terminology to describe the impact of rising temperatures in the region.

Humphrey’s Peak in Arizona is experiencing one of its lowest runoff years in history.Education Images/UIG via Getty Images

APRIL IS OFTEN a time of abundance in the mountains of the American West, when snowpack is at or near its peak, and forecasters work to determine how much runoff will course through our rivers and fill reservoirs later in the season.

This year, across much of the West, particularly the Southwest, there’s little in the way of abundance. At Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the West, runoff is predicted to be only 43 percent of average. Arizona is looking at one of its lowest runoff years in history. And in New Mexico, stretches of the Rio Grande have already run dry, months ahead of normal.

The only consolation is that last year was a wet year and reservoirs received a boost. While it’s typical in the West to have big swings in precipitation from year to year, what has concerned scientists lately is that even good years are no longer producing the kind of runoff seen historically.

It’s even prompted a group of scientists with the Colorado River Research Group to call for a new language to describe the conditions they’re seeing.

“There’s lots of talk of drought but there’s not enough talk that this is likely the new normal,” said Brad Udall, a member of the group and a senior water and climate research scientist at Colorado State University. “We really need to think in the long term that we are actually going to see less water in the [Colorado River] basin and we’re never going back to the 20th century.”

And in the Southwest, this “new normal” may look more like “aridification” than drought.

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

The Great Flood

March 31, 2018

The Great Flood

There is little doubt that the amount of water on earth really does not change. There is simply what is known as the Water Cycle whereby evaporation moves water to the sky and then it is redistributed as rain elsewhere. Therefore, the likelihood of an actual flood in Biblical terms that covered the entire world is unlikely. What we do know is that there is a wealth of evidence that the movement of the plates clearly resulted in the great flood that created the Mediterranean sea and there is also evidence that there are cities under the Black Sea no less the Mediterranean.

There is evidence that there was a tremendous flood when there was a break in the land at the Straits of Gibralter. What has surfaced is evidence that when that breach took place, the water rushed into the basin at probably around 100 mph. This is certainly something that would be remembered and probably handed down from generation to generation. (see Scientific American)

Nevertheless, it is also obvious that the sea level has risen in the Mediterranean even since the time of Julius Caesar (100-44BC). The city of ancient Alexandria in Egypt lies below the sea. Obviously, even in relatively modern times, the sea level has risen flooding communities. So actually stating definitively when did the Biblical Event of the flood take place is difficult to pinpoint because there have been great floods from 3 million years ago to 2,000 years ago. What is certain is that the sea levels have risen and fallen and this is part of nature – not instigated by humans.

Selco: The Dirty Truth About Water and Sanitation When the SHTF

March 30, 2018

Selco: The Dirty Truth About Water and Sanitation When the SHTF

Note: The biggest concerns in any long-term emergency are water and sanitation because the lack of these things can cause serious illness or even death. Because water and sanitation aren’t nearly as glamorous as guns and gadgets, they’re often overlooked in a preparedness plan. I asked Selco some questions about these important issues in this interview. The truth about it is dirty, unpleasant, and something for which you absolutely must plan.

Once there was no more running water, how did you get drinking water?

Just like most other things (especially when it comes to non-preppers) it was a matter of levels and layers.

The tap water was going on and off for a few days before service went completely off, so people had a few bottles of drinking water stored. But of course, most of us thought everything going to be restored very soon so nobody had thought about storing big amounts of water.

When it comes to lack of water and being unprepared, the levels and layers that I am mentioning meant that you first looked and asked for tap water (clean) for drinking. Then collecting water from rooftops sounded like a good idea. Then drinking directly from the river was good if there was no other source. And then, finally, when there was no other source. you simply drink dirty water even when you were sure it is quite dirty.

It was a matter of low resources, desperation, and of course low skill levels.

Our main sources were rain and the river.

Can you tell us about your rainwater collection system?

It was not anything smart, especially in the beginning.

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

Water Wars Loom: UN Warns 5 Billion People Will Face Civilizational Threat By 2050

March 20, 2018

Water Wars Loom: UN Warns 5 Billion People Will Face Civilizational Threat By 2050

While residents of Cape Town, South Africa, brace for Day Zero (the day that the city of 4 million’s municipal water supply will be cut off for most households and businesses in order to preserve water after a severe drought that has emptied reservoirs), they are far from alone.

As MarketWatch’s Ciar Linnane notes, experts say this dystopian scene could be played out in other major cities in the coming years, as demand for water continues to increase with population growth and as climate change makes already-dry regions still dryer.

More than 5 billion people could suffer water shortages by 2050 due to climate change, increased demand and polluted supplies, according to a UN report on the state of the world’s water.

As The Guardian reports, the comprehensive annual study warns of conflict and civilisational threats unless actions are taken to reduce the stress on rivers, lakes, aquifers, wetlands and reservoirs.

Demand for water is projected to rise fastest in developing countries. Meanwhile, climate change will put an added stress on supplies because it will make wet regions wetter and dry regions drier.

“For too long, the world has turned first to human-built, or ‘grey’, infrastructure to improve water management. In doing so, it has often brushed aside traditional and indigenous knowledge that embraces greener approaches,” says Gilbert Houngbo, the chair of UN Water, in the preface of the 100-page assessment.

“In the face of accelerated consumption, increasing environmental degradation and the multi-faceted impacts of climate change, we clearly need new ways of manage competing demands on our freshwater resources.”

By 2050, the report predicts, between 4.8 billion and 5.7 billion people will live in areas that are water-scarce for at least one month each year, up from 3.6 billion today, while the number of people at risk of floods will increase to 1.6 billion, from 1.2 billion.

Water quality is also deteriorating.

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

Canada Covering Up Global Warming Nuts Destroying the Water Supply

March 7, 2018

Canada Covering Up Global Warming Nuts Destroying the Water Supply

COMMENT: When Government turns on its own citizens.
Good day, Martin;

This climate change movement here in Ontario, Canada has gone too far. Construction of windmills in a small farming area has contaminated 16 residential water wells with that destroyed the pumps and piping that feed water to farms rendering property values to almost nothing.

Driving piles into the shale bedrock beneath the sandy soil for the foundation of windmills has disturbed the water sources. The Ministry of the environment has denied the water has been contaminated therefore avoiding an easy fix to install new systems that can easily purify the water. Instead, they will spend upwards of $50 to $100 million in legal battles to sway scientific study and avoid admittance of stupidity.

It’s like a farmer’s Flint Michigan for Canada. The ministry of environment has come out and claimed there is nothing wrong with the water. The citizens formed a group called “Water Wells First” and have been sidelined and lied to. Anyone with any sense could have figured out that if wind and solar electricity production costs are 30 to 80 cents per kilowatt-hour and sold to the public for 12 cents, the difference will be paid by the tax-payer anyway to the tune of hundreds of $millions over 20 years.

Government is contaminated when they protect their own failures and fail to protect the basic property rights of the people.

Thank you;

REPLY: Governments are the worst evil in human society. Whenever they make a mistake, they will NEVER admit it. This is standard procedure in absolutely every department and it is universal infecting all governments worldwide. This is the political nature behind the curtain. Take the Refugee Crisis in Europe. Instead of admitting a mistake, they threaten all governments to take in a portion to lessen their own exposure.

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

The Easiest Way To Create an Emergency Water Supply That Lasts All Winter

February 28, 2018

The Easiest Way To Create an Emergency Water Supply That Lasts All Winter

There are reasons that everyone disdains converting snow and ice to water, such as “it’s not cost or heat effective,” or “you can’t get much from it,” etc. In a survival situation, though, you may not have that much of a choice and this could be your only long-term water supply. With many surface water bodies freezing solid, it renders it difficult to remove the ice and then melt it down. Snow is the most-maligned of the two, but you can still take water from it. Let’s go over some of the numbers and explore a few methods to get some water in the wintertime when you’re out in the wilds.

Learn About Snow Water Equivalent

The volume of ice can be converted to the volume of water by multiplying the ice’s volume by 0.92 for water volume. This can be helpful, especially if you have a way of measuring blocks of ice or ice that has been formed within a container where you know the dimensions. Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) is the most common way to measure the amount of water that is in a given amount of snow. The “magic” number here is 10% of the volume of the snow is equal to the volume of water. Therefore, if you had a large container (such as a kid’s plastic swimming pool) filled with 2 feet of snow? Your amount of water would equal 2.4 inches, for the remaining area and volume of the pool.

The Simplest Way to Harvest Water in Winter

I mentioned these just to give you an idea. Naturally, you won’t be lugging around a Coleco plastic swimming pool in the woods with you. You can, however, pack in gallon-sized Ziploc plastic bags, and here’s where your math comes into play to figure volume.

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

Exposing Africa’s Manmade Water Crisis

February 21, 2018

Exposing Africa’s Manmade Water Crisis

The imminent shutdown of Cape Town’s piped water network should serve as a wake-up call for all of Africa to overhaul urban water-management systems. Unfortunately, like Africa’s water resources themselves, Cape Town’s crisis seems likely to be wasted.

About a decade ago, at a meeting of South African mayors convened by Lindiwe Hendricks, South Africa’s then-minister of water and environmental affairs, we predicted that an unprecedented water crisis would hit one of the country’s main cities within 15 years, unless water-management practices were improved significantly.

That prediction has now come true, with Cape Town facing a shutdown of its piped water network. The question now is whether African leaders will allow our other projection – that, within the next 25-30 years, many more of the continent’s cities will be facing similar crises – to materialize.

Africa has long struggled with urban water and wastewater management. As the continent’s population has swelled, from about 285 million in 1960 to nearly 1.3 billion today, and urbanization has progressed, the challenge has become increasingly acute. And these trends are set to intensify: by 2050, the continent’s total population is expected to exceed 2.5 billion, with 55% living in urban environments.

The challenge African countries face may not be unique, but it is, in some ways, unprecedented. After all, in Western countries, urbanization took place over a much longer period, and against a background of steadily improving economic conditions. In building effective systems for water and wastewater management, cities had adequate investment funds and the relevant expertise.

In Africa, cities’ financial and management capacities are already overwhelmed. As a result, water and wastewater management has often fallen by the wayside, with policymakers focusing on water-related issues only when droughts and floods occur. The Third World Centre for Water Management estimates that only about 10-12% of Africa’s population has access to adequate domestic and industrial wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal.

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

Breathing Highways and Sponge Cities

February 21, 2018

Breathing Highways and Sponge Cities

“We could do worse than to go back to the way nature manages rainfall.“

During the 20th Century, the rate of global warming was twice as fast in Taiwan (1.7°C) as for the world as a whole (0.74°C). Partly as a result, the number of days with rainfall decreased dramatically and typhoons gained strength. In 2009, Typhoon Morakot dropped over 1,000 mm (39.4 inches) in a single day and caused the loss of 699 lives. A massive mudslide wiped out Xiaolin Village and 474 people were buried alive. In 2015, Typhoon Soudelor left similar damage. It took months to repair the roads.

Then Taiwan and East China were struck by Dujuan, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Jenny, a killer storm and the thirteenth typhoon of the 2015 Pacific typhoon season. Eight months later, Nepartak became the third most intense tropical cyclone on record with 114 deaths and more than $1.5 billion damage in Taiwan and East China. September brought Meranti, a super typhoon and the strongest ever to make landfall in China in more than 1000 years of records. Meranti’s peak sustained winds tied the record set by Haiyan in 2013, 195 mph (315 km/h), comparable to a tornado, or a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. In Taiwan, nearly 1 million households lost power and 720,000 lost water supplies. Flooding in Zhejiang took 902 homes and affected 1.5 million people.

Between those punctuations, the erratic weather brought long droughts. New Taipei City had to enforce water restrictions when the Shihmen reservoir went dry in April. All cities along coasts or rivers have engineered means to remove excess water and to prevent flooding. Few have the means to sustain themselves in severe droughts.

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

30+ Tips for Coping Without Running Water

February 20, 2018

30+ Tips for Coping Without Running Water

Every prepper worth their salt stores water and lots of it. Not only that, they store one, two, three or more ways to purify water. That is all well and good because you never know when a disaster or other disruptive event may occur and those water resources will be called upon for drinking, cleaning, hygiene, and sanitation purposes.

Recently, my number came up and I was the one without water during a short term, personal water apocalypse. Now really, that may be a bit dramatic because I was simply without running water. This was caused by a break in the line from the water main at the street to my home. All told, I was without running water for 12 days.

16 Tips for Coping Without Running Water

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To be honest, I was quite relaxed about the ordeal. After all, I had cases of bottled water for drinking, a 55 gallon water barrel holding purified water, a source of raw, unfiltered water from a gravity pump right outside my house, and of course, my Berkey, LifeStraw Family, SolarBag, and pool shock for water purification.

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Still, being without running water brought up issues I had not considered. Albeit water-ready, the reality of not being able to turn on the tap and have fresh, and especially hot, water was a new experience.

Today I share tips for coping without running water so that you can be better prepared if something similar happens to you.

Contents [show]

16 Tips [UPDATE: Now 31 Tips] for Coping Without Water

1. Fill the bathtub

With advance notice of a water shutoff, fill the bathtub and as many spare jugs and buckets as you can round up. In addition, fill the Berkey, if you have one and all of your sinks.

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

How To Survive A Boil Notice

February 20, 2018

How To Survive A Boil Notice

The most important element in survival is clean water — but what do you do when it’s contaminated?This online class teaches everything you need to know Start learning today.

survive boil notice A friend in Puerto Rico, Jennifer, tells me that her town has been on a boil notice for 5 1/2 MONTHS following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Yep, you read that right. Five and a half months. That’s almost 170 days without clean running water. She could probably teach a college course on how to survive a boil notice!

Now, just think what that means to a household like yours:

The water that comes out of your tap, if it does, isn’t drinkable.
When someone is thirsty, the only safe water is bottled or has been purified in some way by you.
A recipe calls for water and, again, you have to be careful to use only what is safe to drink.
The refrigerator ice maker has to be turned off because tainted water results in tainted ice cubes. If you want ice, you either have to buy it or make it in ice cube trays with purified water.
Showering and bathing cannot be done in contaminated water, so what do you do, day after day after day?
Brushing teeth will require bottled or boiled water
Washing dishes isn’t safe anymore unless you’re certain the water in your dishwasher heats up to at least 170 degrees.
Is it safe to even do laundry? With certain contaminants, it is not!
What about water for your pets? Is it safe for them to consume?
The water filter on your refrigerator or the reverse osmosis system you rely on are not enough to remove most pathogens from water.

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

The 11 Cities Most Likely To Run Out Of Drinking Water

February 12, 2018

The 11 Cities Most Likely To Run Out Of Drinking Water

As of Sunday afternoon, the dreaded “day zero” – the day residents of the city of Cape Town, South Africa, will need to begin queuing for drinking water after supplies sink below the threshold of sustainability – was estimated to be Nov. 11, 2018.

The shortage is the result of South Africa’s worst drought in 100 years…

And with city government efforts to secure alternative water supplies progressing slowly, Cape Town (pop. 440,000) is on track to become the first major world city to run out of water.

Hiring security forces to guard water supplies and forcing residents to ration their use must be unimaginably frustrating for the city’s government. But during a press conference late last month, Patricia de Lille, Cape Town’s mayor, expressed another secondary annoyance that, in some ways, is even more profoundly disturbing.

A disaster that was until recently only imaginable by writers of dystopian science fiction is playing out in front of our eyes: And what’s worse: Nobody seems to care.

“We have reached the point of no return,” Patricia de Lille, Cape Town’s mayor, warned this month. With anger in her voice she added: “It is quite unbelievable that a majority of people do not seem to care.”

But they should – if only because they’re city might be next:

As the BBC notes, over one billion people lack access to water and another 2.7 billion find it scarce for at least one month of the year. A 2014 survey of the world’s 500 largest cities estimates that one in four are in a situation of “water stress”.

Here’s a list of 11 other major cities where the taps may soon run dry, courtesy of the BBC.

Sao Paulo

Brazil’s financial capital and one of the 10 most populated cities in the world went through a similar ordeal to Cape Town in 2015, when the main reservoir fell below 4% capacity.

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

A Step-By-Step Guide for Starting Seeds Indoors

February 11, 2018

A Step-By-Step Guide for Starting Seeds Indoors

While the weather outside is still on the chilly side, many are making use of their time indoors and get a headstart on the upcoming gardening season by starting seeds indoors. Doing so results in earlier and longer harvests. This economic gardening method doesn’t require special equipment – just some moist soil, comfortable temperatures, and some TLC!

Seeds need perfect growing conditions to grow healthy: water – allows the seed to swell up and the embryo to start growing, oxygen – so that energy can be released for germination, and warmth – germination improves as temperature rises.

Starting longer growing varieties like herbs, broccoli, cauliflower, and onions can greatly benefit from indoor growing methods. This gives the gardener a headstart and helps to control the growing environment.

A Step-By-Step Guide for Starting Seeds Indoors

Home gardeners can start vegetable and flower seedlings indoors between 4 to12 weeks before the last average spring frost in their area, which means it’s time to get started! Above all, start with good seeds. At Ready Gardens, we prefer time-tested heirloom varieties. These plants have been shown to have outstanding flavor and good harvests. Heck, if these seeds were good enough for my grandparents, they’re good enough for me. As well, you want to ensure that your seed starting mix has nutrients to feed young plants when they start growing their true leaves. Adding perlite and vermiculite can do wonders for emerging seedlings.

Fill a flat or other container with moist, sterile germination mix. Add enough mix to fill the container within an inch of the rim. Gently pat the soil down for even distribution.
Plant seeds according to their growing instructions. Some seeds can be planted in rows or scattered onto the soil’s surface. Typically, seeds need to be planted at 1/2 inch below the soil surface and covered with soil.

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

Who will drink the last glass of water in Cape Town?

January 28, 2018

Who will drink the last glass of water in Cape Town?

Because Cape Town sits between picturesque beaches and mountains, it is a favored travel destination. And, its weather during the summer is described as “almost too perfect.” That’s in part because it rains very little in the summer in this second most populous city in South Africa.

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink

Trouble is, starting in 2015 the rainy season never arrived. One year, then two years and now three years of extreme drought have brought the city’s water supplies almost to exhaustion. Barring extraordinary rains or even more draconian cutbacks in water usage than have already occurred, Cape Town officials say they will have to turn off water to most household taps and businesses sometime in April. They’re calling it “Day Zero.” Hospitals and essential public facilities will be exempt. Most residents would have to line up at designated water supply stations for a daily allocation of 25 liters.

Cape Town’s current troubles were not necessarily foreseeable in the usual sense. Yearly long-range weather forecasts raised no alarmswhen they were released since they did not predict an extreme drought for that year.

The causes of the city’s water problems are, in fact, multiple. First, Cape Town’s population has risen 80 percent since 1994 (the end of white rule) to 3.75 million people putting extraordinary demands on its water system. Second, average rainfall has been gradually decreasing for decades and has reached its lowest since 1933. Comparable records before that are not available. One calculation cited in the above linked article is that the current drought is the worst in more than 300 years. Another calculation suggests the multi-year drought is a once-in-a-millennium event. Third, climate change is almost certainly increasing the likelihood of such a drought though there is no way to prove the link to this particular drought.

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

Climate Bellwether? With Cape Town Almost Out of Water, “Day Zero” Looms

January 26, 2018

Climate Bellwether? With Cape Town Almost Out of Water, “Day Zero” Looms

In less than three months, residents in South African city could be lining up for rationed water under armed guards. “Is this the new normal?”

Tree trunks stand in the critically low Theewaterskloof Dam in Villiersdorp, South Africa, Jan. 23, 2018. (Photo: Reuters)

For residents of Cape Town, “Day Zero” is getting closer.

That’s the day when taps in the drought-stricken coastal South African city are projected run dry, and its residents would be forced to head to police-guarded distribution sites to obtain their daily ration of water.

“Anyone who works in climate change knows that we’ve given lots of quite doomsday-esque scenarios in the last two decades. This is the first one which I’ve really seen come true.”
—climatologist Simon GearThe city warned last week that the day was “now likely to happen.” And on Monday, the city, citing a drop in dam levels, moved the projected day up from April 22 to April 12.

“We have reached a point of no return,” Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille said last week announcing tightened water restrictions for the city’s 4 million residents. Starting Feb. 1, residents face a 50 liter per day limit (13.2 gallons). [For comparison, Americans’ daily home use is 88 gallons of water, the EPA says.]

When Day Zero hits, the limit will be 25 liters per day, to be collected at one of 200 water collection points. Agence France-Presse reports: “With about 5,000 families for each water collection point, the police and army are ready to be deployed to prevent unrest in the lines.”

USA Today, however, reported that “Each collection point will accommodate around 20,000 people per day.”

Cape Town is being described as the first major city in the developed world that would run out of water.

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

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Once there was no more running water, how did you get drinking water?

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16 Tips [UPDATE: Now 31 Tips] for Coping Without Water

1. Fill the bathtub

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