Author: Claire

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Irish Water to be Cheapest in Europe

Ireland has officially become the European country with the cheapest water with Denmark having the most expensive water. This is because most European countries charge on basis of amount of water used instead of flat-rate charges. The new maximum for a single adult home will be 160 euros and 260 euros for a multi-adult household.

I think that this is extremely foolish and encourages wasteful water usage. Water is an extremely precious resource and putting a maximum price on it, no matter how much they use, is dangerous. This could lead to wasteful habits and lack of care for the environment. Although cheap water is good, I think that households should be billed based on how much water they use. penalized for over-using, and rewarded for conserving.

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Strong Winds Fuel Brazil’s Drought While Amazon River is Flooding

San Paulo, Brazil is suffering its worst drought in a century. However, not too far away, the Amazon River is flooding. Why the water discrepancy? It is due to a series of strange winds that have triggered a high pressure system that is allowing for extremely little precipitation in some areas, and very heavy rainfall in others.

Once again, one of the biggest problems with water is lack of distribution. Both too much water and too little water can be harmful to a community. I think that the cities having problems with drought should find a way to capture rainfall to use in the warmer and drier seasons. In addition, there should be limitations on how close contractors can build next to the Amazon River for public safety due to large floods.

 

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Bottled Water in China

China has 20% of the world’s population but only 7% of the world’s freshwater. In the past five years, China’s consumption of bottled water has almost doubled from 19 billion to 37 billion liters. Water has become more and more polluted as the population of China continues to grow. All of this together has water in China becoming more and more expensive.

I think that the main problem with water is unequal distribution. We should find a way to distribute water based on population so that all countries have access to clean drinking water. Providing clean drinking water to developing countries would eliminate the need to travel days for clean water, allowing for more education and growth.

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California Drought Hits New Highs

http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v4/n11/full/nclimate2425.html  

The diagram shows the intense groundwater depletion in California and even some parts of Nevada and Arizona. In 2011, there is evidence of a lack of groundwater and was beginning to be a concern for residents. However, by 2013, the lack of rain has caused a severe depletion of groundwater.

I think that with a drought this extreme, we need to seriously look at how much water we are using per day. Using about 50 gallons a day in Silicon Valley, we can look at how we can make our appliances more energy and water efficient as well as how to take advantage of the little rainfall that we get.

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Are the storms enough to stop the drought?

http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2014/11/22/storms-raise-hope-in-california-drought  

 

 

 

 

Hours of steady rain this past Saturday in northern California raises hopes that the state will move out of its severe drought – at least somewhat. Water levels are significantly higher than they were in September, however the drought remains.

 

As someone who is directly affected by the drought, I sincerely hope that conditions improve and we get a strong increase of rain while still avoiding floods and mudslides. If this heavy rain continues, I am hoping that the brown grasses will turn to green and the dead flowers will have others flourish in their places.

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California Water Use is All Over the Map

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-1105-california-water-20141106-story.html 

Around the state, water usage varies quite a lot. Around the bay area, average gallons per capita per day is around 50. However, in Los Angeles County, the average number of gallons per capita per day is all the way up at 93 with the rest of the state varying somewhere in between.

I personally believe in water equality. I think that the rich should be able to use the same amount of water as the poor and drought should have an effect on everybody in California because it affects us all. I think that we should all have the same water restrictions and there should be different punishments for those who use too much water other than a fine.

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Outbreak of California Water Thieves

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/11/21/california-waterthieves.html

 

When something becomes scarcer, its value goes up and theft becomes an issue. In California, some have started to steal water from fire hydrants, storage tanks, creeks, and rivers.

These thieves are going out at night with large water tanks and stealing the common resource to avoid high water bills and taxing due to excess water usage.

It almost seems silly to me that there are people in the world that are stealing the thing

that naturally falls from the sky. For me it seems that water is plentiful only because I have a

faucet that will dispense clean drinking water whenever I please. I think the fact that people are

out there stealing water shows the desperation to help get us out of this intense drought.

 

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California Opens Door to New Chapter in Water Policy

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article4038721.html

 

The year of 2014 has left reservoirs near record lows and has led to a lot of water rationing in order to have enough water for the upcoming year. On November 4th, California supported the $7.5 billion bond measure that provides much needed funding for water projects across California. This increase in budgeting for water projects will help us strategize for California’s future such as planning for future droughts, recycling water, storm-water capture and ground-water sanitization.

If I were 18 years old and able to vote, I would have voted to approve the measure that allowed for more funding for water project purposes. This funding allows us to build desalination plants for turning salt water into drinkable water. It also allows us to put more time into thinking about how to capture precious storm water needed for most of the year when rain is lacking.