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The Philippines: Simple Is The best
Our investment is returned to us TEN TIMES PLUS in increased local participation in our FREE training programs and peaceful sleep knowing people are NOT going to bed hungry
I was motivated to develop our farm, Kitakitz Natural Farm, when I saw local children were suffering development issues. Kids of the same age in my hometown of Bloomsburg Pennsylvania are Significantly healthier. When we first retired to the Philippines in 2010 I was shocked when I discovered kids that were of similar ages to our 9-year-old were actually several years OLDER! They were short, lightweight, boney, and had numerous development issues including poor skin, hair, and dental health.
So I decided growing food for my own use was NOT ENOUGH!
Everything we do is 100% Organic and we do NOT use Chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Our Vegetables, Fruit, Flowers, Various Plants, Bamboo, trees & scrubs, cuttings & Seeds are grown in compost and vermiculture created soil.
We are also developing HYDROPONIC SYSTEMS USING HANGING VERTICLE BAMBOO POLES.
Throughout the farm, we apply NO TILL agriculture and permaculture food forest techniques similar to the Cuban Urban ORGANOPONICO & CONSULTORIO. We also provide FREE training to those who want to duplicate our programs and provide fresh produce, seeds, & Tools in ADDITION to wages for those who work on the farm. We also SELL fruits and Vegetables through our vendors at BELOW market prices. Our goal is NOT to make $$ but to help people to become 100% food Self Sufficient.
We have friends in the USA who help us sponsor families here. Our programs create Long term solutions for food Security. We are totally Unlike Government Give-away programs. State-sponsored programs are weak at best and only provide short-term solutions with minimal disbursement amounts of rice and processed food sufficient for only a few meals.
In nearly 100% of our cases, our PLAN is providing long-term solutions. For less than $100 per family, we set them up with over 150 lbs of food like Rice, Oats, Flour, Fruit juices, peanut butter, canned meat & fish, and of course SEEDS. Plus we provide EDUCATION on Nutrition & Meal planning, how to save seed, and growing sprouts and vegetables in limited space and sunlight. When they follow the PLAN within a few days our recipients are growing and eating their own FRESH food. Additionally, within a few weeks they can also be harvesting fast-growing crops like 50 DAY Radish, & 30 to 40 DAY Pakchoi, Spinach & lettuce. (See photos below of our standard Seed, Food & Sprouts Family plan)
Our investment is returned to us TEN TIMES PLUS in increased local participation in our FREE training programs and peaceful sleep knowing people are NOT going to bed hungry.
Mexico Is Experiencing One of The Most Widespread And Intense Droughts In Decades: NASA
According to the space agency, 85% of the territory is facing these conditions, which has affected the drinking water resources for drinking, cultivating, and irrigating. "Dams throughout Mexico are at exceptionally low levels."
As of April 15, 85% of the country was facing these conditions, explained the space agency.
ENTREPRENEUR STAFF
May 11, 2021
This article was translated from our Spanish edition using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.
NASA published a statement in which it explains the drought situation in Mexico and ensures that the country is experiencing one of the most widespread and intense in decades.
According to the space agency, 85% of the territory is facing these conditions, which has affected the drinking water resources for drinking, cultivating, and irrigating. "Dams throughout Mexico are at exceptionally low levels."
You may be interested: Avocado, the 'green gold' that could harm the environment?
In this report, NASA shows images of the levels of the Villa Victoria dam, one of the main water supplies in Mexico City, one taken on March 27, 2020, and another on March 30, 2021, and exposes:
March 27, 2020. Photo via NASA.
March 30, 2021. Photo via NASA.
“The most recent images, although more cloudy, show that the water levels have continued to decrease. Villa Victoria is at approximately a third of its normal capacity ”.
Mexican dams at their lowest levels
According to what was exposed by the space agency, 60 large dams located in the north and center of the Aztec country are below 25% of their capacity. This has caused some government administrators to regulate the flow of the liquid from the reservoirs so that some inhabitants have been left without running water.
On the other hand, in the following map NASA shows the areas in which the vegetation is most stressed due to drought, through data on the Evaporative Stress Index (ESI, for its acronym in English).
Photo via NASA.
The ESI indicates how the evapotranspiration rate, water evaporates from the earth's surface and from plant leaves, is compared to normal conditions. The space agency explains that the negative values are below normal rates, which is why plants are stressed due to inadequate soil moisture.
No rain
From October 1, 2020, to April 18, 2021, the National Meteorological Service of Mexico said that the country had about 20% less rainfall than normal. He also explained that the northeast of the territory has gone from severe drought to an extreme one.
The report also adds that in the wet months of last year, little rainfall was also received due to the La Niña phenomenon, in which cold water from the Pacific Ocean inhibits the formation of rain clouds over Mexico and the southern United States.
“Mexico is approaching one of the worst widespread droughts on record. In 2011, drought conditions covered 95 percent of the country and caused famines in the state of Chihuahua. In 1996, the country experienced the worst drought on record and suffered huge crop losses, ”concludes NASA.
Lead Photo: Image credit: Depositphotos.com
PODCAST: Vertical Farming Podcast - Season 3 Episode 29 - Nicholas Dyner. Nick Is The CEO of Moleaer
In this episode, Harry and Nick discuss Nick’s extensive background working in the water treatment industry
Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Nicholas Dyner. Nick is the CEO of Moleaer, an organization that produces commercial nanobubble generators to deliver sustainable, chemical-free water quality improvement for agriculture, reservoirs, lakes, ponds, and more.
In this episode, Harry and Nick discuss Nick’s extensive background working in the water treatment industry. Nick expounds on nanobubble technology, what it is and how it can be used to improve vertical farming and the agricultural industry as a whole. Finally, Harry and Nick talk about the ongoing struggle for universal access to safe water and how advancements in technology can help restore and improve the quality of sea life.
Listen & Subscribe
Self-Watering Soil Could Reduce Water Use In Agriculture
January 5, 2021
By University of Texas at Austin (edited)
A new type of soil created by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin can pull water from the air and distribute it to plants, potentially reducing water use in agriculture.
As published in ACS Materials Letters, the team’s atmospheric water irrigation system uses super-moisture-absorbent gels to capture water from the air. When the soil is heated to a certain temperature, the gels release the water, making it available to plants. When the soil distributes water, some of it goes back into the air, increasing humidity and making it easier to continue the harvesting cycle.
“Enabling free-standing agriculture in areas where it’s hard to build up irrigation and power systems is crucial to liberating crop farming from the complex water supply chain as resources become increasingly scarce,” said Guihua Yu, associate professor of materials science in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Each gram of soil can extract approximately 3-4 grams of water. The gels in the soil pull water out of the air during cooler, more humid periods at night. Solar heat during the day activates the water-containing gels to release their contents into the soil.
The team ran experiments on the roof of the Cockrell School’s Engineering Teaching Center building at UT Austin to test the soil. They found that the hydrogel soil was able to retain water better than sandy soils found in dry areas, and it needed far less water to grow plants.
During a four-week experiment, the team found that its soil retained approximately 40% of the water quantity it started with. In contrast, the sandy soil had only 20% of its water left after just one week.
In another experiment, the team planted radishes in both types of soil. The radishes in the hydrogel soil all survived a 14-day period without any irrigation beyond an initial round to make sure the plants took hold. Radishes in the sandy soil were irrigated several times during the first four days of the experiment. None of the radishes in the sandy soil survived more than two days after the initial irrigation period.
“Most soil is good enough to support the growth of plants,” said Fei Zhao, a postdoctoral researcher in Yu’s research group who led the study with Xingyi Zhou and Panpan Zhang. “It’s the water that is the main limitation, so that is why we wanted to develop a soil that can harvest water from the ambient air.”
The team has also tried the indoor growth of several microgreens such as broccoli, radish, and peas. “They could be certainly used for indoor farming with controlled temperature, humidity, and simulated sunlight. Our SMAG-soil can work for various crops and should be able to perform well in indoor settings,” says Yu.
The water-harvesting soil is the first big application of technology that Yu’s group has been working on for more than two years. Last year, the team developed the capability to use gel-polymer hybrid materials that work like “super sponges,” extracting large amounts of water from the ambient air, cleaning it, and quickly releasing it using solar energy.
The researchers envision several other applications of the technology. It could potentially be used for cooling solar panels and data centers. It could expand access to drinking water, either through individual systems for households or larger systems for big groups such as workers or soldiers.
Topics Growing Media
Source and Photo Courtesy of Greenhouse Canada
How iFarm Vertical Farms Save Water
In many places around the world, for example in the Middle East, water resources are limited and their price is high. Reducing water consumption on a vertical farm in such regions can have a very positive economic and environmental impact
Generally, vertical farming uses 95% less water than traditional farming. At iFarm we have improved this indicator.
In many places around the world, for example in the Middle East, water resources are limited and their price is high. Reducing water consumption on a vertical farm in such regions can have a very positive economic and environmental impact. iFarm engineers have recently developed and patented a dehumidification system allowing to reuse the water that farm plants evaporate during growth.
How does it work? Let's take a look at a vertical farm with a cultivation area of 1000 m2. It produces 2.5 tons of fresh salads and herbs every month. To get such a yield, you need 2020 liters of water daily, most of which — 1400 liters — is used for plant nutrition. However, the daily actual water consumption is almost three times less. 2020 liters are poured into the system once, and then the "engineering magic" begins.
At iFarm vertical farms we use flow hydroponics, i.e the roots of plants are constantly placed in the nutrient solution and consume it whenever they need, getting all the macro- and microelements in the right ratio and concentration.
From 1400 liters of the water, plants use only 80 liters for weight gain (consumption of nutrients from a larger volume is a prerequisite). The remaining 1 320 liters the plants simply evaporate. In the process of transpiration, a lettuce leaf can evaporate an amount of water that exceeds its own weight many times. We collect this water with air conditioners and dehumidifiers, purify it and reuse it in production, maintaining the optimal humidity inside at 70%.
The second "source" of water on the farm is the water supply system — another 700 liters are collected from it and then run through a special filtration unit, resulting in 560 liters of purified and 140 liters of untreated water. The latter is collected in a special tank for technical needs (washing hands, pallets, floors, etc.).
Thus in order to save water, we started collecting it from air conditioners and dehumidifiers that were originally designed to maintain optimal moisture on the farm. This approach allows the production to use only 700 liters of tap water per day, which is three times less than growing plants in conventional hydroponic greenhouses.
We are currently improving the automation of the nutrient solution replacement. The system will determine what macro- and microelements are missing in the trays at a given time and adjust them. According to the calculations of engineers, this will reduce the number of times the sewerage has to be drained completely and almost halve its consumption — from 360 liters to 150 liters. The amount of tap water required by a vertical farm to produce delicious and reach yields then will be just 440 liters, which is five times less than what a hydroponic greenhouse needs.
16.10.2020
Farming In The Desert: Are Vertical Farms The Solution To Saving Water?
"When I told people I was going to grow tomatoes in the desert, they thought I was crazy," Sky Kurtz, founder of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, told DW
With high temperatures and water scarcity, the Emirates might seem an unlikely place for a farm. Yet, as coronavirus and climate change heightens the desire for food security, could vertical farms be the solution?
"When I told people I was going to grow tomatoes in the desert, they thought I was crazy," Sky Kurtz, founder of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, told DW.
With just an average 12 days of rain a year, less than 1% arable land, a desert location, and an 80% import rate for food, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seems an unfavorable place to set up a farm.
Read more: World needs 7 planets to eat like a G20 nation, food report finds
Kurtz is one of several entrepreneurs using high-tech farming techniques to boost crop production in the Emirates. Pure Harvest built the first climate-controlled greenhouse in Abu Dhabi in 2017.
Prompted by arid conditions and a desire for greater food security, the country is investing millions in technologies — such as vertical farming — that could make it an unlikely agricultural pioneer.
Read more: Goodbye to fields: What food production may look like tomorrow
Sky Kurtz says people thought he was crazy when he said he would grow tomatoes in the desert
Vertical farms can grow a rich variety of different crops by stacking them in layers under LED lighting in climate-controlled greenhouses and watering them with mist or drip systems. The process is tailored to each crop's specific needs, resulting in high-yield, year-round harvests.
"It takes 30 to 40 days to grow leafy greens out in the field. We can grow that same crop in 10 to 12 days," says Marc Oshima, co-founder of Aerofarms. The company received funding from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to build the capital's largest indoor vertical farm, with 800 different crops, by 2021.
With vertical farming, crops can flourish year-round, far from traditional regions of production
Water scarcity and fossil-fuel reliance
The technology uses minimal land and up to 95% less water than conventional agriculture.
The hydroponics system places the plants' roots directly into a water-based and nutrient-rich solution instead of soil. This "closed-loop" system captures and recirculates all the water, rather than allowing it to drain away — useful for a country like the UAE suffering from extremely high water stress.
Read more: Blue Gold: The dwindling resource of water
Globally, agriculture accounts for 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and UAE is extracting groundwater faster than it can be replenished, according to the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA).
"Water is very expensive over in the UAE, but energy is cheap as it is subsidized," says Jan Westra, a strategic business developer at Priva, a company providing technology to vertical farms.
The artificially controlled environment is energy-intensive because the air conditioning and LED lights need a constant source of electricity.
This bringing forth of life in the desert could come at a high environmental cost. Most of that energy comes from carbon-emitting fossil fuels, even as the Middle Eastern country feel the effects of climate change.
By 2050 Abu Dhabi's average temperature is predicted to increase by around 2.5°C in a business-as-usual scenario. Over the next 70 years, patterns of rainfall are also expected to change.
Aerofarms has received funding from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to build the capital's largest indoor vertical farm, with 800 different crops, by 2021
Integrating renewable energy
Although Pure Harvest is building a solar-powered farm in neighboring Saudi Arabia, its UAE operations get electricity from the carbon-intensive national grid.
Investing more in renewables "is a goal of ours," Kurtz told DW. He said the company has not set a clean energy target but is working on various green power projects, including a plan to integrate solar power generated in UAE into its operations.
However, Willem van der Schans, a researcher specializing in short supply chains at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, says sustainability and clean energy should be "inherent in the technology and included in plans when starting a vertical farm."
He argues that many vertical farming companies are not sustainable in terms of energy as they still view clean power as an optional "add-on."
Read more: Innovative clean water technologies
Ismahane Elouafi, director-general of the government-funded ICBA in Abu Dhabi, acknowledges that vertical farming has some way to go before achieving "real sustainability," but she believes the innovations are "promising."
Improved battery storage, increasingly efficient LED lights and cheaper solar panels will help, she adds.
Local solutions
By 2050, the UAE government wants to generate almost half its energy from renewable sources.
Fred Ruijgt, a vertical farming specialist at Priva, argues that it's important to factor transport and refrigeration into the energy equation. Vertical farming uses more energy to grow crops than traditional agriculture, but because crops are grown locally, they do not have to be transported by air, sea or truck over long distances.
Vertical farming installations come in all shapes and sizes, meaning food can grow where land and water are scarce
"The energy-saving is difficult to calculate exactly, but the advantages of locally grown crops are huge," he says, adding that those grown in vertical farms not only use less water and pesticides but that they also have a longer shelf life due to minimal transportation time.
Read more: Dubai: Can the city of black gold go green?
Food security and coronavirus
In 2018, the UAE set out its vision to become a hub for high-tech local food production.
Companies and investors have flocked to the region, attracted by the 0% corporate tax rate, low labor costs, and cheap energy. With their help, UAE aims to reduce its reliance on imports and make its food system more resilient to shocks like climate change and pandemics.
Oshima from Aerofarms says the coronavirus pandemic has brought "greater appreciation of how fragile the supply chain is and raised questions about food safety and security."
When the UAE went into lockdown in April, imported supplies of perishable goods like vegetables fell and business boomed for local suppliers.
ICBA's Elouafi said they have helped keep the UAE well-stocked during the pandemic.
"With the help of local food production and adequate imports, there has been absolutely no shortage of food in the UAE," Elouafi told DW.
Climate change, however, poses an altogether more complex threat to the country in the long-term. Given climate change's likely impact on food production, she says vertical farming has shown it is "an economically viable proposition even with harsh climatic conditions."
U.S. Drinking Water Widely Contaminated With 'Forever Chemicals': Environment Watchdog
The chemicals, resistant to breaking down in the environment, are known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Some have been linked to cancers, liver damage, low birth weight and other health problems
Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
The contamination of U.S. drinking water with man-made "forever chemicals" is far worse than previously estimated with some of the highest levels found in Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans, said a report on Wednesday by an environmental watchdog group.
The chemicals, resistant to breaking down in the environment, are known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Some have been linked to cancers, liver damage, low birth weight and other health problems.
The findings here by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) show the group's previous estimate in 2018, based on unpublished U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data, that 110 million Americans may be contaminated with PFAS, could be far too low.
“It's nearly impossible to avoid contaminated drinking water from these chemicals," said David Andrews, a senior scientist at EWG and co-author of the report.
The chemicals were used in products like Teflon and Scotchguard and in firefighting foam. Some are used in a variety of other products and industrial processes, and their replacements also pose risks.
Of tap water samples taken by EWG from 44 sites in 31 states and Washington D.C., only one location, Meridian, Mississippi, which relies on 700 foot (215 m) deep wells, had no detectable PFAS. Only Seattle and Tuscaloosa, Alabama had levels below 1 part per trillion (PPT), the limit EWG recommends.
RELATED COVERAGE
VIDEO Tap water widely contaminated across U.S. -report
In addition, EWG found that on average six to seven PFAS compounds were found at the tested sites, and the effects on the health of the mixtures are little understood. "Everyone's really exposed to a toxic soup of these PFAS chemicals," Andrews said.
In 34 places where EWG's tests found PFAS, contamination had not been publicly reported by the EPA or state environmental agencies.:
The EPA has known since at least 2001 about the problem of PFAS in drinking water but has so far failed to set an enforceable, nationwide legal limit. The EPA said early last year it would begin the process to set limits on two of the chemicals, PFOA, and PFOS.
The EPA said it has helped states and communities address PFAS and that it is working to put limits on the two main chemicals but did not give a timeline.
In 2018 a draft report from an office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the risk level for exposure to the chemicals should be up to 10 times lower than the 70 PPT threshold the EPA recommends. The White House and the EPA had tried to stop the report from being published.(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Lead Photo: March 4, 2016. REUTERS/MARIO ANZUONI/FILE PHOTO - People refill bottles at a water store in Temple City, California, United States
The EPA's Rollback of the Clean Water Act Could Impact Drinking Water For Millions of Americans
"They're effectively sending us back 30 years in our protections of U.S. waters," says Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute and a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship winner for his work as a climate and water scientist
It exposes small streams and wetlands nationwide to pollution
By Ula Chrobak
September 13, 2019
The Trump Administration just announced yet another blow to the country's environmental protections. On Thursday, officials from the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers repealed an Obama administration update to the 1972 Clean Water Act, which had expanded protection to wetlands and streams that are disconnected from navigable rivers. "They're effectively sending us back 30 years in our protections of U.S. waters," says Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute and a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship winner for his work as a climate and water scientist.
The 2015 rule has broadened the definition of "waters of the United States," which allowed the EPA to regulate pollutants in a much greater proportion of waterways than before. Dry washes and streams may only flow intermittently, but according to an EPA report, they make up about 59 percent of streams in the U.S. and 81 percent of those in the Southwest. Another EPA report, which supported the 2015 rule, reviewed more than 1,200 studies on small streams and wetlands and found that they're critical to the health of downstream rivers: "There is ample evidence that many wetlands and open waters located outside of riparian areas and floodplains, even when lacking surface water connections, provide physical, chemical, and biological functions that could affect the integrity of downstream waters." And yet, many of these waters now have no protection under federal law.
The original definition of "waters of the United States" mainly covered large rivers, their tributaries, and adjacent wetlands. The Clean Water Act requires industrial and municipal polluters discharging to these rivers to obtain permits from the EPA and the 2015 update expanded those regulations to include smaller streams and wetlands. Thursday's repeal will soon be followed by a rule change, and the replacement text would basically revert to the '70s-level protections. Officials have stated that the change would remove a current "regulatory patchwork"—the 2015 update only applies to 22 states, Washington D.C. and U.S. territories because other states have challenged the rule in court. In a press release, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said redefining "water of the United States" would "provide greater regulatory certainty for farmers, landowners, home builders, and developers nationwide."
But despite whatever uncertainty there may have been, the 2015 update was enacted for a reason: the streams and wetlands that aren't flowing into or right next to major rivers are still crucial for wildlife and humans. Drinking water for one in three people in the lower 48 comes from same waters that just lost their federal protections in the repeal, as PopSci has reported previously. "The weakening that we're seeing today is really serious—It's really cutting protection for drinking water for a lot of Americans," says Gleick. "A lot of our groundwater resources and a lot of our surface water resources are now going to be vulnerable to far more pollution."
The 2015 rule also regulated pesticides and nutrients leaching from many farmers’ fields—a diffuse but cumulatively significant source of pollution. In the Mississippi basin, for example, the pollutants from numerous farms that trickle into small streams and wetlands eventually flow into the river and then into the Gulf of Mexico says, Gleick. This impacts water quality and leads to the growth of massive algal blooms and fish die-offs. “Some farmers would have had to get permits to discharge pollutants into the streams and wetlands,” says Gleick. But now that requirement has been lifted, and our waters will suffer for it.
Lead Photo: Small streams could be in danger / Joao Branco/Unsplash
India: No Drips, No Drops: A City Of 10 Million Is Running Out Of Water
In India's sixth-largest city, lines for water snake around city blocks, restaurants are turning away customers and a man was killed in a brawl over water. Chennai, with a population of almost 10 million, is nearly out of water
June 25, 2019
SUSHMITA PATHAK
These satellite images from June 15, 2018, (left) and June 15, 2019, show the diminishing size of the Puzhal Lake reservoir in Chennai, India.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 Satellite Image/Maxar Technologies via AP
In India's sixth-largest city, lines for water snake around city blocks, restaurants are turning away customers and a man was killed in a brawl over water. Chennai, with a population of almost 10 million, is nearly out of water.
In much of India, municipal water, drawn from reservoirs or groundwater, typically runs for only a couple of hours each day. That's the norm year-round. The affluent fill tanks on their roofs; the poor fill jerrycans and buckets.
But in Chennai this summer, the water is barely flowing at all. The government has dispatched water tankers to residential areas to fill the void. Still, some people in especially hard-hit areas have vacated their homes and moved in with relatives or friends.
Satellite images of the city's largest reservoir, Puzhal Lake, taken one year apart, reveal a chilling picture. Since June 2018, the lake has shrunk significantly. Puzhal is one of the four rain-fed reservoirs that supply water to most parts of Chennai.
#ChennaiWaterScarcity Scenes of the dried up Thiruneermalai, Chembarambakkam, Perumbakkam and Korattur lake in Chennai.
All major reservoirs supplying water to Chennai dry up, read: http://bit.ly/2WLKzwZ #தவிக்கும்தமிழ்நாடு
Another picture shows the parched bed of Chembarambakkam Lake, another major reservoir. Its cracked surface is covered with dead fish.
"It's shocking but not surprising," says Tarun Gopalakrishnan, a climate change expert at the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment. He says the crisis in Chennai is the result of "a toxic mix of bad governance and climate change."
Rains have become more erratic because of climate change. That, coupled with a delayed arrival of the seasonal monsoon, which usually comes in June, has all but dried up the city's water supply. Government data show that the storage level in the four lakes combined is less than one-hundredth of what it was at this time last year. A severe heat wave gripping most of India, including Chennai, has aggravated conditions.
What's happening in Chennai could easily happen anywhere across India, Gopalakrishnan says.
A 2018 government think tank report projected that 21 major Indian cities, including the capital, New Delhi, and India's IT hub, Bengaluru, will "run out of groundwater as soon as 2020." Approximately 100 million people would be affected, the report predicts.
In Chennai, residents are scrambling to conserve water.
"We stopped using showers for bathing. We use buckets so that we can ration the amount of water," says 33-year-old university professor Nivash Shanmugkam. His family also avoids using a washing machine for its laundry and washes clothes by hand as much as possible.
Public institutions are suffering. Hospitals and nursing homes are charging more for services to cover the increased cost of water, according to the local press. There are also reports that toilets at schools are dirty due to a lack of water.
Indian workers carry the last bit of water from a small pond in the dried-out Puzhal reservoir on the outskirts of Chennai. | . Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images
A scuffle over water turned deadly for a 33-year-old man when he tried to stop another man and his sons from siphoning large amounts of water from a public tank this month.
Businesses and offices have been affected too. Amit Agarwal, a 28-year-old IT professional in Chennai, has been working from home for the past few days because there is no water in the bathrooms in his office. Many tech companies have been advising employees to do the same.
In Chennai's shopping malls, restrooms are operational only on some floors.
The rich can buy additional deliveries of water from private tankers, sometimes at exorbitant rates. Poor people living in slums simply can't afford to pay.
The response of the government of Tamil Nadu, the state whose capital is Chennai, has ranged from downplaying the extent of the crisis to praying to the rain gods.
"There has been a water shortage in several areas due to monsoon deficit. The government is taking several steps," Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami told reporters on Friday.
Those steps include a special train that will soon begin transporting 10 million liters of water per day – that's about 2.6 million gallons — to Chennai from another part of the state. After initially turning down donations, Tamil Nadu has accepted an offer of aid of 2 million liters of drinking water from a neighboring state, Kerala.
Opposition politicians in Tamil Nadu are staging protests. Dozens of women carrying colorful plastic water pots with slogans written on them gathered in Chennai this week to criticize the government for its handling of the water crisis.
One thing that could have possibly averted this acute water shortage? Rainwater harvesting.
In 2002, the government of Tamil Nadu passed legislation that mandated rainwater-harvesting structures on all buildings, including private homes, in the city. The goal: to capture rainwater and store it for later use. It was a revolutionary idea. When the city got hit with heavy monsoon rains a few years later, rainwater harvesting raised the water table enough to last the city until 2016, says Sekhar Raghavan, director of the Chennai-based nonprofit The Rain Centre.
But the government failed to monitor the rainwater-harvesting structures, which meant a lot of them didn't work properly.
"This is a wake-up call for the government and citizens," he says.
Raghavan says he's now getting calls from people asking about how they can properly harvest every drop of rainwater.
Anticipating inadequate rainfall and planning for acute water shortages are further complicated by climate change.
"The fear associated with climate change is not the fear of knowing that everything is going to be worse," says Gopalakrishnan. "It's the fear of not knowing."
While they may not necessarily light ceremonial fires for rain like their elected leaders, Chennai residents will nevertheless be praying for a downpour soon.
NPR correspondent Lauren Frayer contributed to this report from New Delhi.
Tags: water shortage water india chennai
India’s Water Crisis Is Real: What Will Happen by 2020?
The index prepared by the NITI Aayog claims that, by 2020, as many as 21 major cities of India will run out of the water and face ‘day zero’
The index prepared by the NITI Aayog claims that, by 2020, as many as 21 major cities of India will run out of the water and face ‘day zero’—a term that got popular after the major water crisis in Cape Town in South Africa.July 20, 2018
July 28, 2018
The index prepared by the NITI Aayog claims that, by 2020, as many as 21 major cities of India will run out of the water and face ‘day zero’—a term that got popular after the major water crisis in Cape Town in South Africa.
India is a diverse country. It harbours different religions, ethnicities and species, and until now more or less our natural resources have supported this diversification. However, now, the burden of the activities of the mankind has exceeded the tolerance power of nature and, therefore, India—which has been blessed with water resources—might soon turn into a water-scarce country. Recently, a number of events have shaken up the high-profile political circles of Delhi. The flood situation in Mumbai, severe water scarcity in Shimla and Bengaluru, and the release of the Composite Water Management Index by the NITI Aayog have all put ‘water’ on the front page of many newspaper and websites.
The index prepared by the NITI Aayog claims that, by 2020, as many as 21 major cities of India will run out of the water and face ‘day zero’—a term that got popular after the major water crisis in Cape Town in South Africa. The NITI Aayog has, generously enough, talked about only 21 major cities, but if we go according to the projections of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), more than 60 tier-1, tier-2 and tier-3 cities are on the verge of water scarcity. The stage of development of groundwater in these cities is near 100%. The ‘Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India’, a report published by the CGWB, defines the stage of development of groundwater as the percentage of utilisation of groundwater with respect to recharge.
The stage of development of groundwater in India, as on March 31, 2013, is 62%. But it varies from region to region. The CGWB has divided the whole country into 6,584 assessment units, and of which 16% comes under the category of ‘overexploited’. This means that in 16% of the total assessment units, the annual groundwater extraction exceeds the net annual groundwater availability, which leads to long-term decline in groundwater tables of the regions. In addition, 4% and 10% units come under the category of critical (stage of development of groundwater more than 90% but less than 100%) and semi-critical (stage of development of groundwater more than 70% but less than 100%), respectively.
The maximum number of overexploited units fall in three regions of the country: the north-western part which includes cities in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh; the western part which includes cities in Rajasthan and Gujarat; and the southern part which includes cities in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. Of the 21 major cities that are going to run out of water by 2020, as reported by the NITI Aayog, Hyderabad has the worst condition, where the stage of development of groundwater is more than 400%. Chennai, which has been recording frequent floods during the monsoon season, has a 185% stage of development of groundwater. The capital city of India, Delhi’s stage of groundwater development is 127%, but some regions in Delhi, such as Hauz Khas, Kalkaji and Vasant Vihar, have more than 250% stage of development of groundwater.
Apart from these 21 major cities, many other cities in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are at an alarming stage of development of groundwater. The situation will become worse when the population growth rate of these cities is taken into account. The main reasons behind over-extraction of groundwater in these cities are over-reliance of citizens on groundwater due to lack of storage capacity of water, poorly defined legal framework of groundwater that rests the ownership of groundwater with the landowners, and lower pricing of urban water. The per-capita water storage capacity of India is near 225 cubic metres, which is far below than our neighbour China, which has a storage capacity of 1,111 cubic metres per-capita. Most cities in India have seen unplanned growth, whereas master plans are being superimposed without future resource considerations.
There are no provisions for rainwater harvesting and water conservation structures in these plans, which led to the overemphasis on groundwater in these cities. Moreover, the rights of groundwater extraction with the landowners and lower prices of water have resulted in groundwater mining in Indian cities. In order to redress the current situation, Indian policy-makers have to take some tough decisions. These include proper pricing of water, introducing a central groundwater Bill that gives the ownership of groundwater to a particular government agency, and undertaking construction of water-related infrastructure that can increase the storage capacity in India.
Besides this, there is a need to generate awareness among the common masses about the current condition of water scarcity in the country. The common man holds lot of power and, in many cases, it has been seen that people have taken up the matter in their own hands and changed the overall scenario without any external help from any agency. The Jakhani village of Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh can serve as the role model for the people, institutions and policy-makers, where without any help from the state or central government, villagers defeated the drought and became self-sufficient in water. To solve the problem of water scarcity in India, we need an integrated approach that involves the efforts of every stakeholder. We have to overcome the diversification in our own motives and stand up as a united front.
Avinash Mishra & Namrata Singh Panwar
Massive Algae Blooms Choking Waterways, Synthetic Fertilizers in Chemical-Intensive Land Management a Major Cause
In the food chain, as in all systems, balance is key; but in Florida, erupting algal blooms are evidence of a system wildly out of balance.
(Beyond Pesticides, July 20, 2018) Algae are elemental to life on Earth as generators of most of the planet’s oxygen and as food for myriad organisms. In the food chain, as in all systems, balance is key; but in Florida, erupting algal blooms are evidence of a system wildly out of balance. Blue-green algae species are coating the surfaces of many of the state’s lakes. In the past month, algae on the state’s most-well-known water body — Lake Okeechobee — grew from a crescent in one corner of the lake to 90% coverage of its 370 square miles. Algae have grown out of control in part because of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, which arises from runoff from conventionally managed lands and from leaky septic systems. Beyond coating the lake surface, the slimy stuff is now found not only in the Caloosahatchee River, but also, along its entire canal system from Lake Okeechobee into downtown Fort Myers, and moving toward the river’s mouth on the southwest coast. Indeed, in early July, after touring the Caloosahatchee River estuary, Florida’s governor issued an emergency order to help state agencies in multiple counties better manage these harmful algal blooms in lakes, rivers, and coastal estuaries.
Such algae overgrowth arises from a concurrence of basic ingredients: ample warm water (think summer), sunlight, and pollution. Given that it is nigh impossible to control sunlight or water temperature — and water temperatures and extreme spring and summer rain events will likely worsen, given climate disruption — humans can have the greatest impact via their own contributing activities. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicates that, “The most effective preventative measures are those that seek to control anthropogenic influences that promote blooms such as the leaching and runoff of excess nutrients. Management practices for nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, should have the goal of reducing loadings from both point and nonpoint sources, including water treatment discharges, agricultural runoff, and stormwater runoff.”
Put simply: nitrogen and phosphorous, characteristic of agricultural runoff from the use of synthetic fertilizers, boost algal growth. The extremely common use of such fertilizers in chemical-intensive (conventional) agriculture and turf care is a huge contributor to the problem.
A primary fix for the epidemic of algal blooms is curbing nutrient pollution by avoiding use of synthetic fertilizers in agriculture, and in turf and landscape management (of golf courses, sports fields, lawns and gardens, etc.). The optimal way to do that is to adopt organic agricultural and land management practices. A Beyond Pesticides Pesticides and You journal article from 2014 notes, “Organic standards stipulate that soil fertility and crop nutrients can be managed through tillage and other cultivation practices, such as crop rotation [and use of compost as fertilizer], which preserve and maintain the fertility of the soil so that synthetic inputs become unnecessary. Organic, therefore, eliminates the need and use of synthetic nitrogen- and phosphorus-based fertilizers, thereby significantly reducing the threats that nitrogen and phosphorus runoff have on aquatic ecosystems and the prevalence of algal blooms and eutrophication [overgrowth of plant life and death of animal life from subsequent lack of oxygen].”
Synthetic fertilizers contain water-soluble nutrients, some of which are not absorbed by plants, but settle in the soil and then migrate toward groundwater and ultimately, water bodies. Organic agricultural and turf management practices, such as the use of compost to boost soil fertility — rather than dumping synthetic fertilizers into the soil — are effective solutions to the problem.
Organic methods feed the soil, rather than feeding plants directly. Organic fertility and soil amendments (such as compost) are not water soluble; they feed the microorganisms in the soil and the breakdown products of that process release nutrients that then feed plants. This slower process does not result in the runoff associated with water-soluble synthetic materials. The 1990 Organic Foods Production Act established regulations that permit only those soil inputs that do not adversely affect the “biological and chemical interactions in the agroecosystem, including the physiological effects of the substance on soil organisms.” Synthetic fertilizers are prohibited in certified organic systems. As Beyond Pesticides noted in the Fall 2017 issue of Pesticides and You, “While chemical-intensive land management relies on synthetic fertilizers that are soluble chemicals taken up by the plant and prone to run-off into waterways, organic systems rely on feeding the soil microbes, which in turn produce solubilized nutrients that are absorbed by the plant.”
Researchers on the issue of algal blooms and “dead zones” in Lake Erie (and other Great Lakes) were able to pinpoint the two major factors that explain their observation of marked increases in dissolved reactive phosphorus, which is nearly 100% bioavailable to algae. Those factors, they concluded, were “a combination of agricultural practices that have been put in place since the late 1980s and into the 2000s, combined with increased storms, particularly higher intensity spring rain events [attributable to climate change].” The agricultural practices the researchers' reference include a shift toward more fall fertilizer applications instead of spring applications, the use of broadcast fertilizer that does not integrate into the soil, and an increase in no-till field management that leads to a build-up of phosphorus in the top layers of soil. No-till methods concentrate fertilizers near the soil surface where they are more likely to wash away during strong storms.
People, of course, don’t like to see their favorite lakes or rivers covered in green slime. But the problems with algae overgrowth are not only aesthetic: the blooms choke off sunlight to underwater organisms that require it for photosynthesis, deplete oxygen in the water and deprive other organisms of it, and can spread to ancillary water bodies. These conditions can cause the above-mentioned “dead zones” — hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in large water bodies that cannot support most marine life in lower-level water. Sometimes, toxic subspecies of algae appear and present health risks (including liver and brain diseases).
In addition, the fertilizers that spur this growth can contaminate groundwater, including those aquifers used as sources of drinking water. A 2013 study found that synthetic nitrogen from fertilizers (as nitrates) leaches from soil toward groundwater over the course of decades, meaning that the agricultural and land management activities of as long as 50 years ago may still be affecting water bodies. Nitrate is a common contaminant of drinking water in agricultural areas where nitrogen fertilizers are used. Another “bonus” is that intensive use of synthetic fertilizers may increase the nitrate levels found in certain vegetables, such as lettuce and root crops. Research has indicated that long-term dietary exposure to nitrates may increase risk of thyroid disease (because nitrate competes with the uptake of iodide by the thyroid gland, potentially affecting thyroid function).
To combat algal blooms and their harmful impacts, Beyond Pesticides recommends advocating for organic agriculture, purchasing organics to leverage demand in the marketplace (and thus, protect human and environmental health), and encouraging organic land management at the local level (city, town, and/or county). For assistance with such advocacy in your community, contact Beyond Pesticides at info@beyondpesticides.org or 1.202.543.5450.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
Source: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article214620390.html
City Of Newburgh Announces A Federal Lawsuit Against The US Air Force, NYS, Airport Operators, & Manufacturers For Contaminating Washington Lake With PFAS
The City of Newburgh, New York (“City”) filed suit late yesterday afternoon in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, seeking to halt on-going contamination of the City’s water supply by per- and polyfluoralkyl substances (“PFAS”) originating at Stewart Air National Guard Base (“Base”) and Stewart International Airport (“Airport”).
City of Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey said, “The City is asking the court to hear and respond to our citizens’ exposure to toxic contaminants. We are standing up for our citizen’s rights to clean and healthy water, and demanding damages so we can provide our citizens rebates for the contaminated water they received.”
The City seeks to require 23 Defendants that have manufactured and sold PFAS, or owned and/or operated the ANG Base and Airport to clean up the PFAS contamination in the City watershed and pay for the City’s continued supply of clean water until the cleanup is completed. The lawsuit alleges that the Defendants’ manufacture, sale and use of aqueous film forming foam (“AFFF”) containing PFAS resulted in widespread contamination of Washington Lake, the City’s primary water supply for more than 27,000 consumers, and the watershed for the City’s drinking water supply reservoirs. PFAS are extremely mobile and persistent in the environment, and may cause human health risks.
The City has been purchasing PFAS free water from the Catskill Aqueduct since May of 2016 with the help of the State of New York (“State”), but this clean water source from the Catskill Aqueduct is scheduled to be shut down for 10 weeks starting in the fall of 2018 by New York City for maintenance. The City plans to provide PFAS free water from Brown’s Pond during the periods that water from the Catskill Aqueduct is unavailable.
The use of AFFF made by the manufacturer Defendants and used by New York State Air National Guard, the United States Air Force, Federal Express, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, among others, on land owned by the State has caused extensive PFAS contamination of soil, water, and fish. The suit charges that the Defendants are liable under federal environmental laws, and state laws for negligence, public nuisance, defective designs, and inadequate warnings.
Information obtained by the City indicates that the owner/operator Defendants have used AFFF at the Base and Airport since at least 1980. The manufacturers have known about the health risks of PFAS since at least the early 1970s and failed to warn users of their risks if not properly handled. The owner/operator Defendants have known about the risks since at least 1987 but have not properly handled the AFFF, resulting in widespread contamination in the City watershed.
The City is asking the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to find the Defendants liable for the extensive contamination and require the cleanup of the City watershed.
The City also wants the Defendants to provide residents with clean water until contamination is abated, assist in the development of a comprehensive watershed management program, reimburse the City for costs that it has incurred from the contamination, and pay the City so it can provide City water users rebates for contaminated water they purchased. Further, the suit asks the court to award the City punitive damages against the manufacturers.
No less than twelve (12) different types of PFAS have been detected in Washington Lake, including perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (“PFOS”), perfluorooctanoic acid (“PFOA”), the most well-known, long-chain PFAS, and ten other short-chain PFAS. PFAS accumulate in blood and other tissues, and will persist indefinitely, threatening the environment and human health. PFOS and PFOA have been detected in Washington Lake and Silver Stream at levels above the May 2016 EPA Health Advisory of 70 parts per trillion for PFOS and PFOA combined.
The ten other short-chained PFAS identified in Washington Lake were recently determined to have toxicological and adverse health effects by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (“ATSDR”), the Public Health Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The City has spent more than two years asking owners and operators of the Base and Airport to stop using PFAS and to prevent the ongoing discharge of contaminated water, originating from the Base, from flowing into the streams that feeds Washington Lake. While the United States Air Force, New York Air National Guard, and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey may have stopped using AFFF containing PFOS sometime in 2017 after the State listed two long-chained PFAS, namely PFOS and PFOA, as hazardous substances, they continue to use AFFF containing short-chained PFAS at the Base and Airport. The City has now asked for the Court to intervene.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation installed a temporary measure in the form of a granulated activated carbon (“GAC”) filtration system for future treatment of Washington Lake water. But testing performed by the State on Washington Lake water using a similar carbon filtration system revealed that the carbon was less effective for short-chained PFAS. The State has committed to filtering PFAS from Washington Lake water to “non-detect” levels, but documents provided to the City do not yet reflect that commitment. The City is concerned that the operation of the GAC is only designed to treat PFOS and PFOA, and does not include a treatment plan for short-chain PFAS.
The City continues to ask the State to develop treatment standards for PFOS, PFOA, and the short-chain PFAS detected in Washington Lake. As of today, the State has not developed standards for PFAS, and the EPA’s current recommended treatment levels are less protective of human health than the drastically lower standards proposed by the ATSDR. Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Vermont have each issued standards or guidance levels for PFAS lower than the level recommended by EPA in 2016 of 70 ppt for PFOA and PFOS combined.
The City has been accessing clean water from the Catskill Aqueduct since May 2, 2016 with the help of the State, but that source is about to be shut down. The Catskill Aqueduct, which provides clean water to the City of New York and surrounding Hudson Valley communities, is planned to be shut down for 10 weeks beginning on October 2, 2018.
“The City cannot and will not use Washington Lake water during the shutdown of the Catskill Aqueduct because of the ongoing contamination of the drinking watershed, inadequate treatment, and lack of standards,” said City Manager Michael Ciaravino.
The City has been forced to use taxpayer dollars to engineer solutions to ensure it has an adequate supply of clean water from its secondary water supply, Brown’s Pond. However, that backup supply will run short if the neighboring Town of New Windsor also utilizes Brown’s Pond during the shutdown period of 10 weeks.
The City is being represented in this lawsuit by Alan J. Knauf, Esq. and Meaghan A. Colligan, Esq. of Knauf Shaw LLP, George Rodenhausen, Esq. of Rodenhausen Chale LLP, and John Walsh, Esq., of Hodges, Walsh, Messemer & Burke LLP.
Water Security Mapped Out
Water security will become an increasingly big geopolitical issue over the next 100 years or so. This map highlights the areas most at risk.
Water Security Mapped Out
Regions Most At Risk
Click to Enlarge
Water security will become an increasingly big geopolitical issue over the next 100 years or so. This map highlights the areas most at risk.
These risks range from effects such as inadequate water supplies to the dangers of flooding.
Water Uncertainty: What Innovations Can Help Smallholder Farmers?
Water Uncertainty: What Innovations Can Help Smallholder Farmers?
Smallholder farmers are arguably the most susceptible group of people to climate change and, in particular, unpredictable rainfall patterns.
March 22 was World Water Day, an annual initiative by UN Water to highlight the importance of water. The theme for World Water Day 2018 is exploring nature-based solutions to the water challenges the world faces in the 21st century.
“In recent times, the weather has become less predictable,” says Simon Jan de Hoop, Vice President for Research & Development at East-West Seed (EWS).
“This impacts on testing new vegetable seed varieties for drought or flood resistance. This is a very difficult process because if you test under controlled conditions, how representative is that of real farming conditions?”
Instead, de Hoop says, plant breeders can focus on natural plant features which perform well in both high- and low-rainfall situations. He says East-West Seed has done so for several years, selecting genetic material that results in stronger root systems.
Under water-logged conditions, these plants have greater stability to withstand the higher water content in the soil. During droughts, strong root systems are better able to find and push up water and nutrition from the soil to the shoots and fruits.
“In Thailand the Petch Dam F1 varieties of hot pepper is an example of selective breeding of desired genetic material to improve the root systems,” de Hoop says.
Water efficiency
While genetics and breeding are important to helping farmers through water challenges, de Hoop believes there should also be a greater focus on water efficiency. Water efficiency will become increasingly important, especially in areas with low rainfall, according to de Hoop.
He points to studies which have found that vegetables not only produce higher yield volumes than other crops, such as rice, but also provide greater protein and calories per cubic meter of water respectively.
Greater certainty
Looking toward the future, de Hoop says farmers will need to move to farming systems where crops are grown with less water and which allow for better control of pests and diseases.
“I believe there is going to be a greater focus on protected cultivation technologies, such as greenhouses and irrigation systems, to reduce the uncertainty around external factors like rainfall patterns,” he says.
Although this sounds far removed from the typical smallholding farm, he says that in principle this is possible for small-scale farmers.
Protected cultivation technologies can help reduce reliance on rainfall, as well as the incidences of pests and diseases. Due to their relatively high capital investment costs, however, de Hoop says farmers won’t be able to incorporate these without support. He says India, for example, have effective public subsidy schemes that allow farmers to invest in greenhouses.
“It is important to remember that all technologies, regardless of how advanced they are, require the user to know how to implement them effectively. This is why training and skills development, such as provided by East-West Seed’s Knowledge Transfer, are crucial to the successful adoption of these innovations,” concludes de Hoop.
For more information:
East-West Seed
No. 50/1 Moo 2, Sainoi-Bang Bua
Thong Rd, Amphur Sainoi, Nonthaburi
11150, THAILAND
T: +66 (02) 831 7700
F: +66 (02) 923 7794
inter@eastwestseed.com
www.eastwestseed.com