water problem in central asia : is there a solution?

With the arrival of summer, the problem
of water for irrigation is becomes increasingly urgent in the Central Asian
republics. With their considerable cultivated lands, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
are looking at a substantial water shortage this summer. By producing
electricity this past winter, Kyrgyzstan delivered considerable amounts of
water to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in non-irrigation season from its
reservoirs. That, in turn, results in a shortage of water in dry summer
months. As this problem affects the lives of millions of people, regional
cooperation is needed on the use of this scarce resource in the most rational
and mutually beneficial way.

In Soviet times, water posed no problem.
The upstream states, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, were collecting water in
autumn and winter in large reservoirs and delivering it to Uzbekistan and
Kazakhstan in the irrigation period. Downstream states, in their turn,
provided upstream republics with coal, electricity and other energy resources.
Thus, for 68 billion cubic meters of water collected and delivered to
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan during 1986-1991, Kyrgyzstan received large
quantities of coal, lubricants, and natural gas. By contrast, 78.125 billion
cubic meters of water were similarly released between 1992 and 1997, but the
downstream states were increasingly selling their resources on world market
prices. Without possessing rich natural resources and being in a hard economic
depression, Kyrgyzstan has not been able to pay for importing energy resources
on time

During energy crises these last few
winters, Kyrgyzstan has been using water for the production of electric
energy. But that does not allow water to be collected in reservoirs, and
consequently downstream states have less water for their irrigational needs.
Uzbekistan’s gas embargo in the winter of this year forced Kyrgyzstan to
release water from reservoirs in order to provide the population with energy.
This will obviously cause problems to the downstream states in the irrigation
of their lands. According to the KABAR news agency, Uzbekistan may lose about
$400 millions of revenues from the sale of cotton as a result of water deficit
this year. Kazakhstan’s losses also seem to be significant: the cultivation
of cotton and rice in the southern regions depends on water supply from
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

This situation requires an urgent
solution. The shortage of water may to some extent be explained by the
irrational use of this resource by population. Galima Bukharbaeva, IWPR's
regional director in Uzbekistan writes that according to Bioecology
specialists, 40% of the water was lost in irrigation system in
Karakalpakistan. In this light, rationalization of the use of water seems to
be the most logical step to take for the Central Asian governments. Interstate
management of water resources is also becoming one of the hottest issues in
relations between republics. The idea of demanding a price to be paid for the
water collected in reservoirs during winter is becoming more and more popular
in Kyrgyzstan. Proponents of this idea argue that downstream states should
compensate Kyrgyzstan’s shortage of energy caused by water collection in
winter months. Another point raised is that the large reservoirs, serving the
whole region, were built on arable land that could bring considerable revenue
for agriculture. But opponents argue that water is to be considered as a
common good, gifted by the God, which cannot be sold at all.

With the arrival of summer, agricultural
fields will soon demand water. It is doubtful whether Central Asian states
will be able to cooperate to arrive at a realistic way to provide them with
water for irrigation. The political implications of high-level negotiations is
also an open question.

India's drought turns to record floods

While the world's attention is focused on the disaster zones of Samoa and Sumatra, India has been gripped by the worst floods on record.

The Indian authorities are continuing relief efforts in the country's south where about 250 people have died as a result of the flooding.

Some areas have been hit by the highest water levels in more than 100 years.

The Krishna River has overflowed, leaving large parts of the southern Indian states of Karnataka and Andra Pradesh submerged.

In a dramatic and cruel turnaround, some of these areas had been enduring the worst drought in 40 years and now are experiencing the worst flood levels in more than a century so they have gone from one to another very, very quickly.

In a cruel twist of fate farmers who had been walking around in dusty fields, now face the prospect those fields have been pushed away by such a large volume of water coming through.

Whole villages are cut off, with authorities estimating between 1.5 million to 2.5 million people are displaced.

Particularly in the areas of Andhra Pradesh, where resources are limited, there is not a lot of help for such a large number of people who are now stranded in many remote parts of those states.

While both large cities and smaller villages have been affected, the biggest problems are in the rural areas because of the isolation and the quality of the buildings there.

A lot of those homes and farm buildings are of limited quality mud brick, so people have not been able to get up onto rooftops and seek shelter as others have in more established towns.

Officials are still at the stage of trying to assess the damage in some areas and trying to understand just how widespread the flooding is before being able to get help into many of the worst affected regions.

Television news services are showing members of the military and emergency services in some areas in boats trying to provide assistance.

But just the sheer scale of trying to find shelter for at least 1.5 million people is huge, as is trying to get food to people.

Some temporary rallying points and camps have been set up but the vast majority of people in many of the worst affected areas are battling on their own.

Water recycling scheme to get $1m revamp

A Fraser Coast Council effluent recycling project has received almost $1 million from the Queensland Government for an upgrade.

The funding will provide a new pump, pipes and trickle irrigation network for the Pulgul Farm recycling scheme, which was commissioned in 1990.

Local Government Minister Desley Boyle says the funding will expand one of Australia's most innovative water recycling projects.

"The farm is reducing discharge into the bay and providing precious water for crop irrigation," she said.

"In fact, the initiative is actually saving council around $500,000 a year.

"How it works is the treated water is piped from the plant to the farm and then put through the woodland system where nature gets to do its job and digest the nutrients."

Recycled drinking water 'a tough sell'

Western Australia's Opposition says the Government is going to have a tough job convincing Perth residents to drink recycled water.

The Water Minister, Graham Jacobs, has released a strategy to address the rapid decline of water levels in the Gnangara system, which provides 60 per cent of Perth's water supply.

If the recommendations are adopted, the groundwater system will be recharged with recycled water.

Dr Jacobs says West Australians need to get used to the idea, despite the 'yuck' factor.

The Opposition's spokesman for water, Fran Logan, supports the strategy, but says he is concerned about the public response to the longer-term recommendation to source water directly from waste water treatment plants.

"With respect to taking waste water directly from a sewerage works and then putting them through a recycling plant and turning it into straight drinking water, I think the Minister is going to have a big job on his hands convincing West Australians that's fine and that's ok to drink," he said.

Mr Logan says more money needs to be spent expanding the aquifer.

"The Minister has allowed his portfolio to be slashed," he said.

"If he [Graham Jacobs] stood up for his portfolio, he might be able to get some of that critical money poured into the infrastructure that we need to manage the state's water resources and ensure our water security into the future, particularly as we go into increasingly drying years."

The draft strategy is open for public comment for two months.

San Diego Learns How to Recycle Water

Above: San Diego's North City Water Reclamation Plant (NCWRP) is the first large-scale water reclamation plant in San Diego's history and part of the single largest sewerage system expansion in the area. This facility can treat up to 30 million gallons of wastewater per day, which is generated by northern San Diego communities.

SAN DIEGO — The ultimate solution to California's water dilemma will draw on many sources. And one of them will be the supply of water we currently throw away. The water that goes down the drain, and down the toilet, can be reused. But finding the best way for San Diego to recycle is a technical and political question.

Recycling wastewater is nothing new. It's common and often unavoidable. Alan Rimer is a water reuse specialist with the firm Black and Veatch. He says wastewater reuse has taken many forms.

"I grew up in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania," he says. "And when I flushed my toilet, it went into the Ohio River with some treatment, and Cincinnati drank that water after taking it out of riverbank wells and treating it. And that's what we call indirect potable reuse."

To water reuse experts, San Diego is famous for the expression "toilet to tap." It arose about ten years ago when the city's first effort to reuse wastewater as potable water did a political crash and burn. But the reality of today's water shortage has put wastewater recycling back on the table. That's why San Diego is embarking on a plan to test a system for "reservoir augmentation." Wastewater will be purified to an advanced level so it could be piped to the San Vicente Resevoir, where it would become part of San Diego's supply of drinking water.

Marsi Steirer, with the San Diego Public Utilities Department, says, for now, the goal is test some new equipment at the North City Water Reclamation Plant.

"Basically what we're constructing as a temporary plant is a one million gallon a day advanced water treatment facility," she says.

The north city plant currently treats about nine million gallons of wastewater every day that's reused, mainly for irrigation. This kind of reuse requires a dual delivery system, since the North City plant doesn't currently treat its recycled water to the level of drinking water. The non-potable water flows through purple pipes to golf courses, parks and freeway medians. But the North City plant recycles less than half of what it could, due to a very limited distribution system.

Mixing highly treated wastewater with a city's drinking water supply, reservoir augmentation, is what they already do in part of Northern Virginia. Chuck Boepple is executive director of the Upper Occoquan service authority. He says his plant's wastewater is treated and discharged into the historic creek called Bull Run. That leads to a reservoir that provides drinking water for a million people in suburban Washington D.C. Boepple adds the water he puts in Bull Run is very clean.

"Our effluent, as a matter of fact, meets drinking water standards. Every parameter that EPA has on maximum contaminant levels for drinking water… we're beneath those levels," he says.

So why does Occoquan put safe drinking water in the reservoir where it'll just get dirty and need to be treated again? Beopple says doing a system where water really goes straight from toilet and tub to treatment to tap is still unacceptable to the public. Maybe so. But the water San Diego draws from the Colorado River contains lightly treated wastewater Las Vegas dumps into Lake Mead. Some say that the water people in New Orleans drink, that comes from the Mississippi River, has already been through about nine sets of human intestines.

Rick Gersberg is a public health professor at San Diego state, and he's on an advisory task force for the San Diego water recycling project. He says scientists can talk all they want to about actual health risks of recycled, drinking water. But what the public perceives as sanitary, is just as meaningful.

"Maybe a scientist would say 'Well, you know, risk is just the numbers we calculate.' But if you're dealing with risk and you're expecting to communicate and inform and have acceptance of a certain project, then that strictly science opinion is not the way it happens," says Gersberg.

Reusing wastewater has a political price and it has a monetary price. If the San Diego water recycling project becomes reservoir augmentation, it'll require a permanent treatment facility and a pipeline. The total cost would be at least $237 million.

ASME Encourages Water Recycling, Technology

Recognizing the need to identify and implement technology solutions to enable the sustainable use and reuse of water, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has initiated an organizational plan directed at effective water management.

The plan, outlined in the 39-page "Water Management Technology Vision and Roadmap," aims to guide the society in developing products and services that benefit engineers, the nation, and the global community at large. ASME’s strategic plan highlights training, technology research and development, standards development, advocacy and public awareness, and collaborations with national and international groups.

“ASME will bring diverse partners together to find multidisciplinary solutions to water management technology issues that protect public health and the environment, while conserving precious water supplies and the infrastructure for future generations,” the organization says in the report, which is drawn from the analysis and assessments of selected experts in science and engineering.

The roadmap identifies five trends and drivers that will guide the society’s activities over the next five years. The trends relate to the role of water in energy production, supply scarcity due to shifting populations, decreased water quality, the use of recycled or “gray” water in some industrial sectors, and the role of ASME members and other engineering professionals in educating policymakers and the general public.

Among the society’s R&D objectives in water management is to stimulate technology development and to promote best practices, including standards development, for the safety and reliability of engineering components and equipment. The roadmap also encourages industry to use non-potable “gray” water to meet water conservation imperatives.

“Utilities, manufacturers, and municipalities can replace the use of freshwater with reclaimed or recycled water,” says ASME. Part of the society’s roadmap is to address the political, economic, social, and technological hurdles “in order to tap into the considerable potential that recycling and reuse offer an industry seeking to keep costs low and a nation seeking to conserve potable water resources.”

In the area of education and outreach, ASME plans to create training seminars and workshops on water technology, new technical journals, an industry-sponsored award, and a Water Management Technology Affinity Group comprised of ASME volunteers.

Going forward, ASME will engage in collaborations and partnerships with organizations that have a long-standing involvement in water technology and management, including the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, American Water Works Association, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Keep Your Toilet Running Efficiently

Water waste is one of the hugest green issues out there. There’s only so much water in the world, and much of it is continually being polluted or drained away without a second thought.

One very specific way to green your home is to conserve water being otherwise wasted by your toilet. Staying on top of these four toilet inefficiencies will help keep perfectly adequate water from slipping away unnoticed:

1. Watch for Water Leaks
You probably think it would be obvious if your toilet was leaking water, but that’s not necessarily so. Just because your not wading through water every time you enter the bathroom doesn’t mean there’s not a leak.

If your tank ball or overflow is worn, or if your toilet has a defective valve you might notice the sound of running water, but there’s a good chance your water leak will remain silent.

You can discover whether a leak exists by putting food coloring or dye tablets into the septic tank. If after a few minutes color is present in the toilet bowl, you do indeed have a leak.

2. Don't Discount Air Leaks
A leaky wax ring could be wasting gallons of water each year, and not because of water leaks, but because of air leaks. When air is leaking out of your wax ring, the siphon will not work properly, which will lead to extra flushes and clogged pipes. If you've increased the water level in your septic to account for your toilet's lack of gusto, that is also a big water-waster.

You probably have a leaky seal if your toilet isn't securely fastened to the floor. You also might notice that your toilet rocks or your toilet's hold-down bolts are corroded and/or loose.

If you're the least bit handy, you can probably replace your toilet's wax ring with a little bit of time and elbow-grease.

3. Replace Worn Parts
As with any fixture in your home, your toilet won't last forever. But before you start looking into toilet recycling centers, consider how old it actually is. Your toilet will probably work fine for decades (though more efficient models are likely to be designed before it stops working all together), but its parts will need to be maintained and even replaced while you keep it around.

Did you know, for example, that your flapper valve (also known as a 'flush valve ball' or 'tank stopper') should be replaced every three to five years? Keep on top of your toilet's parts, especially those that look worn or damaged, and you'll save money and water.

4. Displace Extra Water
At this point, you may be thinking that if your toilet has perfectly functioning parts and isn't leaking, it can't conserve water any more than it already is. Though toilets are better designed in today's world, the average fixture uses anywhere from 1.5 to 7 gallons of water per flush!

Your toilet may or may not be on the low end of this estimate, so a good way to find out is to employ the tank displacement water saving method. Displace water in your cistern and see how your toilet works for a few days.

If the flushes are still powerful enough to keep your bowl clean, then you've found yet another way to reduce your water usage.

How Far Would You Go to Save Water?

Water shortages across the US have prompted me to re-examine the water usage in my own home. My findings? While we are doing a lot of things right (low-flow showerhead, utilizing grey water, no lawn watering, etc.) there are still a lot of things that we could be doing to save water and money.

Of particular concern to me is the amount of water that our toilets are using. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to cut that number (and I'm not just talking about the "if it's yellow, let it mellow" rule or the brick in the back of the toilet trick. Check out some of these modern solutions to the water waste problem:

• Low-Flow Toilet
Uses 1.6 gallons per flush instead of as many as 7
• Dual-Flush Toilet
Allows you to choose between a 1.6 gallon flush and a .8 gallon flush
• Flushless Toilet
Uses no water; waste is composted in a holding tank
• The Frugal Flush Flapper
Cuts the water use in high volume toilets (3.6 gallon and above) in half. Only costs $5
• Fill Cycle Diverter
Saves a half gallon per flush by ensuring that the tank and bowl fill at the same (or close to the same) rate

So, I have to ask, how far are you willing to go to save water and ultimately your hard earned dollars? Could you go flushless? Dual flush? Are you already using some of the technology that I mentioned? Share your answer!