Designing solutions to fresh water shortage

[Mugwump]

Open the faucet in your kitchen sink. What comes out is tap water, suitable for bathing, laundry, and, if you are lucky enough to live in an area with a decent water supply, drinking.

But as the water swirls down the drain, it changes its identity and becomes wastewater. It then gurgles along underground, often for great distances, to a sewage treatment plant that processes the water and releases it into an ocean or river.

Robert France finds this cycle problematic.

"Here in Boston, we're living outside of our watershed. We're importing our drinking water from the western part of the state, and then we're sending our waste water away to be treated at the Deer Island plant. We should be keeping our water within the watershed."

France is an associate professor of landscape ecology at the Graduate School of Design (GSD), a scientist who has studied the effect of environmental degradation of various plants and animals. He is also something of an evangelist for more environmentally friendly and sustainable methods for managing our water supply.

Read more here---->...V
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/11.13/09-water.html

[PaulineMi]

I watched a program this afternoon about the flooding of New Orleans when Katrina struck. Coincidentally a portion of the show explained how it would behoove us to look to the Dutch for advice on how they manage water and prevent catastrophic flooding.

Here's something I found that gives an overview of what they were talking about:

http://www.waterworld.com/articles/wwi/print/volume-25/issue-5/editorial-focus/rainwater-harvesting/rotterdam-the-water-city-of-the-future.html

[Mugwump]

I watched a program this afternoon about the flooding of New Orleans when Katrina struck. Coincidentally a portion of the show explained how it would behoove us to look to the Dutch for advice on how they manage water and prevent catastrophic flooding.

Here's something I found that gives an overview of what they were talking about:

http://www.waterworld.com/articles/wwi/print/volume-25/issue-5/editorial-focus/rainwater-harvesting/rotterdam-the-water-city-of-the-future.html

Good article, I need to explore it more .....the Dutch have always been ahead of the world, because really..they have to be. Some of their many innovative ideas are mind boggling for sure....but better yet...they work. Thanks for posting it, Pauline....