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Posts Tagged ‘water shortage’

Berkey Filter Review

Water is a life giving substance! Both scientists and civilians are aware that life cannot continue without liquid water. People are able to live weeks without food but merely days without water. Recent moon explosions were planned for the purpose of, hopefully, detecting the presence of water through analyzing the dust, for moon colonization is virtually impossible without it.

The earth contains plenty of water for us all. It contains 326 million trillion gallons of water, meaning we could each have our own 56 billion gallons. For sanitation, bathing, and cooking needs, the average person in the world has a daily requirement of about 13.2 gallons of water. At that rate, the present population has enough water for each of us for over 11 million years! That doesn’t take into consideration the free recycling system provided for us called evaporation and condensation.

Of course, this is a little misleading for not all (or even most) of this water on earth is in a useable form. Ninety-eight percent of the water on earth is in the oceans, and is, therefore, too salty for use. Of the 2% of the planet’s fresh water, 1.6% is locked up in the polar ice caps and glaciers. Most of the rest (0.36%) is out of reach in aquifers and wells. Only about .036% of the planet’s total water supply is found in lakes and rivers. That’s still thousands of trillions of gallons, (in fact, 392 million gallons each) but it’s a very small amount compared to all the water available. Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.

To exacerbate the problem, this fresh water is not evenly available to the population. The average American uses more water taking a five-minute shower than the typical person living in a slum in a developing country uses in a whole day. Nearly one billion people lack access to safe water. Those 884 million amount to approximately one in eight people. Also 2.5 billion do not have improved sanitation, meaning they do not have a means to separate drinking water from waste water.

Major health issues throughout the world result from a lack of sanitary drinking water. One estimate is that half of all those in hospital beds at any one time are there because of a water related disease. On average a child dies from a water-related disease every 15-20 seconds in the world, and the usual cause is diarrhea. That is 1.4 million children each year. Children of the poor often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies continually. We are told that 88% of cases of diarrhea worldwide are attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, or insufficient hygiene.

Poor water results not only in deaths, but also in more crime, more disease, increase in birth defects, and decreased ability to do well in school, among other things. In short, general economic decline is the result. Investing in ways to purify water, or to desalinate the sea are investments that bring returns. It is estimated that on average, every US dollar invested in water and sanitation provides an economic return of eight US dollars.

Some want the western civilization to feel guilty for taking a shower or watering their lawns. This is fallacious thinking. Lowering our living standard only borrows their problems. The main reason America has sufficient good, clean water is that we have learned where to get it and how to preserve it. We shouldn’t feel guilty; we should be more aware of our need to be good stewards of it, and we should be more willing to share our technology with others. When we are frugal and generous with our water, we will set a higher standard for other nations to follow.

But what if you are on well water or city water that has bad taste or odors. You would be benefited by an activated charcoal water filter. The Berkey Filter are the best line of activated charcoal filter we are aware of. Check out the Imperial Berkey or another model. One amazing feature is that each set of filters they ship with can be re-cleaned to purify up to 6,000 gallons of drinking water.

Mark Twain is usually attributed to the saying, “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.”  While the true source of this quote might be in dispute, the message is on target.

In today’s environmental climate, water is a big deal, especially in areas like the American southwest where there are shortages of water.  Municipal users find themselves fighting agricultural users; environmental groups and Native Americans struggle against municipal and rural interests.  Rights to water are increasingly litigated.

Standard Water Measurements.

People who research water are often confronted with measurements that might not make sense, like AFA, or CFS or GPM.  Here are some standard water flow and volume measurements:

• AFA means acre-feet per annum.  Visualize an acre of land.  One acre-foot is the volume of water sufficient to cover that acre of land to a depth of 1 foot.  Generally, four people will use one acre-foot of water each year.

• CFS refers to cubic feet per second, and is used to measure the flow rate of rivers and streams.

• GPM is another measurement of flow, and refers to gallons per minute.  You’ll see this flow rate used for domestic consumption.

• MI means miner’s inches. This measurement is not used much anymore, and the standards vary from state to state.  It is the measurement of the rate of water flow in a miner’s sluice. Flow was measured by a hole one inch square with a head of one inch. Generally, one miner’s inch is a flow of 1.5 cubic feet per minute. You will find references to “miner’s inches” in old water right filings and notices, as well as older decrees governing water rights. As water demand increased with the development of large-scale mining technologies and the development of irrigation uses, the miner’s inch became an inadequate unit of measurement for flow rates, and was replaced by cubic feet per second.

How Much Water is Used by Each Person or Animal Per Day?

The State of Arizona has some standard water use quantities that it uses in calculating water consumption.  According to its general standards, each person uses 180 gallons of water a day for domestic purposes.  Where people such as the Navajo have to haul water, they use much less — typically, 15-20 gallons a day.

Horses and cattle drink about 12 gallons of water each day.  Pigs consume about 2.5 gallons a day and sheep drink one and one-half gallons of water a day.

How to Calculate Your Water Flow or Volume.

Western-Water offers free water flow and volume calculators that can convert gallons-per-minute into AFA, miner’s inches to CFS and so on.  If you need to file paperwork to claim your water, these calculators will come in handy.

Water is Important.

Water is essential for life on planet earth.  This is a precious natural resource that must be managed prudently.  At Western-Water.com, you’ll find interesting news snippets about some of the hot topics facing the western states.  Press releases and story submissions about water are always welcome.  Water is an important topic that affects all of us.