Water
Key Websites H2ouse Water Saver Home www.h2ouse.org A guide to conserving water from the California Urban Water Conservation Council. Take Back the Tap www.takebackthetap.org Movement to end the use of bottled water in restaurants and return to local tap water. Water Saving Tips Showers Keep them short. Share them. Replace any normal shower heads with low-flow. They’re inexpensive, and most municipalities even give them away for free. You can reduce water usage by almost 50% and save the cost and energy of heating water as well. Faucets When brushing your teeth or washing your face, turn the water off except when you actually need it. You can save several gallons of water each time. Toilets Toilets are the largest water-wasters in the home, using up to 25% of your home’s water consumption and wasting gallons of water with every flush. Toilet tanks should use no more than 1.6 gallons per flush. If your toilet predates 1994, you probably need a more efficient one. Most municipalities provide low-flush toilets at little or no charge. Check with yours. If you can’t put in a low-flush toilet, at least add plastic displacement bags to your toilets. (Don’t use bricks. They just break apart and cause problems.) For urine only, it’s not necessary to flush each time. Save the water for when it’s essential. As they used to say during the 1970s drought, “Brown goes down, but yellow is mellow.” Composting Toilets With one flush of your toilet you’re using more water than a majority of people in the world have access to in an entire day. And in most cases, you’re flushing not just water, but drinking water. Composting toilets save huge amounts of water, since they never use any. The human manure ends up as compost—in a safe, sanitary and non-smelly method. Composting Toilet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet From Wikipedia. Composting Toilet World www.compostingtoilet.org Extensive information from Envirolet, a manufacturer of composting toilets. Waterless urinals are also available, although more often seen in commercial establishments. Leaks Leaks can waste many gallons of water a day. Check for toilet leaks, as well as leaky faucets and water pipes. For toilets, put a drop or two of food coloring in your tank. If the color appears in the bowl, you’ve got a leak. Rainwater Capturing rainwater is called “rainwater harvesting”. It basically means water delivered directly to your home from the skies at no charge. You just have to catch it, clean it, and store it. Assuming you have enough rainfall in your area, it’s a way to become self-sufficient—or to at least supplement your municipally-supplied water. Rain Barrel Guide www.rainbarrelguide.com How to use rain barrels for water collection. Excellent overview and specifics. Natural Rain Water www.naturalrainwater.com Information, products, and how to make a rain barrel. Graywater Graywater is the water from dishwashing, laundry, showering and bathing. While no one wants to drink it, plants are happy to get it. You can set up a system that will save and recycle that water to be used in your garden. To use graywater on food crops, check first with the county health department. Graywater Central www.graywater.net All about graywater Laundry The optimal and most economical use of water—and electricity—is to wash only full loads of laundry (“full” as determined by the washer manufacturer; don’t cram the laundry in the washer). Smaller loads use just as much electricity, and often more water than necessary, even with water volume set on a partial amount. If you need a new washer, get the water-saving front-loading style. Lawns and Gardens The best thing you can do is rip out your lawns—which are heavy users of water—and replace them with vegetable gardens. Food is more important than trying to pass off your home as an English manor house. If you have to have a lawn, at least water it during early morning or late afternoon hours to minimize evaporation. If you have to have decorative landscaping, at least use edible landscaping. There are three basic methods for removing a lawn:
www.backyardnature.net/simple/lawn2gar.htm You don’t need to make major sacrifices in conserving water, just small behavior changes. You can save water, energy—and money—with a few simple changes in your everyday practices. Why not start? If we all do it voluntarily now, we might even be able to avoid mandatory conservation in the future. Use Less Water and Save Here are some normal household uses of water, how much water they use normally, and how much less they use if you try to conserve.
"If the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water." Ismail Serageldin, Vice-President, World Bank, 1995 National Water Center Advocating clean water practice based upon appropriate technology and personal responsibility. Water Magazine Discussion, innovation, policy, articles, ideas. Microhydro Power Bottled Water Have you been willing to pay a thousand times more for bottled water than tap water, even though the water in your bottle, unlike from your tap, has few if any quality standards? Bottled Water From the Sierra Club - The costs and problems of bottled water. Self-inflicted water privatization. Bottled Water Pure drink or pure hype? - Study by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) - Also: News Summary of Study and NRDC Bottled Water FAQ Conservation It's possible to enjoy all the water you need, and still cut down on your water consumption. The average person in the United States uses between 100 and 250 gallons of water a day. It's possible—and you may have no choice—to get by on a lot less. You should at least have low-flow shower heads and ideally turn the shower off while soaping up, then back on to rinse. Your toilet should be at least low-flow. Ideally, it would be a composting toilet using no water at all. Waterless urinals are also available, more often seen in commercial establishments. More advanced, but effective, water-saving techniques include using graywater (from sinks, showers and washing machines) for watering gardens, and xeriscaping using local, drough-tolerant plants that may need no watering at all. H2ouse - Water Saver Home A guide to conserving water from the California Urban Water Conservation Council Dowsing Dowsing is not just for water, but that's certainly its best-known use. Scoff all you want but dowsers having been finding water for centuries. And not only its location, but its depth and gallons per minute. American Society of Dowsers Primary U.S. group but interestingly no information on dowsing. British Society of Dowsers Lots of information from the main British dowsing group. Dowsing From the excellent Mid-Atlantic Geomancy site Dowsing Excellent site for links to dowsing and pendulum information Dowsing From Wikipedia Find a Property - No Dowse About It? Interesting article on dowsers and various types of dowsing Fluoridation These days it's not just the John Birch Society that rails against fluoridation (the Birchers considered fluoridation a Communist plot). Many researchers feel that the fluoride used by municipal water systems is not pure, and that it can cause a great many deterimental health effects. Fluoridation Information pro and con from Second Look, a national non-profit initiative. Fluoride Links to articles opposing fluoridation. Fluoride Deception "A compelling challenge to the reigning dental orthodoxy, which should provoke renewed scientific scrutiny and public debate" [book] Hand and Ram Pumps Hand pumps require a lot of work but no power. Ram pumps let water pressure do the hard work. Ram and Hand Pumps From Lehman's. Ram Pumps An overview and excellent links Health If you can find ample, healthy water, you should be drinking lots of it. In fact, some believe dehydration—for which there's no excuse in first-world countries—is a major cause of health problems. WaterCure.com Using water to prevent and treat health problems. Your Body's Many Cries for Water You are not sick; you are thirsty. [book] Privatization Turning community water over to multinational corporations such as Bechtel is being successfully opposed throughout the world. But the battle rages on, and is not always won by the people who feel that access to water should be a basic human right, not a product to be sold. A Short Update on the Failed Water Privatization in the Philippines From Manila Indymedia Sierra Club: Corporate Water Privatization Campaign opposing water privatization Water Justice Promoting alternatives to privatization Water Wars Privatization, Pollution and Profit by Vandana Shiva [book] Purification If you're lucky enough to have access to water, you still need to make sure it's safe. Blue Water Filters Slow sand filters Ceramic Water Filter From Potters for Peace Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water Methods from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Silver Ceramic Water Purifiers Low-cost, high-performance water purification Solar Water Disinfection Process An incredibly simple—and free—way of disinfecting water Treatment of Water to Make it Safe for Drinking From the Centers for Disease Control. Water Purification From Wikipedia. Includes overview of water treatment methods, other purification techniques, and portable water purification. Water Purification for the Traveler Obtaining safe water, filters vs. purifiers, selection criteria, comparison of filters. Rainwater Harvesting Water delivered directly to your home at no charge. You just have to catch it, clean it and store it. Assuming you have enough rainfall in your area, it's a way to become self-sufficient. Billings couple feels satisfaction with home's catchment system A personal account from U.S. Water News. Garden Watersaver System uses any container for rainwater collection. Natural Rain Water Information, products, and how to make a rain barrel. Rain Barrel Guide How to use rain barrels for water collection. Excellent overview and specifics. Rain Barrels Background information, water quality, and a variety of products. Raincatcher Harvesting natural rainwater to quench the world's thirst Rainsaver Flat-back rainbarrel. Rainwater Catchment Suggestions from an old Y2K forum. Rainwater Catchment Systems for Domestic Supply Design, construction and implementation. [book] Spruce Creek Rainsaver Barrels and downspout diverters. Texas Manual on Rainwater Harvesting Free 66-page ebook (PDF) on rainwater harvesting Revitalization Many people believe that water is not just water. It can be dead and lifeless, or it can be filled with energy that vitalizes and nourishes those who drink it. Many feel that our water delivery system "deadens" the water that moves through its pipes, but that this water can be restored in a variety of ways, including using "flowforms", sculptures that create a path and vortex movement that revitalize the water as it passes through the forms. Flowforms America Flowform products Flowforms Links from the National Water Center Flowforms, fluid flow, the fluent heart Article Schauberger Energy Evolution, by Viktor Schauberger Living water [book] Living Water Viktor Schauberger and the secrets of natural energy [book] The Water Wizard The extraordinary properties of living water by Viktor Schauberger [book] Viktor Schauberger From Wikipedia Water Crystals Dr. Masaru Emoto's website on water and water crystals. His work was featured in the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?" Love Thyself: The Message from Water DVD by Dr. Masaru Emoto |
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