Saving Water | Blue Living Ideas

Water Footprint Network Releases The Water Footprint Manual

Posted on Mar 09, 2010 by Scott James.

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The Water Footprint Network (WFN) is a Netherlands-based international organization that helps individuals and corporations better understand how and where water is used. Their mission is to promote the transition towards sustainable, fair and efficient use of fresh water resources worldwide. Sponsoring partners are as diverse as the Coca Cola Company and the World Wildlife Federation. Their recently released Water Footprint Manual is a living document that covers a comprehensive set of methods for water footprint accounting. The manual covers everything from calculating water footprints for individual processes and products to water sustainability assessment and response options.
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Laundry + Bicycle = Bicilavadora

Posted on Mar 05, 2010 by Derek Markham.

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Washing laundry is a difficult time-consuming task in the developing world, and doing laundry in open streams or lakes can add to water pollution. The task also falls solely on women – 8 hours a week is typically spent washing each piece of the family’s clothing and then wringing them out by hand. Washing machines that use electricity are impractical in many rural areas, due to either the expense or unavailability of electricity. But a pedal-powered washing machine, the Bicilavadora, is helping to change all of that.
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We Pay Too Little for Water in California

Posted on Feb 03, 2010 by Susan Kraemer.

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Even in water starved California, water is probably our cheapest monthly bill.

Because public water utilities are regulated, they have to keep prices low. Yet water utilities have costs for water that are rising fast for infrastructure replacement, energy to move it around, regulatory compliance treatment, and population growth. Water is priced artificially low, in comparison with its real value. But should it be?
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Himalayan Glacial Error Leaves Himalayan Water Truth in Doubt

Posted on Feb 02, 2010 by Scott James.

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The backlash over the recent revelation that the 2007 IPCC report included an erroneous alarm that the Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035 has been well-documented. Much of the concern flowed from the fact that the glaciers feed several major rivers in South Asia and Southeast Asia where millions of people live. General opinion now holds that while some glaciers are indeed receding, there is little chance that they will disappear anytime soon- and others are actually advancing. So where does that leave the water situation for the rivers and the people who depend on them?
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Mimicking Nature: Man Builds Imitation Glacier

Posted on Jan 26, 2010 by Susan Kraemer.

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The Himalayas have vertically receding glaciers, threatening water supplies that have been used for drinking water and for growing crops since the dawn of history. Exactly how much will be gone, in the next twenty years in this particular region, at this rate, is the subject of some ongoing (much ballyhooed by corporate media) scientific uncertainty, but the fact remains that local farmers in this region find that water for crops is already being lost too soon in the year.

To restore glacier-melt locally to where it is needed, an Indian civil engineer; now known locally as Mr Glacier, has built 10 imitation glaciers.

Like the invention of horizontally diverted water for farming in arid areas was 10,000 years ago, his idea is both brilliant and obvious…

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