Water Conservation Effects Everyone and Everything

written by Eva Ball, exhibition preparator and gallery guide


In conjunction with one of our current exhibition, Ways of Knowing Water, we hosted a talk, Achieving Water Sustainability, presented by Michael von Fahnestock of Battelle. This talk was amazingly informative, easy to understand and inspiring. At the end of this post you can read an overview of his presentation. (BTW: This photo is from the storage tank where we collect our rainwater and use it to flush our toilets, here at the Lazarus Building!)


And here is the talk:
Achieving Water Sustainability

Why we should care about water
• Water is fundamental to life.
• Availability of clean water is not uniform
• Climate variability and change affect global water distribution
• Population pressures on water are increasing
• Agriculture consumes 70% of the World’s water
• Industrial and urban development consume and pollute valuable water resources
• Water security and access: Universal public right or salable commodity?

Water Quality and Health
• 1.1 billion people around the world have no access to clean drinking water.
• 2/5 of global population lacks access to proper sanitation, (this has led to massive outbreaks of waterborne diseases.)
• Half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people with an easily preventable
waterborne disease.
• The World Health Organization reports that contaminated water contributes to 80% of all sickness and disease worldwide.
• In the last decade, the number of children killed by diarrhea exceeded the number of people killed in all armed conflicts since the Second World War.
• Every eight seconds, a child dies from drinking dirty water.
• Low-level water contaminants have chronic health effects on humans, animals, and plants


Water Availability Drives Industry & Energy Supply
• The production of 1 ton of steel requires 55,500 gallons of water
• The production of 1 new car + 4 tires require 38,160 gallons of water
• 1 lb of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water (sources range in opinion from 435 to 12,000 gallons)
• Between 2 and 4.5 barrels of water are required to extract 1 barrel of oil, and 90 % of that water is permanently removed from the hydrological cycle.
Combined Effects on Water Resources through Climate and Human Activity
• Groundwater incursion by saltwater
• Sedimentation caused by erosion
• Channelized water runoff prevents infiltration and groundwater recharge
• Storm events trigger sewage overflows into stormwater discharge systems
• Drought and floods exacerbated by population growth and resultant increase in agricultural and industrial activities
• Natural watershed transport can convert small spills into extensive surface and
groundwater pollution

Summary of Water Challenges
• Health: Access to clean water
• Distribution
• Population growth
• Balancing needs for food, things, and energy with safeguarding freshwater quality
• Value of water
– Everyone needs it – but who should pay?
– Can water be owned like oil or copper?
• Climate variations: How to maintain a predictable clean water supply in stormy times?
Solutions to Managing our Water

Managing our Water
• Education and Awareness
– Teach the cause and effect interaction between people and water resources
– Inspire individual actions and lifestyles to conserve, preserve, and restore our water
supply
• Policy
– Foster water stewardship through government
– Frame risk-based regulations to promote water quality and availability
• Science
– Monitor global water resources
– Report on water quality, pending issues, and progress
– Recommend science-based policies and technology solutions
– Provide data to support education and water-wise cultures
• Technology
– Deliver high-impact engineered solutions to achieve acceptable water quality and
sustainable water management
– Invest in watershed-based system solutions using science and economic benefit analysis to maximize gains in water sustainability
– Coordinate level of technology complexity with regional social, economic, and industrial requirements

Path Forward
• Work across watershed boundaries toward an integrated water resource management strategy
• Implement a strategy based on
– Education and awareness
– Policy
– Science
– Technology
• Establish a value-based water management approach that maintains respect for
– Ecosystem requirements, including the needs of flora and fauna
– Basic human need for water in a world of increasing population pressure overlying
unevenly dispersed freshwater resources
– Natural climate variations that will cause perturbations in water quality and availability.