The situation will aggravate with the expected Global Population Growth (2) from now, about seven billion to nine billion people at the year 2050! The amount of potable water remains the same. Unless technology is utilized to process the water. Which means that energy must be utilized to do so. This is not a question of wanting to do or not. Water is not a luxury but is needed for survival. The United Nation  recognizes that access to clean water as a basic human right(3).

In order to process water to become potable a lot of energy will be needed. This is in stark contradiction to the declared goal to save energy. Still it has to be done! The problem is that even now a lot of energy is needed to process the water. The German news magazine Der Spiegel (4) reports, based on the research by Declan Conway and Sabrina Rothausen in Nature.com(5), that alone in the USA about 5% of the Greenhouse Gas emission is caused by the water sector. A new concept must be found how to solve a progressive problem. The TOTEM System (6), as introduced by Nesseq.com, could mitigate the problem considerably. For this to happen a change of mind must occur in the heads of the people and their leaders. It can’t be that water is becoming a economical commodity. The energy demand for bottling water and selling it on the international market is also very energy demanding. And it contradicts the declaration of the UN, that water is a human right! 

For further reading:

1. Water

2. Global Population Growth

3. Water is Human Right

4. Der Spiegel

5. Nature.com

6. TOTEM System

Despite all the water on earth, water fit for consumption by human beings is only about 1% of the fresh water and only 0.007% of all the water on earth. While world Population grows the amount of potable water remains the same or diminishes, because of pollution, Climate Change and the incisions of human beings in nature. The Water Peak will reach new heights!

One of the solutions offered by technology is to Desalinate water and so produce potable water. Contrary to what Nesseq suggests, the TOTEM System, the Reverse Osmosis technology is preferred. Although this technology demands a lot of energy and the potable water would be a by product of the TOTEM System.

All this is a matter for discussion. What is difficult to understand is, why water is becoming a economical commodity. Water is being sold in bottles in supermarkets. In the developed countries water from all over the world can be bought in bottles. Just like wine, which is produced in Chile and is sold in Europe. The problem is, that the Water Balance of the areas from which the water originates is getting disturbed. The water is being shipped off to far away countries. Water is added where it does not belong and this besides the fact that the whole process demands much energy. Not enough with this, all the plastic bottles are after their use just an addition to the garbage!

For such a banal product as potable water, which should be accessible in highest quality to every person in this world!

A after thought, could the next step be, that oxygen will be sold in bottles in supermarkets?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0&feature=related

A clean ocean helps fight the Climate Change!

In the southern part of France, a couple of weeks ago, a devastating flood occurred. 19 people died. Now floods are always happening and in some parts of the world it is totally normal for floods to happen during the summer, but not in southern France with it’s Mediterranean climate.
In the south of France it should be quiet dry in the summer.

It could be regarded as a freak of nature if this incident would stand all alone but the List of Floods 2010 show that it is becoming a regularity. More comprehensible is the List of Floods of the 20th century. And not even all floods are even listed.
But this is not the topic of this post, I just thought it should be mentioned in a post about water in the summertime.

The topic of this post is the waste of water during the bathing season as shown by the examples which have been recorded in Tel Aviv.

Air Conditioner and Water.

The weather is never good enough for people. In the winter they need heating to feel comfortable and in the summer they need air conditioner to keep the cool. During the process of cooling the air the inherent humidity condenses.

As you can see by the pictures of the bottle. The bottle contains 1.5 liter of mineral water, when bought in the supermarket.
I put such an empty bottle underneath an air conditioner and connected it to the bottle with a pipe.
It was 14:00 hours and it took about 20 minutes to fill the bottle with the Condensed Water of the Air Conditioner. Mind you,

it was 1 air conditioner. This amount of water must be multiplied by a couple of hundred thousand AC’s in Israel. The amount of condensed water from all the millions of air conditioners throughout the world is staggering!

This water is only a byproduct of cooling the interior of the buildings during the summertime.

Because it is a byproduct no one has the inclinations to use this water for irrigation or just to feed it into the sewage where it could be treated, for whatever purpose!

At the Beach

Another example is the beach life of Tel Aviv at the 16. July 2010 at about 14:00 hours.

It is a Friday and the beginning of the weekend. Anyway it is vacation time. The children don’t go to school and because of the rather calm political situation many tourist are visiting again the country. And they all go to the beach!

As can be seen by the pictures many people are using the showers to wash off the salt from the sea.

The other pictures show a row of showers to wash off the sand from the feet before leaving the beach. At the end of the row is a tap for the convenience of the people to drink from.

Drink water is used for the showers on the beach?

In a land like Israel where water is scarce and has to be divided by Israelis and Palestinians. Of course it is not equally divided. According to the human right organization B’Tselem the average Israeli uses about 240 liters of water, while the Palestinian gets only about 73 liters daily.
This is an unsustainable situation and the root for future conflicts.

Even the Israelis begin to understand the severity of the water situation. Of course, without regards to the Palestinians.
In order to solve the problem, Desalination plants are being built. As usual, the easy, Solar Energy, solution is neglected and the energy intensive Reverse Osmosis technology is employed.

The envisioned solution is a illusion.

The commercial tries to incite the citizens of Israel to save water, promises that the water crisis will be over in about 3 years, when all the Desalination plants will fully work.

What the beautiful, young Lady in the commercial doesn’t tell the people is, that the price for water will inevitably rise. This is so, because the Reverse Osmosis is expensive to operate and it will be even more expensive when the price for energy will rise again.

For the citizen it means, that to save water will always be mandatory. It is simply an absurdity to desalinate water in order to waste it on the beach or anywhere else.

The solution, at least on the beach, would be to use Solar Energy to desalinate water on each beach, which can be used for the showers and for irrigation.
On each beach could the technology, as introduced in the post of Nesseq, Water Waste, be utilized.

the problem, as usual,is that because the technology is cheap and the Solar Energy does not cost, monetary profits are low.
Money is more important then a solution!

Or is it?

Here, the commercial about saving water in Israel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sT1PAYwYU8

It is to be noted, that the whole campaign in all the medias, costs a lot of money. With only part of the money a lot more could be done, like the Solar desalination.

It is also noteworthy, that only the citizen are asked to save water, while the public authorities are wasting water.

The translation: If the tap only 2 drops of water per minute, it amounts to 397 liters a year!

Water is such a scarce commodity that it becomes highly political. It might even become a reason for Wars.

In the conflict between Israel and Palestine water is a very crucial part. Especially since, according to the human rights organization B’tselem, the per-capita consumption of water of an Israeli is about 240 liters a day. In Germany it is about 120 liters a day, while the Palestinian has only about 60 liters a day.

The situation of the Sea of Galilee as the main resource of drinking water is critical. The level of the sea is about 5 meters below normal.

As a solution the Israeli government has decided to desalinate water from the Mediterranean Sea by means of Reverse Osmosis.

A technology which demands a lot of energy and that means it will be expensive for the consumers. Also it is not clear whether the Palestinians will get a fair share of this water. And this might become a highly volatile political conflict!

Landing Pier in the Sea of Galilee

Most of the energy is wasted because the Israelis will not stop wasting water!

The pictures clearly show how water is wasted senselessly in Israel.

Wasting Water while Irrigating English Meadow

The Picture on the right was taken in Tiberias and show how low the level of the Sea of Galilee is. The picture on the left shows a round about in Bet She’an, which is planted with a English meadow. In an arid country such as Israel? The meadow needs a lot of water and still water is running down the street.

In Safed

Below is a picture taken in the old city of Safed. The cistern was built 275 years ago. The ground floor is about 4X4 meters and the cistern is about 9 meters deep.

All in all volume is about 144 cubic meters. The did it in the past and we can’t do it today? Perhaps because it is old fashioned.

But it is still effective!

Top view of the cistern

By the Dead Sea, which is also in a miserable state, the showers on the beach use Grey Water for the bathing people. The water is collected somewhere in the nearby mountains and need a powerful pumping station to move the water.

Pumping Station

With the Idea of Nesseq how to reuse water by means of Solar Energy less energy would be needed and less damage would be inflicted to nature. Also the used water would flow back into the sea, so the circuit of the water is minimized.

Back in Tel Aviv on the beach I rediscovered a pipe, which for years lead water into the Mediterranean Sea. I used to call the municipality a couple of times and asked them where the water comes from? I never got a satisfactory answer. Still the water could be put into the sewage for treatment and from there on could be used for agriculture.

Water into Sea

The last picture shows a poster on a advertisement pillar asking the public to save water. The text means: Every person needs 55 liter daily for showering. Install water saving devices!

This is the usual, shoving the responsibility to the individual as though the government and the municipalities have nothing to do with the waste of water!

That this is not so can be seen by the pictures in this article.

Advertisment for Saving Water

One more point.

In Israel it is usual to use plastic pipes for irrigation.

The suggestion of Nesseq is to have two colors for the pipes. So the gardeners will know which pipe leads water and which is not. As it is, two water leading pipes are stuck together, the water tap is opened and the gardener have done their job and seem to go drink a coffee or something else. Anyway the two pipes are getting, because of the pressure, disconnected and the water flows anywhere but to the plants.

To be continued in the future.

It seems that every flat and shop has an Air Conditioner and they are working hard to make live comfortable.

Beside the fact of the energy demand and the potential use of harmful Greenhouse gases in the units, the condensing water is usually led with a plastic pipe to the side walk.

This is senseless waste of water!

How much would it cost to lead this water into the sewage? That shouldn’t be too expensive.

One of the big complains of the Israelis in the summer is not so much the heat but the Air Humidity. The condensed water of the air conditioners reduce the humidity and by releasing it onto the side walk it evaporates and is increases the humidity again. The water could be used more productively.

The picture on the right shows one more example.

The air conditioners are behind the gate.

Just look how far the water reaches!

And now multiply it with 1 million. The amount of water is staggering.

The figure 1million air conditioner is a low estimate. Alone in Israel are much more air conditioner. Also not in the reckoning are the air conditioner in cars.

With simple technical devices and little money the condensed water could be put to better uses!

Without oxygen one survives a couple of minutes, without water only some days.

Although water is abundant only a small part is potable.

Still it is wasted as though there is no tomorrow.

While the world population will grow in the next 30-40 years by around 30%, from today 7 billion to 9 billion people the amount of potable water remains static.

If the climate will change the situation will even worsen. What is today potable water could be spoiled in such a way that it can’t be used for drinking.

The tips offered to the public how to save water are well meant but are they enough?

As long as the present infrastructure exists this is all we can do. Don’t let the water flow while washing dishes, shorten the time showering and so on.

But there is another way which we at Nesseq are proud to introduce to the public.

Perhaps the idea could be patented but in order to spread the idea faster we make it, as all our ideas, in this website public domain.

The technology, as usual, is a simple one. This specific idea is especially fit for countries in the global sunbelt.

The water circuit must be separated in potable water and water for different usage. The same must happen with the drainage. The water from the toilet goes to the water purification plant and the water from the kitchen and bathroom goes to a pool.

On the water floats a black dome. Because of the higher temperature inside the dome the water evaporate and flows to the roof of the building. There it turns to water again and can be used for the same tasks again. The water is distilled and not intended for drinking.

That way the water remains in a closed circuit. Possible losses can be counterbalanced by harvesting rain water.

Tenth of million of people are affected.

Some blame the Climate Change for it. Even if the Climate Change has only a small part to the problem, it is safe to assume that with time the part will become bigger and more wide spread.

Another problem is the growing world population. In the middle of this century world population will reach 9 billion people. This is an increase of 30% to the number of today, the year 2010.

While the amount of drinking water remains stable. One might think, that as a result of the Climate Change, melting of the glaciers, the situation will change for the better. This might be a dangerous illusion.

According to Wikipedia about 884 million people are already inadequately supplied with water.

The problem of water might just become more severe as a result of the Climate Change. Even in areas with an abundance of water today.  The problem will affect billions of people!

In the same page (last external link) of Wikipedia it is stated that the desalination of sea water is currently very expensive. This is not really true if Solar Energy is used, not for Photovoltaic but as Thermal Solar Energy.

Point 12 of the TOTEM System shows how drinking water can be produced as a byproduct of an energy facility.