Category: Water

The product is designed to address the need of more than one billion people who lack access to safe and clean drinking water by allowing them to have a stable and reliable source of water for home consumption.

While launching the Life Straw water purifier manufactured by Vestergaard Frandsen, a European-based company, Thomas Hansen, the company’s regional director for East Africa, said the purifier comes when more than 11 million Ugandans lack access to safe and clean drinking water and water borne diseases are on the increase.

"The product is portable and user friendly. Its container is not used to store drinking water but only for instant purification.

That makes it safer than the drinking water that is stored in containers and may get contaminated. With the Life Straw, one purifies what they are going to take at the time," Hansen explained.

He says it is estimated that 4,000 children die from diseases caused by drinking unsafe water. He added that water borne diseases also reduce quality of life and perpetuate poverty by impacting education and productivity.

Hansen explained that the process of purication begins when dirty water is poured in to the pre-filter bucket at the top of the product where gravity forces the it through a tube and into the purification cartridge, which contains millions of tiny pores that remove contaminants.

Clean and safe water is then ready to flow from the attached tap. Dirt accumulated in the membranes can be released from the bottom of the device by pressing the squeeze bulb after use.

"The need for safe and clean water is especially acute for children under five and people living with HIV/AIDS as chronic diarrhea remains a lead cause of death and morbidity," Dr. Sam Okware, the commissioner for community health at the Ministry of Health said. "Products like Life Straw Family can make a huge difference."

The water and lands minister, Maria Mutagamba said: "Today, rural water coverage is about 60% and urban 70%. If we move at the same pace, we are likely to meet the urban target which is 85% by 2015 while in the rural areas the target is 75%."

Hansen says the purifier has been extensively tested in the US at the University of Arizona and complies with the US Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for microbiological purifiers. It removes 99.9% of all known bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

He says safe water interventions have vast potential to transform the lives of millions of people. "Water filtration tool not only provides safe drinking water but also has a positive health impact on the most vulnerable populations," Hansen says.
Under the Uganda Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), government set a target of having each Ugandan access to safe drinking water by 2015.

The purifier filters about 10 litres of water an hour depending on the height at which it is hang.It will be marketed through NGOs with donor funding.

The product requires no spare parts or maintenance other than cleaning.

For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure. What it turned into was a beautiful and dangerous life journey into the balance of life on earth.

Driven by passion fed from a lifelong fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas.

Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world’s shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

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Japanese designers and engineers have earned a reputation for improving products invented by others, allowing them to become saleable, desirable and popular. Consider the videotape recorder, for example. Invented by AMPEX in the mid-1950s, the concept was taken to its logical extension by Japanese electronics giant JVC and introduced to the masses in 1976 as the VHS cassette. This time, however, Japan’s creative techies think they can improve on Mother Nature, and by jove I think they’ve done it!

The Square Watermelon… chew on that for a moment, if you will. The first question that comes to mind is, "Why?" Well, besides its novelty value, there are actually several darned good reasons for making a watermelon in a square shape. Since these things make great gifts, it makes sense to package them in boxes and a square shape fits into a square box with the minimum amount of wasted space. In addition, the shape naturally lends itself to being bedecked in a decorative ribbon, birthday-present style. Think of it, a delicious watermelon packed in a home-grown gift box! And a gift that will be appreciated, knowing the cost: figure about $80 & change for one of these babies compared to about $20 for a boring, unfashionable oval one. Naturally, you’re going to want to chill your prized gift, and the shape fits perfectly inside a Japanese refrigerator. Take it out, and it won’t roll away!

 

After "Why?", you’re probably wondering "How?"… and no, they aren’t grown from square seeds. Farmers in Zentsuji, located in southern Japan, place the small on-the-vine watermelons in tempered glass forms that force the growing melons to conform to their shape while still receiving necessary sunlight. Only about 400 of the four-sided fruits are grown each season. One would suppose that triangular or pyramid-shaped watermelons could also be created using this technique, but then we’d be back to "Why?" and this is the "How?" section.

The Square Watermelon can be found in Japanese grocery stores in Tokyo and Osaka and is not currently available in the USA. Square watermelons grown in Brazil have lately become available in Great Britain, though, so we may be enjoying them here yet! Prices in Japan are in the $80 – $85 range (about 10,000 yen) when in season.

OECD Environment director Lorents Lorentsen said the agricultural sector accounted for two-thirds of water use and could be better managed.  He said the national water plan introduced last year could go further.

"Water is a scarce resource and it should be priced at the cost of distributing and supplying water," he said.

"You could say that God is providing enough rain and water but somebody has to pay for the pipes and pay for the supply of water."

The report also calls for stronger enforcement of environmental laws and responses to the degradation of natural resources.

Mr Lorentsen said the Federal Government’s overhaul of environmental programs last week under the Caring for Our Country banner had addressed many of the OECD’s concerns.

He said Australia’s significant achievements included protecting nature and biodiversity, creating the "innovative and ambitious" National Water Initiative in 2004 and its new climate change policies.

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett said Caring for Our Country, a $2.25 billion program, supported the report’s recommendation that the capacity of regional natural resource bodies be expanded.

"Many of the shortcomings this report identifies are those that we highlighted in opposition," Mr Garrett said.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the timetable she released this week for the introduction of an emissions trading scheme answered the report’s call for a market price to be put on carbon.

From ABC online  

Water experts are paying tribute to Professor Peter Cullen, one of Australia’s leaders in the field.

The 65-year-old founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists died overnight at his home near Canberra.

Professor Cullen was active in advising governments on how to address dwindling water supplies.

He retired in 2002 but continued his scientific work, focusing on the plight of Australia’s rivers.

Professor Mike Young of the Wentworth group says Professor Cullen was a wonderful communicator who could translate complex science to ordinary, young Australians and politicians.

"Peter really was a great Australian who loved and understood water and wanted to find better ways to manage it," he said.

"He believed if we got water management right, then Australia would have a sustainable future."

Professor Cullen’s friend and professional colleague, Paul Perkins, says Australia’s natural waterways have lost a great advocate.

"He towered above everything," he said. "He was a big man in intellect, in size, in appetite for new things, and so on.

"He wasn’t just an environmentalist or agricultural scientist – he covered… the whole spectrum."

Dr Paul Sinclair from the Australian Conservation Foundation says the scientist was passionate about alerting Australians to the crisis facing the country’s river systems.

"There’s sort of two sorts of academics," he said.

"There are academics who like to bang in the ivory tower and there are academics who like to be down and dirty in the swamp.

"Peter Cullen … liked to be down and dirty in the swamp.

"When he retired from his academic post, it appeared to me that there was … no change in his work regime and he appeared to be busier than ever."

Politicians from all sides have paid tribute.

Federal Water Minister Penny Wong says Professor Cullen made a powerful contribution to water reform.

Senator Wong says he was an inspiration to many.

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has praised the Professor’s dedication, saying he hopes his legacy lives on.

New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma also paid tribute to Professor Cullen.

In a statement, Mr Iemma says the academic was a man of great vision who made an outstanding contribution to water policy.

The Australian Conservation Foundation has welcomed the suggestion by Treasury Secretary Ken Henry that water pricing should reflect water scarcity.

“Pricing is a critical part of managing demand for water,” said ACF’s Sustainable Australia Program Manager Monica Richter.

“Any pricing regime should take account of social and environmental concerns.

“A block tariff – where the more you use, the more you pay – would do this, while a flat tariff would not.

“Pricing is one of the tools governments can use to reward people who do conserve water.

“Water restrictions remain another important tool in managing the use of this precious resource,” she said.