I used the example of San Diego of multiple reasons.
One is that many in the developed countries wrongly assume that we have good systems worthy to export to developing countries.
Here in the Nordic countries we have taken some important steps but much still is needed.
Many years ago someone told me that we should export our technology.
Aware of the problems I simply answered that we should not export something that is not yet optimized.
In my opinion it is of most importance to do it right this time, a holistic system.
If I take an example of Africa where many women often spend most of their days walking and carrying water from distant wells. Then they collect firewood so they can cook.
If they would have access to rainwater harvesting system in their village and toilets make biogas.
It would improve their life dramatically. It is very low tech systems and sometimes possibly to make from nearby resources like clay. In India if I remember correctly they make biogas systems of clay to poor farmers so they can have their own cooking gas without damaging the Eco system.
And even with purchased items it is a very low cost for having water and biogas with non-negative impact for the environments.
Back to the women in Africa, in some areas they realized that they should store the surplus from the good years for the bad years. The tradition was to just eat what was needed that particular year and leave the rest. They did not trust the men to have the keys so the women had the responsibility for the new storage's. It resulted in a great improvement.
One woman decided to change her life; she had a bucket and started to transform a little piece of land. She managed to transform it to a flourishing small farm and managed to employ and feed people, people who otherwise might have had to move to a city in hope for a non-existing job.
A wise person once said “the greatest solutions often comes from the smallest of persons”
In my opinion it would be better to decontamminate river water since Africa has different sources of contammination in soils and other that make impossible to recover desnutrition numbers due a lack of complete sanitation. Water would be viewed in a whole system that does not function not only for water itself but for pollutiion. Avoiding contammination will improve their life standards in general.
Absolute true, one part of an holistic solution. I have no personal experience of industrial scale sanitation of industriprocess water. Some ponds for mines thats all. I leave that to others and try to contribute in my way. There is no contradiction, all solutions are needed.
Completely agree. I only want to share and discuss about possibilities that could solve the problems of water viewed form pollution of fonts since in Latinamerica that is the main problem...Thanks a lot for your feed back...
To not use harmfull chemicals in hygien products cleaning and washing products in an circular system reusing water. Only use certified products and producers should not be allowed to sell products before proven enviromently safe. At first I thougt that I will not write down something as obvious like this but it seems like it still is not for many producers.
I would further present some new approaches in regenerative farming and how a modern way of livestock managing positively can benefit the whole eco system.
What has this to with decentralized water?
Please see first the videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI
A real eye opener, he has influenced people around the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdL10zHHxyM
In only takes some few years to transform dry or over farmed land to thriving eco systems with growing soil. Groundwater starts to increase, wildlife returns.
The soil binds CO2; it is not only trees that can help with that.
After a while water for regenerative farms can be found in natural ponds.
When the groundwater gets replenished it’s possible to make simple shallow wells.
If the people don’t pollute the water they can just let the water go back to the ground and the ground filters it before reaching groundwater.
A circular system like it is supposed to be and still is in some areas.
The nature is a winner; the livestock has natural great lives compared to normal management.
The livestock helps transforming the world; healthy grass-fed livestock produces healthy milk and meat. Healthy food produces healthy babies and so on.
There are lots of lands around the world that can be transformed or re transformed.
I traveled a lot in my youth and I remembered for an example in the USA how much non used land there was. And I have probably seen more of USA than the average American.
And the same goes for many other countries.
What an impact this transformation could make.
Poor persons who not need to go to cities or leave their countries in search for a way to survive.
Poor people can maybe go back and live of the land once again.
Holy Cow what a great vision!
And it has just started thanks to creative people.
Sincerely
Vesa
If you are looking for a system that work everywhere the reality you are describing does not correspond to Latinaamerica countries mainly in Central and Southamerica. Pollution has grown in cities and fonts are poisoned with heavy metals due to a bad view of governants.
It is true that major cities around the world have much pollution. Each problem must be adressed diferently. I try to present a variety of proposals. Like a smargasbord, everyone is free to pick the dish suited for them. Sometimes it is interesting to see and taste dishes from various countries. There is a lot of great ideas and inovative persons around the world. For me it is important to highlight their efforts. But I totally understand your point. I remeber when I visited Jakarta 30 years ago. 2 Stroke tuk tuk people had problem breathing etcetera. Air pollutions must be adressed as well.
When giving examples of creative people around the world trying to solve water challenges, I should also add to Israel. They have a lot of experience that I think they will present in the competition.?
When giving examples of creative people around the world trying to solve water challenges, I should also add to Israel. They have a lot of experience that I think they will present in the competition.?
Absolutely! I'm glad we already have several Israeli experts in the community. There's a lot of innovation happening there.
One of my old teachers would be ashamed of my presentation. He said "never leave a report that is not free of misspellings or grammatical errors". It is unnecessary and the recipient may be offended and, in the worst case, believe that one is uneducated. I see now as I read through what I have presented that some careless errors slipped through. All because I wrote in a flow like I often do. I apologize for this and if anyone relays what I have written you will be free to correct the grammatical and spelling errors you may find.
Sand filters are incredibly simple and effective. students from KTH Stockholm made field trials in Katanga Kampala Uganda. They made simple containers in concrete. 20x20x100 cm. In the bottom 2.5 l coarse crushed rock followed by 2.5 l fine crushed rock followed by 30 l sand. One such unit provided clean water to 20 people. A microbial layer is formed after 3-4 weeks, which purifies the water to 91-94%. Cooking killed only 50-60%. The students drank themselves off the water during their stay without getting sick.
I see now as I read through what I have presented that some careless errors slipped through. All because I wrote in a flow like I often do.
I apologize for this and if anyone relays what I have written you will be free to correct the grammatical and spelling errors you may find.
Please don't worry about that! Think of the discussions we're having here in the community as a conversation, nothing too formal.
Some suggestions for poor rural areas in the world:
I would start with education the villagers in the water use etcetera. They must want to have the change and feel in their hearts that it is their decision.
Rainwater harvesting and suggest regenerative farming, grassing.
Start with the village school, harvest water from the roof accordingly to my proposals.
Let the villagers make the water cistern together from clay mixed with sand straws cement or what is suitable or concrete.
Design as my proposals with circulation and sand filter, it should be enough in rural areas.
The villagers have a sand filter design by the students at KTH Stockholm, and described earlier.
Each home has their own, should be possible to make them of clay if concrete is too expensive.
The filters clean the dirtiest slum water to 91-94 %.
So the combination of circulation and filtering in cisterns with these filters probably provides better cleaner mineralized water than can be found in the cities.
It provides naturally purified water and to an almost insane low price per liter.
Correctly designed the lifespan is long.
The villagers also construct their own biogas chamber, blueprints can be found in Africa or in work from Swedish universities.
They can use cow dung, bio mass, and if socially accepted humans feces to make biogas.
Here is one education part.
They need a system so they can fill and refill gas bottles or make a network of pipes to the houses.
Maybe UN can finance parts of it, maybe as a loan so the villagers don’t get offended.
Ok, some thoughts how it is possible to start.
I know much of this already may be implemented and if not why not?
@Vesa Interesting comment about rain/stormwater harvesting as we would likely need to require diversification of water sources (on top of wastewater) in case of disruption to flow. With regards to resource recovery (you mentioned "cow dung, bio mass, and if socially accepted humans feces to make biogas.") we just started a new discussion on the topic: https://community.xprize.org/discussion/674/resource-recovery-circular-water-economy#latest
@Caroline
Landscaping for new (300) communities or new suburbs:
Make a land survey; try to plan the buildings in the high areas and save as many trees as possible.
Use all material and soil from dugouts, use rocks, some can be crushed in the site and be used.
Plan the landscape so you balance the material. No material should be transported out and if necessary never let the trucks go empty.
Plan so the material from artificial ponds and lakes also gets included in the mass balance.
Use clay or dense soils in the bottom and sides of the ponds for water capture.
Excess material can be used for artificial small hills and to steer the water. Try to make an appealing landscape.
If dry dense soils in a dry region; let the machines loosening the surface.
Fill with about 20 cm of 0-2 mm rock flour and 10-20 cm of soil from biogas chambers on lawns and plant grass and plants with deep roots.
The rock flour keeps the water for a longer time; the rock flour also mineralizes the soil for the plants.
In gardens use 40 cm of organic soil above the rock flour.
Plant a lot of trees of many varieties’ fruit trees berries etcetera.
The tree keeps the groundwater high. Something even many farmers are unaware of.
Adhesion and cohesion binds the water to the soil and other water molecules and water vapor from groundwater and this “bends” the ground water to rise higher.
All farms should consist of a mix of trees fruit trees and gardens ponds and farmland.
The fruit trees provide fruit to man and animals.
My recommendation for the ground near the houses is to have a slope of 2.5 % five meters around the houses and after that 1 %.
This keeps the houses foundations dry.
The water stored from shower baths etcetera should be stored in a suitable sized cistern.
In dry areas a large one; from the cistern and pump you should have perforated hoses or pipes in the rock flour where you have a lawn or garden. A loop; the excess water goes back to the cistern.
It is better to water plants deep; the roots get forced to grow deep and you don’t evaporate excess water.
The slope makes the foundation stay dry and the rock flour and water from showers etcetera saves the dry days.
I think everyone understand the environmental and economic benefits of this kind of landscaping and circular systems.
Trees:
Trees also transpire water so that also makes water to move from groundwater and ground.
With healthy soil and replenishing groundwater you can have many trees.
In dry areas you must find the balance; you must make sure that you first transform the soil and make ponds before planting more trees.
Otherwise problems and unbalance obviously will occur.
Here is information on how they use trees and root systems to store water in dry conditions. Calculation help etc.
Here they want to retain the water before it reaches the groundwater.
Make sure the stone flour does not have too much fine material. It should be able to conduct excess water down to groundwater while retaining to saturation.
After some time, the roots of the plants will have grown under the stone flour and thus the root system will help to direct water to the underlying soil.
Comments
One is that many in the developed countries wrongly assume that we have good systems worthy to export to developing countries.
Here in the Nordic countries we have taken some important steps but much still is needed.
Many years ago someone told me that we should export our technology.
Aware of the problems I simply answered that we should not export something that is not yet optimized.
In my opinion it is of most importance to do it right this time, a holistic system.
If I take an example of Africa where many women often spend most of their days walking and carrying water from distant wells. Then they collect firewood so they can cook.
If they would have access to rainwater harvesting system in their village and toilets make biogas.
It would improve their life dramatically. It is very low tech systems and sometimes possibly to make from nearby resources like clay. In India if I remember correctly they make biogas systems of clay to poor farmers so they can have their own cooking gas without damaging the Eco system.
And even with purchased items it is a very low cost for having water and biogas with non-negative impact for the environments.
Back to the women in Africa, in some areas they realized that they should store the surplus from the good years for the bad years. The tradition was to just eat what was needed that particular year and leave the rest. They did not trust the men to have the keys so the women had the responsibility for the new storage's. It resulted in a great improvement.
One woman decided to change her life; she had a bucket and started to transform a little piece of land. She managed to transform it to a flourishing small farm and managed to employ and feed people, people who otherwise might have had to move to a city in hope for a non-existing job.
A wise person once said “the greatest solutions often comes from the smallest of persons”
What has this to with decentralized water?
Please see first the videos.
A real eye opener, he has influenced people around the world.
In only takes some few years to transform dry or over farmed land to thriving eco systems with growing soil. Groundwater starts to increase, wildlife returns.
The soil binds CO2; it is not only trees that can help with that.
After a while water for regenerative farms can be found in natural ponds.
When the groundwater gets replenished it’s possible to make simple shallow wells.
If the people don’t pollute the water they can just let the water go back to the ground and the ground filters it before reaching groundwater.
A circular system like it is supposed to be and still is in some areas.
The nature is a winner; the livestock has natural great lives compared to normal management.
The livestock helps transforming the world; healthy grass-fed livestock produces healthy milk and meat. Healthy food produces healthy babies and so on.
There are lots of lands around the world that can be transformed or re transformed.
I traveled a lot in my youth and I remembered for an example in the USA how much non used land there was. And I have probably seen more of USA than the average American.
And the same goes for many other countries.
What an impact this transformation could make.
Poor persons who not need to go to cities or leave their countries in search for a way to survive.
Poor people can maybe go back and live of the land once again.
Holy Cow what a great vision!
And it has just started thanks to creative people.
Sincerely
Vesa
There is a lot of great ideas and inovative persons around the world.
For me it is important to highlight their efforts. But I totally understand your point. I remeber when I visited Jakarta 30 years ago. 2 Stroke tuk tuk people had problem breathing etcetera. Air pollutions must be adressed as well.
Absolutely! I'm glad we already have several Israeli experts in the community. There's a lot of innovation happening there.
It is unnecessary and the recipient may be offended and, in the worst case, believe that one is uneducated.
I see now as I read through what I have presented that some careless errors slipped through. All because I wrote in a flow like I often do.
I apologize for this and if anyone relays what I have written you will be free to correct the grammatical and spelling errors you may find.
They made simple containers in concrete. 20x20x100 cm.
In the bottom 2.5 l coarse crushed rock followed by 2.5 l fine crushed rock followed by 30 l sand. One such unit provided clean water to 20 people. A microbial layer is formed after 3-4 weeks, which purifies the water to 91-94%. Cooking killed only 50-60%. The students drank themselves off the water during their stay without getting sick.
Please don't worry about that! Think of the discussions we're having here in the community as a conversation, nothing too formal.
Great!
I would start with education the villagers in the water use etcetera. They must want to have the change and feel in their hearts that it is their decision.
Rainwater harvesting and suggest regenerative farming, grassing.
Start with the village school, harvest water from the roof accordingly to my proposals.
Let the villagers make the water cistern together from clay mixed with sand straws cement or what is suitable or concrete.
Design as my proposals with circulation and sand filter, it should be enough in rural areas.
The villagers have a sand filter design by the students at KTH Stockholm, and described earlier.
Each home has their own, should be possible to make them of clay if concrete is too expensive.
The filters clean the dirtiest slum water to 91-94 %.
So the combination of circulation and filtering in cisterns with these filters probably provides better cleaner mineralized water than can be found in the cities.
It provides naturally purified water and to an almost insane low price per liter.
Correctly designed the lifespan is long.
The villagers also construct their own biogas chamber, blueprints can be found in Africa or in work from Swedish universities.
They can use cow dung, bio mass, and if socially accepted humans feces to make biogas.
Here is one education part.
They need a system so they can fill and refill gas bottles or make a network of pipes to the houses.
Maybe UN can finance parts of it, maybe as a loan so the villagers don’t get offended.
Ok, some thoughts how it is possible to start.
I know much of this already may be implemented and if not why not?
Landscaping for new (300) communities or new suburbs:
Make a land survey; try to plan the buildings in the high areas and save as many trees as possible.
Use all material and soil from dugouts, use rocks, some can be crushed in the site and be used.
Plan the landscape so you balance the material. No material should be transported out and if necessary never let the trucks go empty.
Plan so the material from artificial ponds and lakes also gets included in the mass balance.
Use clay or dense soils in the bottom and sides of the ponds for water capture.
Excess material can be used for artificial small hills and to steer the water. Try to make an appealing landscape.
If dry dense soils in a dry region; let the machines loosening the surface.
Fill with about 20 cm of 0-2 mm rock flour and 10-20 cm of soil from biogas chambers on lawns and plant grass and plants with deep roots.
The rock flour keeps the water for a longer time; the rock flour also mineralizes the soil for the plants.
In gardens use 40 cm of organic soil above the rock flour.
Plant a lot of trees of many varieties’ fruit trees berries etcetera.
The tree keeps the groundwater high. Something even many farmers are unaware of.
Adhesion and cohesion binds the water to the soil and other water molecules and water vapor from groundwater and this “bends” the ground water to rise higher.
All farms should consist of a mix of trees fruit trees and gardens ponds and farmland.
The fruit trees provide fruit to man and animals.
My recommendation for the ground near the houses is to have a slope of 2.5 % five meters around the houses and after that 1 %.
This keeps the houses foundations dry.
The water stored from shower baths etcetera should be stored in a suitable sized cistern.
In dry areas a large one; from the cistern and pump you should have perforated hoses or pipes in the rock flour where you have a lawn or garden. A loop; the excess water goes back to the cistern.
It is better to water plants deep; the roots get forced to grow deep and you don’t evaporate excess water.
The slope makes the foundation stay dry and the rock flour and water from showers etcetera saves the dry days.
I think everyone understand the environmental and economic benefits of this kind of landscaping and circular systems.
Trees also transpire water so that also makes water to move from groundwater and ground.
With healthy soil and replenishing groundwater you can have many trees.
In dry areas you must find the balance; you must make sure that you first transform the soil and make ponds before planting more trees.
Otherwise problems and unbalance obviously will occur.
Here is information on how they use trees and root systems to store water in dry conditions. Calculation help etc.
Here they want to retain the water before it reaches the groundwater.