Author: HydrateLife

Who Do You Buy Your Clothing From?

HydrateLife Environment, Health, Studies, Water Pollution No Comments

Are the companies that make your clothes environmentally friendly?  For a lot of us the answer is no.  Yesterday I stumbled onto a new report released by the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs on water pollution from the textile/apparel industry in China.  This report, titled Cleaning up the Fashion Industry, quoted a 2010 report as saying the textile industry in China ranked 4th in wastewater COD emissions and 3rd for overall wastewater discharge out of its 39 industries.  Althoughcontinue reading

Ecotact’s IkoToilet

HydrateLife Health, Sanitation, Water Products 2 Comments

The Iko Toilet is a great idea that has changed the lives of many people around Narobi, Kenya.  It all started with one man, David Kuria, and his mission to change how people think about toilets and ultimately the way people live.  Iko Toilet, which translates to “there is a toilet” is a product made by Ecotact which was started in 2007 as a social enterprise working to find innovative ways to help solve sanitation problems in Africa.  In thecontinue reading

Water Heroes: Kellogg Schwab

HydrateLife Health, Sustainable Practices, Water Heroes No Comments

Welcome to another edition of Water Heroes.  Today I’m writing about Kellogg Schwab who is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Director the JHU Center for Water and Health.  He also went on to start the JHU Global Water Program which combines several disciplines from the school to address issues with water.  Their goal is to find sustainable and accessible solutions to water needs throughout thecontinue reading

Wastewater Solutions: Artificial Wetlands

HydrateLife Environment, Water Pollution, Water Technology, Water Treatment 1 Comment

 A problem that is common for cities around the world is what to do with their wastewater.  In western societies the most common way to treat wastewater is through a wastewater treatment plant where chemicals and biological elements are added to treat the water.  However, for a lot of the world these plants are too expensive and they lack the expertise required to run the plant.  A cheaper and more ecofriendly way to treat wastewater is by using the environment,continue reading

The Nadi Filter

HydrateLife Water Products, Water Treatment 5 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog you may have read a while back about Rus Alit who is well known for his work helping communities to get clean water through appropriate technologies.  If you didn’t read that article appropriate technology is any technology that is simple and doesn’t use any outside energy source like fuel or electricity and uses materials that are available locally and can be made locally.  I had never heard about appropriate technology before writing the articlecontinue reading

Water Heroes: Ms. Ikal Angelei and the FoLT

HydrateLife Dams, Environment, Water Heroes No Comments

Welcome to another edition of Water Heroes.  Today we’re meeting Ms. Ikal Angelei who is the Founder and Director at the Friends of Lake Turkana (FoLT) organization.  The organization’s main purpose is to stop the construction of the Gilgel Gibe III Dam which is upstream of Lake Turkana and threatens the lake, the surrounding environment, and the area’s people.  They are doing this by educating the public, the government, diplomatic missions and the public about the possible dangers that thiscontinue reading

Blue Gold: World Water Wars

HydrateLife Movie Review, Water Pollution No Comments

Today I’m going to review an award winning documentary I recently watched called Blue Gold: World Water Wars.  This documentary is based on the book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke.   Both Maude and Tony have been heavily involved in the fight for clean water for decades, and you see a lot of them in this movie.  Maude is the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, chairscontinue reading

The Problems with Mining: Acid Mine Drainage

HydrateLife Environment, Health, Water Pollution No Comments

When I started reading about mining and its environmental impacts I soon realized that I would have a number of different topics to pick from, but I had to narrow it to one so today I’m going to be talking about acid mine drainage, or AMD.  AMD is a byproduct of the mining process (usually from abandoned mines) and is polluting groundwater and waterways world wide and at the same time turning them orange.  It occurs when mineral deposits containingcontinue reading

Anupam Mishra and Traditional Indian Rainwater Harvesting

HydrateLife Sustainable Practices, Water Heroes, Water Technology 5 Comments

Welcome to another edition of Water Heroes (formerly Amazing People Doing Amazing Things).  This week we’re talking about Anupam Mishra who is renowned for his work with water management and traditional rainwater harvesting techniques.  He also helped to start the Gandhi Peace Foundation as well as the Centre for Environment and Food Security and is editor of Foundation’s magazine ‘Gandhi Marg’.  Anupam is known for his travels throughout India studying and teaching about the traditional techniques used for centuries tocontinue reading

Cool Water Products: Puralytic’s SolarBag 3L

HydrateLife Health, Water Products, Water Treatment 2 Comments

Puralytic’s SolarBag 3L is a great invention that I stumbled upon while researching another project.  This product, which is basically a thick plastic bag with a filter and nanotechnology coated mesh insert, will get rid of bacteria, viruses, pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals, arsenic, lead, and mercury among other things.  They used a number of organizations to do third party testing and the results are all very positive.  Here’s the report if you’d like to take a look www.puralytics.com/files/solarBagTestReport.pdf.  It’s also verycontinue reading

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