Author: HydrateLife

Summary of Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Resources: Separating the Frack from the Fiction; A Report by the Pacific Institute

HydrateLife Environment, Studies, Water Pollution 6 Comments

Today I wanted to give a summary of a report put out by the Pacific Institute titled Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Resources: Separating the Frack from the Fiction.  The Pacific Institute, which has been around for 25 years, released the paper which was written by Heather Cooley and Kristina Donnely in June of this year.  For this report they conducted extensive interviews with experts from state and federal agencies, academia, industry, environmental groups, and community based organizations from throughout thecontinue reading

The Niger Delta: Soaked in Oil

HydrateLife Environment, Water Pollution 8 Comments

Like many places around the world the Niger Delta is cursed.  It’s cursed by the vast resources that lay underground in the form of oil.  Since the 1950’s the Nigerian government along with multinational corporations have been extracting oil from this region and devastating the ecosystem and its people.  Today, Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, extracting 2 million barrels of oil a day, leading to oil making up 80% of their national revenue. So who’s pumping all of thiscontinue reading

Sand Dams: An Old Technology Saving Lives in the Present

HydrateLife Dams, Water Technology 9 Comments

                          Millions of people live in areas where they have more water than they know what to do with during the wet season, and then struggle to find water to survive during the dry season, but it doesn’t have to be this way.  Sand dams are able to take advantage of the seasonal rains and from them provide water throughout the year. The idea of sand dams iscontinue reading

Water Heroes: Ma Tsepo Khumbane – Harvesting Rainwater to Grow Crops

HydrateLife Agriculture, Sustainable Practices, Water Heroes 2 Comments

This week’s water hero, Ma Tsepo Khumbane, is a retired social worker and development activist who has spent the last 40 years fighting poverty and malnutrition by teaching South Africa’s poor how to harvest rainwater to be used to grow their own crops, as well as speaking out for better sanitation and hygiene practices.  Due to her extraordinary efforts she has received the Katlego Award of Spirit of Hope and South Africa’s Women in Water Award, but maybe even morecontinue reading

Saving Lives with Community-Led Total Sanitation

HydrateLife Health, Sanitation, WASH, Water Treatment 2 Comments

Without water people cannot survive, but without good sanitation and hygiene practices the water available could become contaminated and lead to disease and death.  Every year 1.5 million people, most of them children, die from complications associated with diarrhea that they picked up from dirty water.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 88% of diarrhea cases worldwide are linked to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene.  Diarrhea is caused by bacteria that get into the water system, andcontinue reading

Polluted Rivers: The Ciliwung

HydrateLife WASH, Water Pollution 5 Comments

Today I wanted to write about one of the most polluted rivers in the world; the Ciliwung River in Indonesia.  The Ciliwung’s pollution comes at it from everywhere; raw sewage, industrial pollution, agricultural pollution, and household trash.  When you see pictures of this river, such as the one above, your heart sinks thinking about all the people that live along the river and what it has become. The Ciliwung is 200 miles long and is the main river that runscontinue reading

Water Heroes: Chewang Norphel – The “Ice Man”

HydrateLife Sustainable Practices, Water Heroes 6 Comments

The “Ice Man”.  Sounds like a pretty cool super hero, and he kind of is.  But you won’t find this super hero up on the big screen; you’ll find him in the Himalayas.  The Ice Man is actually 76 year old Chewang Norphel, a retired engineer in India that came up with an ingenious way to provide water to rural villages: artificial glaciers. Chewang grew up in Ladakh, a remote part of India high in the mountains near the Himalayas. continue reading

The SFPUC’s New Headquarters: The Greenest Building in the US?

HydrateLife Sustainable Practices, Water Technology, Water Treatment 1 Comment

Yesterday I had the opportunity to tour the new headquarters for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC); a building which they say is one of, if not the, greenest building in the nation.  We will know for sure after they go through the US Green Building Council’s LEED certification, after which they plan to receive a LEED Platinum rating, the highest rating available. First, let me say that the building is beautiful inside and out, but that’s not reallycontinue reading

Why Hydroelectricity from Large Dams is Not Clean

HydrateLife Dams, Environment 4 Comments

It’s common, if not the rule, for hydroelectricity from dams to be listed as clean energy.  With approximately 845,000 dams worldwide (~80,000 in the US) it seems like people have for a long time believed this to be true, and you can’t really blame them.  Dam building is often a very political issue and politicians often lead people to believe this myth.  Besides that, without knowing all of the facts it would seem like they are clean; you have acontinue reading

Protecting our Waterways Naturally: Riparian Buffers

HydrateLife Environment, Health, Water Pollution, Water Treatment No Comments

You’re standing on a farm looking out over a huge group of cows to your left.  The smell is pretty bad, and you’re disgusted by the cows walking around in their waste without a care in the world.  You glance over to your right and notice a beautiful stream that runs along the farm and then continues on.  All of the sudden the clouds open up and a downpour hits. As the rain comes down the ground is getting saturatedcontinue reading

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