Studies

The Story of Ralegan Siddhi: Bringing Water Back to Life

HydrateLife Environment, Studies, Sustainable Practices, WASH 13 Comments
The Story of Ralegan Siddhi: Bringing Water Back to Life

Today I want to share with you an inspiring story of success.  It’s a sort of rags-to-riches story.  But this story doesn’t have to do with money (specifically); it has to do with the power of water.  This story starts in 1975 in the Indian village of Raleghan Siddhi. Raleghan Siddhi is in a drought-prone and rain-shadowed area of India, receiving between 450-650mm (17.5-25.5 inches) of water annually in a place where temperatures can reach 44 degrees (111 degrees fahrenheit). continue reading

Celebrating World Water Day 2013

HydrateLife Dams, Environment, Facts/Statistics, Health, Sanitation, Studies, Sustainable Practices, WASH 7 Comments

In honor of World Water Day on March 22 I wanted to give you a brief history on World Water Day.  Before I do that let’s look at some facts about water and the worldwide water (and sanitation) crisis: If you look at all the water in the world you’d find that: 97.5% of it is saltwater and therefore cannot be used for drinking water (it could be desalinated, but this is costly and takes a lot of energy, pluscontinue reading

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

Alternatives to Dams: The Free Flow Kinetic Hydropower System

HydrateLife Studies, Water Technology 2 Comments

If you follow my facebook page (facebook.com/hydratelife) you may have noticed that I post links to a lot of articles about dams and their negative impacts on the environment and the people living around them.  While I do understand that countries need energy in order to prosper I also believe that there are sustainable ways of going about this, and that dams are not the answer.  Well, if I’m going to say that dams are not the answer then Icontinue reading

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

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