Water Miles
This website is a way of promoting water miles and related concepts (peak water and virtual/embedded water). It also serves as a reference for water and energy-related references. We need to recognise that we are becoming water and energy constrained (at the same time). Old solutions to water shortage involved energy use, which is not sustainable. Even where water is not short, water use is energy use. The water miles concept is a way to conceptualise this fact.
1 comment January 14, 2009
Water under the sustainability microscope
An article I wrote for the Clean and Green section of the Plumbers’ Journal (Dec 09/Jan 10):
Add comment January 18, 2010
The Carbon Footprint of Water
This is a terrific report, full of great data and ways to visualise the issues. It comes from the River Network, a national US organisation.
Add comment January 18, 2010
The Water-Energy Nexus | River Network
Just found this site, and this post in particular, which has a lot to do with the Water Miles message:
Add comment January 18, 2010
Links to articles on the cost of desalination plants in Australia
- Greens MP Mark Parnell says South Australian households are paying heavily for a doubling in the size of Adelaide’s planned desalination plant (ABC News) “The Greens believe that desalination is an important technology but it’s a last resort, not a first resort. There is cheaper water to be had if only the Government would invest in recycling and that water is available year-after-year. Every litre of desalinated water costs money because of the huge amounts of energy involved.”
- Victoria’s Desal plant figures don’t hold water (SMH) “Public or private, the 150-gigalitre desal plant is not needed. The additional water could be produced at a sixth to a quarter of the cost by a judicious mixture of conservation, recycling and diversion dams.”
Add comment December 8, 2009
Coomera Cross-Connection (residents drink recycled water)
Click here for yet another example of the now clearly evident difficulty in avoiding cross-connections in third pipe supplies. Gold Coast residents were supplied recycled water to their drinking water taps.
The system was no doubt subject to some very rigourous proceedures and thorough checking but it appears to be very hard to avoid cross-connections at this scale of development.
See also my paper on risk and scale in water recycling.
Add comment December 8, 2009
‘Footprint’ for water
Consumers will be able to gauge the water “footprint” of products under a labelling move experts believe will benefit New Zealand, reports The Press and the Otago Daily Times. The NZ Herald covers it too.
More on water footprinting:
http://watermiles.org/2008/12/23/water-footprint-network-launches/
http://watermiles.org/2009/06/30/water-footprint-of-bioenergy/
http://watermiles.org/2008/12/04/plumbers-journal-article/
Add comment September 17, 2009
IWA Water Reuse SIG – Newsletter
You can download copies of the International Water Association’s Newletters for the Water Reuse specialist group from here.
The September 2009 newsletter carries a copy of my NZLTC conference paper, on water reuse and system scale.
Add comment September 10, 2009
Water-Energy linkages
Here’s a new report from Beacon Pathway that covers the key Water Miles message: that water and wastewater supply cost energy. It quantifies this for four councils in New Zealand.
http://beaconpathway.co.nz/images/uploads/Final_Report_WA7090(2)_Energy_water_relationships.pdf
Add comment September 1, 2009
Public Lecture by Stan Abbott
Stan Abbott, director of the Roof Water Research Centre at Massey University, is giving a public lecture on ‘Roofwater Harvesting in Urban Environments – An Environmentally Sound Solution to Diminishing Water Sources’.
The lecture is at Massey in Wellington on Thursday 20 August at 6pm.
See this poster for more details.
Add comment August 17, 2009
