Today is World Water Day, and the entire Important Media network is celebrating with posts dedicated to this most essential of liquids. Check out all the posts from across the network on our sister site, Eat. Drink. Better!
International World Water Day is held annually on March 22nd as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. There are 7 billion people who need clean, affordable drinking water on our planet, yet more than one out of six people lack access to drinking water that is safe.
You may think that the “water crisis,” is only a concern for those in developing countries or isolated communities, but its your problem too. Since Insteading focuses on alternatives to the status quo, we’ve chosen to highlight some surprising ways that people and companies are conserving, sourcing, and recycling water.
Water From Poop
Sounds ridiculous (and gross), but it’s true. EarthTechling tells us that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently made a significant investment in a new technology designed to extract fresh water from human waste. Yes, poop. Not only that, but this multi-talented technology could also harness the energy generating power of excrement as well.
App To Help You Find Free Water
While public awareness that water is necessary for good health has grown, our obsession with convenience has created the monstrosity that is the bottled water industry. Bottled water is expensive, bad for the environment, and less healthy than you think.
A smarter way to stay hydrated is to fill your own reusable bottle with water straight from the tap. Since bottled water has sent many public water fountains the way of the dodo, a crowdsourced app called “We Tap” can help you located sources of free water no matter where you are.
Chilling Out With Gray Water
There are three different kinds of water (shocking right?): potable water, gray water, and black water. The first is treated and comes out of your faucet, the second is what goes down the drain after washing dishes or clothes, and the third is what you flush down the toilet. Google recently discovered, that finding ways to reuse the gray water can mean big savings and lots of good things for the ecosystem.
What other surprising methods for conserving, sourcing, or recycling water have you encountered? Share them in a comment!
Image via Flickr/trouble with tribbles
Beth,
There are so many ways people can reduce the amount of water they use daily. Simple things like, don’t run the dishwasher until it is completely full; don’t run the clothes washer until you have a full load; if you have a lawn sprinkler system install the rain gauge that measures how much rain you have had and determines how much sprinkling is done; adjust sprinkler system so the sprinklers don’t water the sidewalks or other unnecessary areas and don’t use water fountains they waste water, fill water bottles at home (most bottled water is tap water filtered again anyway. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Thanks for the great post!