Cape Town Residents use Half the Amount of Water than Before ‘Day Zero’

Cape Town, South Africa, faces a major water crisis, but the city has managed to stave off Day Zero – that is, the day the city would actually run out of water completely – for the foreseeable future. Still, with “severe climate change looming, the city of 4 million will face a reckoning sooner or later,” writes climate expert Ashley Dawson, a native of Cape Town, in the Washington Post. “And it will not be alone.”

Cape Town’s water crisis – and the city’s response to it – has shown that planning for a drier future needs to be comprehensive, integrated and realistic, Dawson writes.

But Cape Town has also shown us that such crises can be successfully addressed.

Today, Cape Town residents are using nearly 50% less water than they were in 2015 and reductions are expected to continue, says Klaus Reichardt, CEO and founder of Waterless Co...

To read more on this article, visit Environmental Leader by clicking here.

Toilet blocks enroute Katra upgraded; eco-friendly technologies adopted

Jammu:

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board on Friday said that a phased programme is being implemented for the renovation and technological upgradation of all toilet blocks located along the Katra to Bhawan tracks, for securing enhanced sanitation and high levels of cleanliness in the Shrine area.
According to an official, in furtherance of these objectives, the renovation...

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A Small Win but Huge Relief

Day Zero Horror 

The Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille, predicted in October 2017 that the city would run out of water by the following March - Day Zero. Since then, the date has been shifted from April 21st, to May 11th, to July 9th. August 27th was another potential Day Zero. With strict water conserving methods put into place since October 2017 and those yielding satisfactory results, the city has possibly dodged the 'Day Zero' bullet in 2018. A small victory but definitely a huge relief to Capetonians!  

However, the city continues to be on the edge, with likelihood of the disastrous day actually happening sometime in 2019 unless it is averted by benevolent rain gods this coming winter. 

To read more on thegreeneconomy.com, click here.

Reduce Inmate Water Use

It is well-known that prisons cost a lot of money to operate. The average cost of confinement in the U.S., according to most estimates, is around $30,000 per year per inmate. And with an estimated 2.1 million people behind bars in the U.S., you can see just what a staggeringly high price tag this is.

Correctional facilities are essentially small cities. To operate them, along with food service for the inmates and staff, they must pay all the same utility bills that any city – and any resident in that city – would normally have to pay. And this includes water, which can also be a hefty expense for correctional facilities.

Now, you might think that those incarcerated would use less water than someone outside, making water consumption less of an issue. After all, they don’t necessarily have to shower and shave every morning before going off to work, five days per week. Further, in some correctional locations around the country, inmates are only allowed three five-minute showers per week.

But the figures tell us a different story.

To read more about water use in correctional facilities, visit Corrections website: click here.

Study shows humans are responsible for changes to Earth's water availability

A stunning new study from NASA highlights the impact humans are having on fresh water availability across the globe.

The study, published earlier this week, found that Earth's wetlands are getting wetter and dry regions are getting drier, due to human water management, climate change and natural cycles.

"What we are witnessing is major hydrologic change," said co-author Jay Famiglietti, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., in a statement.

"We see a distinctive pattern of the wetland areas of the world getting wetter – those are the high latitudes and the tropics – and the dry areas in between getting dryer. Embedded within the dry areas we see multiple hotspots resulting from groundwater depletion."

To learn more: Click here to go to the FOX News website.

Keeping Cockroaches Out of the Kitchen

Here’s something restaurant managers and owners need to know about cockroaches: they’re smart and getting smarter. First, they are learning to detect when a chemical pesticide has been sprayed or applied. Second, it doesn’t matter too much to them even if it has.

In fact, some of the most common types of cockroaches, such as the German cockroach (Blattella germanica), have developed what are referred to as biological “buffers.” Even when a chemical pesticide has been applied full force, these buffers protect the insect from dying or possibly even getting sick.

Learn more here:

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