WaterWired

Waterloo Sunset: My South Caucasus 'Great Game' Presentation at UW

Here is the pdf of the presentation I gave at The Water Institute of the University of Waterloo: "My Recent Life as a Foreign-Policy Tool: Transboundary Water Resources and the New ‘Great Game’  in the South Caucasus."

Download Campana - U Waterloo - 23 March 2010

You can also read a paper, some of which formed the basis for this presentation.

"He who shoots first laughs last." -- Aleksandr Lebd

Videos: The Story of Bottled Water, and Industry's Response

Here is the The Story of Bottled Water video, released on World Water Day.

Manufactured demand, anyone?

The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day) employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industrys attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all.

All right - here we go. 

Here is the industry's response,Good Stewards of the Environment.

The bottled water industry has a long tradition of being good stewards of the environment. Watch this video to learn what the industry is doing to protect resources for future generations. For more info go to: www.bottledwatermatters.com.

"When we're done, tap water will relegated to showers and washing dishes." -- Bottled water executive, quoted in the video

Water (Volume 2, Issue 1 - March 2010) Online Journal Now Available

The current issue of the online journal Water is now available. Downloads are free. 

Here are the articles:

Ryan T. Bailey, John W. Jenson and Arne E. Olsen: Estimating the Ground Water Resources of Atoll Islands

José González-García, Verónica Sáez, Ignacio Tudela, María Isabel Díez-Garcia, María Deseada Esclapez and Olivier Louisnard: Sonochemical Treatment of Water Polluted by Chlorinated Organocompounds: A Review

Chrysi Laspidou, Kimon Hadjibiros and Stylianos Gialis: Minimizing the Environmental Impact of Sea Brine Disposal by Coupling Desalination Plants with Solar Saltworks: A Case Study for Greece

Iskandar Abdullaev and Peter P. Mollinga: The Socio-Technical Aspects of Water Management: Emerging Trends at Grass Roots Level in Uzbekistan

Marthe S. de Graaff, Hardy Temmink, Grietje Zeeman and Cees J. N. Buisman: Anaerobic Treatment of Concentrated Black Water in a UASB Reactor at a Short HRT

Enjoy!

"To invent, you need good imagination and a pile of junk." -- Thomas Edison

Free Download of Interactive Version of NG's Special Issue - 'Water: Our Thirsty World'

By now you've heard that National Geographic's April 2010 issue will feature 'Water: Our Thirsty World.' It goes on sale 30 March 2010.  But what you probably haven't heard is that NG will offer free downloads of an interactive edition between 22 March and 2 April 2010.

Here is the blurb from the WWW site:

This interactive edition of National Geographic magazine presents complete content from the print edition, plus extra photo galleries, rollover graphics that animate features like maps and time lines, video profiles of photographers who contributed to the issue, and other interactive features. National Geographic's water issue is available in print on newsstands everywhere beginning March 30.

You have to register and answer a few questions and then download a special reader from Zinio.com to access the download. I just did it with no apparent problems.  The issue is pretty neat.

The interactive version will enable you to count how many times the following phrases arise: water wars; water is the new oil; fish vs. farmers; the next wars will be fought over water; the water-blank nexus; toilet-to-tap; and all the others.

Sorry - still being a curmudgeon, and the sun is even shining here in Toronto!

Enjoy!

Oh, yeah - I forgot to mention that yesterday was World Meteorological Day! Celebrate weather! 

“Serendipity is looking for a needle in a haystack and finding the farmer’s daughter [or son].” – Unknown

Caveat Lector! Is World Water Day an Anachronism and Some Other Reflections

As I sit here, sleepless in Waterloo, having enjoyed a stimulating  day ( that just happened to coincide with World Water Day) with my gracious Canadian hosts, I thought I'd reflect on yesterday. My ramblings may disturb, annoy, or upset you, so that's why the title of the post begins with an admonition: Reader Beware!

Is World Water Day worthwhile? OMG, what a terrible thing to say! Of course it's worthwhile - it raises our awareness about the plight of those less fortunate than we are in the developed world. How could I say such a thing?

So what set me off? Surely not the wonderful dinner I had at Dave and Marie Rudolph's home last night. Nor the nifty Canadian Olympic T-shirt Dave gave me. I must confess - it was Emily Green, who posted this item on her blog yesterday. It's provocative, and that's what I like.

Today is “World Water Day.” Yippee. Yikes. Whatever. It would be hypocritical of me not to confess to using the occasional chronological gimmick to further pet causes (highlighting March as “Red Cross month” on this site after the Chilean earthquake is a recent example.) But, as a rule, this kind of thing confuses me. Who in their right mind thought, “Hey, we’re wrecking the world. I’ve got an idea! Let’s name a special day (week, year).”

Climate Week didn’t stop the Chinese from upending Copenhagen talks. Forty years of “Earth Day” did nothing to stop the generation that first celebrated it from popularizing the SUV. World Water Day has a hilariously well hydrated-looking Nestle executive in the news.

As we parse the mess we make, dare we conclude that special days are so last century, that while the event-ification of creeping disaster keeps a lot of excitable PRs busy, chronological gimmicks don’t do a damn bit of good for our blue marble? A modest proposal: How about we grow up, fire the event organizers and get down to 365 programs that actually work?

I read her post several times, as well as the comments to her post. I think there is enough of the curmudgeon in me to accept her premise.

And if that's not enough, read this Op-Ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by David S. Abraham, director of the ClearWater Initiative, and Michael Breen. They correctly state that providing clean water does more than improve people's lives, but can promote peace and address our national security needs. The latter may seem like a very selfish motive but if that's what it takes to sell WaSH aid to individual donors and donor agencies, I'll do it (and I have).  Just don't attach any strings, please.  

Finally, let me tell you one thing I worry about when I see people soliciting funds for clean water water projects. Are those funds being well spent on sustainable projects? If we build water systems and drill wells, do the communities affected have the means to maintain the infrastructure? Is the technology employed appropriate? In my view, unsustainable projects are worse than no projects at all. They provide false hope and are little more than 'feel good' projects for donors and providers. It's the height of selfishness.

There, I feel better.

Thanks, Emily.

In the interests of balance, here is a more sanguine view of World Water Day.

"Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. " --Khalil Gibran