The world's water crisis: wake up Australia, and the USA, and India and the world

Maria Reidle has sent through some really great Water stuff from the National Geographic.  I hate to sound like Hanrahan, but Australia and Australians are not the only ones who aren't doing water well.  Please pop over to National Geographic for some water crisis news
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The World's Water

The world's increasing population and development of agricultural land are putting pressure on the Earth's limited freshwater supplies. Find out what's at stake and how you can help.

• 

  Why Should You Care?

  Learn more about the world's water challenge with photos, stories, videos, and more.
• 

  Visualizing Our Water Footprint

  You might be surprised to see how the daily choices you make affect critical watersheds around the world.
• 

  How Much Water Per Pound?

  How much water does it take to put beef, pork, wheat, and more on your plate? Explore our water footprint interactive and find out.
• 

  Water Calculator

  Figure out your footprint, then join hundreds of website visitors who together have pledged to save thousands of gallons a day.

Learn More About Freshwater »

World Environment Day 2010: Join in The Water Cycle song

Today is World Environment Day.

If you live in Melbourne

and want to celebrate with others

please go here.

The Water Cycle Boogie by the Banana Slug String Band...and more

...and for more songs
Please go here

The Snowy River Alliance

Picture from here

To-day, Networkers, I want to highlight the important work of  The Snowy River Alliance.  The Snowy River is an Australian icon with its source high in the Australian Alps close to the New South Wales and Victorian borders.  It is an icon because of what is, arguably, our most famous an iconic poem The Man from Snowy River by Andrew Barton Paterson (The Banjo).  It is published below.  It breaks many Australian hearts to see and know what is happening to the Snowy, the Murray, the Darling - our iconic rives on the driest inhabited continent on earth.  Sadly, the majority of Australians are doing nothing much at all about the situation.  But if you go here, Networkers, you will get an idea of some of the work that some dedicated Australians are doing.

THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER 

by 

A.B. "Banjo" Paterson

There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around
That the colt from old Regret had got away,
And had joined the wild bush horses - he was worth a thousand pound,
So all the cracks had gathered to the fray.
All the tried and noted riders from the stations near and far
Had mustered at the homestead overnight,
For the bushmen love hard riding where the wild bush horses are,
And the stockhorse snuffs the battle with delight.


There was Harrison, who made his pile when Pardon won the cup,
The old man with his hair as white as snow;
But few could ride beside him when his blood was fairly up -
He would go wherever horse and man could go.
And Clancy of the Overflow came down to lend a hand,
No better horseman ever held the reins;
For never horse could throw him while the saddle girths would stand,
He learnt to ride while droving on the plains.


And one was there, a stripling on a small and weedy beast,
He was something like a racehorse undersized,
With a touch of Timor pony - three parts thoroughbred at least -
And such as are by mountain horsemen prized.
He was hard and tough and wiry - just the sort that won't say die -
There was courage in his quick impatient tread;
And he bore the badge of gameness in his bright and fiery eye,
And the proud and lofty carriage of his head.


But still so slight and weedy, one would doubt his power to stay,
And the old man said, "That horse will never do
For a long a tiring gallop - lad, you'd better stop away,
Those hills are far too rough for such as you."
So he waited sad and wistful - only Clancy stood his friend -
"I think we ought to let him come," he said;
"I warrant he'll be with us when he's wanted at the end,
For both his horse and he are mountain bred.


"He hails from Snowy River, up by Kosciusko's side,
Where the hills are twice as steep and twice as rough,
Where a horse's hoofs strike firelight from the flint stones every stride,
The man that holds his own is good enough.
And the Snowy River riders on the mountains make their home,
Where the river runs those giant hills between;
I have seen full many horsemen since I first commenced to roam,
But nowhere yet such horsemen have I seen."


So he went - they found the horses by the big mimosa clump -
They raced away towards the mountain's brow, 
And the old man gave his orders, "Boys, go at them from the jump, 
No use to try for fancy riding now. 
And, Clancy, you must wheel them, try and wheel them to the right. 
Ride boldly, lad, and never fear the spills, 
For never yet was rider that could keep the mob in sight, 
If once they gain the shelter of those hills."


So Clancy rode to wheel them - he was racing on the wing 
Where the best and boldest riders take their place, 
And he raced his stockhorse past them, and he made the ranges ring 
With the stockwhip, as he met them face to face. 
Then they halted for a moment, while he swung the dreaded lash, 
But they saw their well-loved mountain full in view, 
And they charged beneath the stockwhip with a sharp and sudden dash, 
And off into the mountain scrub they flew.


Then fast the horsemen followed, where the gorges deep and black 
Resounded to the thunder of their tread, 
And the stockwhips woke the echoes, and they fiercely answered back 
From cliffs and crags that beetled overhead. 
And upward, ever upward, the wild horses held their way, 
Where mountain ash and kurrajong grew wide; 
And the old man muttered fiercely, "We may bid the mob good day, 
No man can hold them down the other side."


When they reached the mountain's summit, even Clancy took a pull, 
It well might make the boldest hold their breath, 
The wild hop scrub grew thickly, and the hidden ground was full 
Of wombat holes, and any slip was death. 
But the man from Snowy River let the pony have his head, 
And he swung his stockwhip round and gave a cheer, 
And he raced him down the mountain like a torrent down its bed, 
While the others stood and watched in very fear.


He sent the flint stones flying, but the pony kept his feet, 
He cleared the fallen timber in his stride, 
And the man from Snowy River never shifted in his seat - 
It was grand to see that mountain horseman ride. 
Through the stringybarks and saplings, on the rough and broken ground, 
Down the hillside at a racing pace he went; 
And he never drew the bridle till he landed safe and sound, 
At the bottom of that terrible descent.


He was right among the horses as they climbed the further hill, 
And the watchers on the mountain standing mute, 
Saw him ply the stockwhip fiercely, he was right among them still,
As he raced across the clearing in pursuit. 
Then they lost him for a moment, where two mountain gullies met 
In the ranges, but a final glimpse reveals 
On a dim and distant hillside the wild horses racing yet, 
With the man from Snowy River at their heels.


And he ran them single-handed till their sides were white with foam. 
He followed like a bloodhound on their track, 
Till they halted cowed and beaten, then he turned their heads for home, 
And alone and unassisted brought them back. 
But his hardy mountain pony he could scarcely raise a trot, 
He was blood from hip to shoulder from the spur; 
But his pluck was still undaunted, and his courage fiery hot, 
For never yet was mountain horse a cur.


And down by Kosciusko, where the pine-clad ridges raise 
Their torn and rugged battlements on high, 
Where the air is clear as crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze 
At midnight in the cold and frosty sky, 
And where around The Overflow the reed beds sweep and sway 
To the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide, 
The man from Snowy River is a household word today, 
And the stockmen tell the story of his ride.

The Bulletin, 26 April 1890.

FLOW (for love of water) AT FRANKSTON 30 SEPT

Wednesday 30 September, 7.30 pm: Film Screening: For the Love of Water (Flow). Is water a human right? Maud Barlow and Dr Vendana Shiva will discuss the global impacts of water privatisation. Uniting Church, 16 High St, Frankston. Organised by Friends of Frankston. For more info ph 8774 8170 or email richardlaverack@hotmail.com  


Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question 'CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?'

Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround. 

WATER NOT SHORT, JUST SHORT SIGHTED

Water in Australia is every Australian’s issue.  

It is definitely not a global issue, 

except in accepting our part in addressing 

global warming and climate change.  

We have all the tools here in Australia 

to resolve our own water problems.

We have the inventors and the knowledge, the experts, the decision makers and the project managers, the workers and the water consumers. 

All we have to do – and it seems to be such an unnecessarily big call - is to support all these attributes with strategies and policies which cater adequately for rapidly changing water availability. 

Melbourne for example has one and a third years supply of water in its storages today, which demonstrates the lack of real action by governments to address the crisis which has been apparent for 10 years. 

CORPORATIZING WATER DOESN’T MAKE MORE

The one thing that absolutely sabotages ongoing water availability for all Australians is the McCarthiest approach to water.

Dan McCarthy writes that ‘Protectionist US could break water flow’ (The Age Opinion 23/09/09)

Mr McCarthy is the chief executive of a global water business, Black & Veatch.  It is well worth delving into the intense book ‘Blue Covenant’ written by Maude Barlow, senior water advisor to the UN.  

Maude Barlow documents just how insidious and depraved are the efforts of lobbyists and economic McCarthiests throughout the World.  The very corporations that are setting up in Australia comprise board members and CEO’s of corporations that have been thrown out of other countries for breaking promises on the quality, costs, and delivery of water.

The Age article by McCarthy contains the line that no country can solve these (water) issues alone.  What baloney!  McCarthy’s interest is solely to make money out of water and water infrastructure, and to monopolize as much of that as he can.

What McCarthy is on about is not making water available to everyone; rather it is about profiteering from privatisation of water and water infrastructure.

South Australia has fallen for the privatised water system ploy and is already suffering the consequences.  Victoria is beginning to fall for it, with the PPP  - Public Private Partnerships – such as the North-South Sugarloaf pipeline and the mammoth, (biggest in the World, of course), Desalination plant designated for Kilcunda in Gippsland.

WATER WASTE, OUT OF DATE

Australians living in urban areas, exemplified by Melbourne, Geelong, Shepparton, Albury Wodonga and Ballarat and even the arid Bendigo, universally have a water based effluent system which requires vast quantities of water to keep on flushing the solids and to dilute the industrial and domestic poisons we put down the sewerage systems.  This was designed for places and times of over abundant water.

The operating success of those current systems is dependent on continual large quantities of water, and in sheer defiance of logic during this long period of growing drought and climate change, we use drinking quality water for this purpose.

It is not rocket science to conceive and develop a new system, which eliminates many solids, salts and toxic effluents at the entry end of the system, or to control what goes in before it enters the system.

Many industries which use a lot of water (industry uses about 120 billion litres per year - one third of the total Melbourne water consumed) can be required to stop shoving salts and other chemicals down the sewer, with the likely result that their profits will rise through greater efficiencies.

…AND ON WATER DELIVERY

On the water storage and delivery side of water supply, it is not beyond us to split the water delivery system so that the truly critical human requirements of say 20 litres of potable water per day are delivered to each household (after all, we used to delivery milk this way.  The challenge is to see that the McCarthiests don’t hold their monopoly on that).

Sensibly, and to keep the drinking water and its distribution system ownership in public hands, a second system of small pipes can be added to the system for strictly potable use.

The precedent is already set; new urban developments are having purple striped pipe installed to carry second grade water for parks, and for gardens.  The potable small quantity delivery system can lead to the third kitchen tap.

The enormous quantity of less potable water for general use can be delivered from the existing poorer quality storages and from underground.  To enable sustainable use without dropping the groundwater levels unsustainably, storm water is directed underground and filtered in the process.

McCarthy and his cronies offer no solution to the water problem; they offer; in fact demand only more water abuse, so that they can get paid premium prices for their services, using our water.

When we recognise that environmental sustainability, water as a prime example, underpins our lives and our ability to live in this wonderful dry continent for which we are stewards, we see that economic development cannot be sustainable unless we ensure that environmental sustainability comes first.

Edwin Adamson

DipAg MEnvSc

Landscape for Life

Merrijig Vic 3723

0428 775 758

Edwin Adamson is an environment, planning consultant and ecologist. 

Steve Possel; the Food Bowl Modernisation Project; the North South Pipeline and Taking Water from Communities for Melbourne

For more than a year, voices in rural Victoria have been campaigning against the North South Pipleine which the Victorian Government is building to deliver 75 gl of water to Melbourne.  There has been only minimal interest from the people of Melbourne who, in general, only see the pipeline as a good thing that will bring water from them.  As this video shows, the pipeline issue is starting to be noticed in Melbourne and Steve Posselt, as you will see, has played a crucial role in bringing the issue to the forefront with a very simple message.

Further reading:

North-South Pipe laid, but nothing to flow for it.

Cry me a River Journery - Update 4: Steve Posselt's Melbourne journey almost complete. Greet him to-morrow Sunday 16 August.

One way to get a clear run

from the Goulburn to the Yarra River.

Steve walked up the last stages

of the Great Dividing Range in the morning.

Fire devastates catchments.

Not popular here either.

There's the top.

Kinglake turnoff.

Out of the Murray Darling Basin and

into the catchment of Port Phillip Bay.

Note the fire damage.

Regeneration work is going on apace

in the wake of the bushfires.

Norm is putting up the kayak for the night.

The pot of gold at the end

of the Rainbow for Steve.

............

Steve's journey is almost over.

Below is the remaining itinerary

Please greet Steve

on arrival in Melbourne.

Sunday 16 August

15km into Melbourne arriving 1.00pm

Arrive to supporters on bank,

accompanied by other canoes.

Media Event

~~~~~~~~~

Day thirteen - Spanning the Divide

Well, I pushed it to the limit yesterday but was pleased that I could walk OK this morning. Things went reasonably well until I got to the top of the range but they fell apart on the way down. By the time I got to the bottom and had been up and down two more hills the pain in my legs was about 7.5 on the ten scale.

There had been some thought that I might paddle the first bit of the Yarra in the afternoon but with my right leg starting to spasm we reckoned it would not be a good idea.

There was a mix up with well wishers at Yarra Glen who had arranged a sendoff at 9.00am but we could not guarantee the time and I wanted to get cracking before that as we need to get 50km per day done and don’t know what the river is like.

Daily log 30.4km

BAN BOTTLED WATER NOW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 14, 2009 8:32 AM

CONTACT: Food & Water Watch Erin Greenfield at (202) 683-2457 or news[at]fwwatch[dot]org

Tides Shift Against Nestle as Company Reports Decline in Bottled Water Sales

Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter

WASHINGTON - August 14 - “This week, mounting consumer backlash against Nestle became especially apparent when the mega-conglomerate reported that their sales had dipped by 2.4 percent to 5.07 billion Swiss francs ($4.69 billion) from 5.21 billion francs a year earlier. The company’s bottled water division, which packages and sells water under several brands including Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deer Park, Poland Spring, and Perrier, among others, recorded a 3.7 percent decline in volume.

“Around the world, but especially in the United States, consumers are recognizing that bottled water is an unnecessary burden on their wallets, the environment, and the communities from which it is taken and sold at thousands of times its actual value. Nestle in particular, has gained notoriety over the past several years for profiting on a natural resource while dumping the costs of its corporate imperialism onto society in the form of pollution, over-consumption of oil, and unfair labor practices, to name just a few offenses.

“Communities too, are pushing back against Nestle. Just last month, citizens in Michigan prevailed when a court there turned down the corporation’s request to pump more water from an already depleting spring in Mecosta County. Similar struggles have played out in California, Maine, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Colorado as part of a growing trend to reclaim public water resources from private control.

“While news of Nestle’s loss is certainly the gain of consumers and communities, the fight is far from other. Food & Water Watch will continue to support the work of those working to keep Nestle out of their communities, while applauding those consumers who, in rejecting bottled water, are helping to make it obsolete.”

###

Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

---

Food & Water Watch Links:

• Home
• Press Center
• Action Center

Cry me a River Journery - Update 2: Steve arrives at Killingworth to-morrow afternoon.

This is my friend Steve Posselt.

Please go to Steve’s website

www.kayak4earth.com

You will be able to see what Steve has done,

you will be able to buy the book of his first Murray journey, Cry Me a River.

Check out what he is doing now –

his second journey on the Murray and

he is currently on the Goulburn and

later this week will journey into Melbourne via the Yarra River –

to a very warm welcome we hope.

STEVE’S ITINERARY FOR THE REST THIS WEEK

PLEASE SUPPORT HIM

PARTICULARLY ON HIS ARRIVAL IN MELBOURNE.

Steve is supported by

The Australian Water Network

Friends of the Earth

Plug the Pipe

The Victorian Women’s Trust

Tuesday 11 August

Arrive Killingworth 4.00pm N-S Pipeline pump site.

Wednesday 12 August

Depart Killingworth 10.00am 9-10AM

Boats in river accompany Steve 200 metres upstream to gravel banks.

Supporters on Goulburn River bank with placards, banners.

Media Event

Thursday 13 August

Arrive Yarra Glen 5.00pm

Friday 14 August

40km down Yarra.

Put canoe in river at Vasey bridge.

Supporters to farewell-banners & placards

Saturday 15 August

40km down Yarra

Sunday 16 August

15km into Melbourne arriving 1.00pm

Arrive to supporters on bank, accompanied by other canoes.

Media Event

Steve was interviewed by Red Symons at 6.15am on ABC's Local Radio 774 Melbourne this morning. It was great stuff, Steve. I'd put a link on here to a podcast but I can't find one.

Cry me a River Journery - Update 1

Meanwhile, back in the every day world of ensuring we have a drop to drink, keep up with Steve on his journey up the Goulburn River, part of the Murray Darling system. Look out for him, look up his itinerary, and - people of Melbourne be ready to give Steve a great welcome when he turns up here.

To-morrow, Wednesday 5 August, Steve will arrive in Shepparton about 4.30pm. These things can't be precise when you are relying on your two arms and a river to get you where you're going. Could supporters please welcome Steve at the Peter Ross-Edwards Causeway.