The Canary Islands, a group of islands off of Western Sahara, and Dubai, a city in United Arab Emirates, are particularly water strapped vacation destinations. This new infographic shows how these hotels are using their own desalination and water conservation techniques to save this precious resource.

The Canary Islands have always been water stressed because they have few rivers or sources of fresh water on the islands. As a result, getting clean drinking water has always been a problem. Gran Melia, an upscale hotel in the Canary Islands, is now using its own desalination technology to treat seawater. Their desalination system produces water for their hotel by extracting and converting seawater. They also recycle water at the hotel to be used on their gardens.

The residents of UAE have some of the highest per capita water use of any country in the world. And at the same time, Western Sahara and UAE are number 1 and number 2 on the list of the world’s most water stressed nations. The Park Hyatt in Dubai is taking steps toward conserving water by treating wastewater with reverse osmosis. Using this filtration process saves enough water to fill 62 Olympic size pools per year. But these are very small steps when you consider that while tourism is an industry in itself that puts significant amounts of money toward each nation’s economy, there has to be a balance between smart water use and tourism. These new water technologies are a good place to start. But much more needs to be done.

Related on EcoSalon

It’s World Water Day! Here’s How to Conserve

Going Green Means Living Blue

14 Water Saving Techniques

Image: elope201

The post Hotel Water Conservation and Desalination Technology [Infographic] appeared first on EcoSalon.

If you’ve ever seen the movie Chinatown, in which private investigator Jake Gittes (played by Jack Nicholson) stumbles upon a gigantic water scandal in the course of investigating an adultery case in Los Angeles, then you know that California’s water issues go way back.

Water is contentious here because we have so little of it and need so much. California is one of the world’s most valuable agricultural areas. The state supplies over half of U.S. fruits, nuts and vegetables and over 90 percent of U.S. almonds, artichokes, avocados, broccoli and processing tomatoes, yet, most of the water used to grow these crops comes from the extreme northeast part of the state.

Early in the history of California, we built a series of dams, canals, and aqueducts to transfer the Sierra snowpack to agricultural and urban areas. Without this water, most of the areas where we grow crops and many of our urban centers would be virtual deserts.

Warmer temperatures over the past few years and irregular precipitation have left the state with a less dependable Sierra snowpack. Court decisions to protect fish, such as the endangered Delta Smelt, have meant that the water diverted from the delta to farms and urban areas has been cut by as much as 30 percent. And the state’s population is still growing and expected to continue to do so.

With lower deliveries, water agencies across the state are worried about being able to supply their growing customer base. The issue has been framed as a fight between farmers and fishermen, north and south, and rural and urban.

The current situation recently led to the revival of an old idea that was once one of California’s most contentious water battles – a Peripheral Canal. The original Peripheral Canal was proposed in the early 1980s as a way to divert water south from the Sacramento River and the delta. It sparked an epic north vs. south campaign battle, with the north accusing Southern California of attempting to abscond with water that wasn’t rightfully theirs.

The California Water Bond of 2010, (or Proposition 18) created a new water war this past spring and summer until it was removed from the ballot in September by the California Legislature. The unpopular bill was not expected to pass in November so lawmakers postponed it until 2012, in hopes that the public would be more receptive to the bill at a later date.

The bill was to provide ecosystem restoration, groundwater cleanup, funding for safe drinking water, water education, recycling, and drought relief, but the bulk of the money was to go to dams (which, under the bill, could be partially owned by private corporations) and a new peripheral canal. This Civil Eats article summarizes the different issues well. Despite several worthy environmental projects contained in the bill, many activist groups saw it as a way to subsidize water for large agribusiness concerns, while leading the way toward privatization at taxpayer’s expense. Other environmental groups saw the restoration efforts as nothing more than remediation for the damage caused by the new diversion and storage systems that were the true crux of the bill.

The list of groups that opposed the bill included The Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch, United Farmworkers, Restore the Delta, the Small Boat Commercial Salmon Fishermens’ Association, and many more. Supporters included Meg Whitman, California Chamber of Commerce, and most of the state water agencies, and a few environmental groups such as Save the Redwoods League and the Nature Conservancy.

Because the bill is due to be resurrected in two years, environmental groups, government agencies, and ag groups are working to educate the public about the state’s water issues.

I recently attended a panel discussion entitled Portioning California’s Water for Farms, Fish, and Families at the David Brower Center in Berkeley CA. The event was sponsored by the San Francisco Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, the San Francisco Professional Food Society (SFPFS), the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), and Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE).

The panel was billed as an educational session for food professionals and concerned citizens. Panelists were to discuss the need to consider fish, wildlife, farms, and urban areas when setting water policy. Unfortunately the panel was largely made up of bureaucrats and water lawyers talking to one another in insider water language. Panelists summarized the positions of their various constituencies on the water issues, failing to connect the dots in a way that would have helped the audience relate. These long individual summaries did not leave much time for questions from the audience that could have served to bring the discussion closer to home. I can’t say I didn’t learn anything, but as an educational session, it was mixed.

The panel’s moderator was Tina Cannon Leahy, Principal Consultant, California Assembly, Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. Panelists included: Laura King Moon, Assistant General Manager, State Water Contractors; Campbell Ingram, Program Manager, California Water Program, The Nature Conservancy; Barry Epstein, Partner, Fitzgerald Abbott & Beardsley LLC; Brian Leahy, Assistant Director, Division of Land Resource Protection, California Department of Conservation; and Tim Ramirez, Natural Resources Division Manager, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, and Dave Runsten, Community Alliance with Family Farmers.

Here’s what I did learn: Almost everyone on the panel seemed to be for the Water Bill. One audience member spoke up and asked how delta farmers could be expected to subsidize developers and big ag. She identified herself as a 3^rd generation delta farmer and stated that the delta farmers are NOT for this bill. I would have liked to have seen some other viewpoints represented on the panel, and not just in the audience. There was some valuable talk of conservation efforts by municipalities and farmers, but I would have liked to have heard more.

Bottom line is this: We don’t have enough water, yet we need to continue to produce food, supply our cities, and protect our ecosystem. Therefore, we need to educate ourselves about where our water comes from and how it’s used, learn how to conserve, and get involved in 2012. And this isn’t just a California problem. It’s a global problem.

Here are some good places to start to learn more about water as a global problem:

Film: Blue Gold: World Water Wars

Book: Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: DSearls

The post California Water Issues Divide Farmers, Fishers, and Urban Dwellers appeared first on EcoSalon.

Considering that less than 1 percent of all the water on the planet is usable freshwater, we’re not nearly as careful as we should be with this precious resource. Here are some amazing facts to put things in perspective.

1. Set in the desert of Dubai, the Tiger Woods Golf Course uses 4 million gallons of water every day to maintain its lush appearance.

2. Since 1950, water usage in the United States has risen 127 percent.

3. Even though each person only requires 48 liters of water on a daily basis, individuals in the United States use an average of 500 liters, those in Canada an average of 300 liters and those in England an average of 200 liters.

4. Of all the water that enters each household, about 95% of it ends up down the drain.

5. With access to just 5 liters of water each day, more than a billion people in water poor regions around the globe survive on the same amount used to flush a toilet or take a 5-minute shower.

6. If you shorten your showers by just a single minute, you can save approximately 700 gallons of water in a month.

7. Letting the tap run when you brush your teeth wastes up to 4 gallons of water every time.

8. It takes an average of 300 gallons to water your lawn. During the summer, this can account for almost half of your water usage.

9. Every time you throw your clothes in the washer, you use about 50 gallons of water.

10. Another wasteful desert endeavor, the proposed Waveyards water park in Mesa, Arizona will require up to 100 million gallons of groundwater every year in an area that receives a mere 8 inches of rainfall in that time.

So, what can we do? Learn more about water conservation, and check out 100 ways you can conserve water.

Image: Prabhu B

The post 10 Amazing Facts about Water Use Worldwide appeared first on EcoSalon.

Some experts in drought-ridden Australia are pushing for a radical new toilet tax,  believing that a “pay for every flush” tax would encourage people to reduce their sewage output and ultimately their water usage.

Of course, it’s not aimed at only flushing toilets but at home water usage in general. The current method of home sewage and water charges, which is calculated on the basis of the home’s value, does nothing to encourage people to reduce their water and sewage usage. Charging them a “pay as you go” price, however, is bound to result in changes in their water habits.

People looking to penny pinch would suddenly start to consider how much water they are using. They might even start taking naval showers and reduce the frequency of washing dishes and laundry. But the idea of reducing the number of times they flush the toilet – that might take some getting used to.

Time will tell whether this idea will take off or get flushed away.

Image: powerbooktrance

The post The Toilet Tax: a Charge for Every Flush appeared first on EcoSalon.