Water and Waste for Bendee Downs - Case Study Example

Writing Water and Waste for BENDEE DOWNS Customer’s Name Customer Tutor’s Name Customer’s Grade Course 16th September 2010 Abstract This paper looks at some of the best ways of conserving a very valuable resource known as water. It is said water is life, but when water is wrongly used, it can lead to a more dangerous situation. Part one looks at the best ways of saving water for BENDEE DOWNS in Australia while part two of the paper analyses best ways to conserve water from rain. Water Usage on BENDEE DOWNS Water is the most valued natural resource in the world and every other state works towards better utilization of this resource. According to Hall (1997), water use is valued and should be done in the best possible ways to minimize wastage. The department of energy and natural resources in Mexico in this report has put effective measures to give the best utilization of this all important resource. Water is a scarce resource and there is adjacent danger when this all important component for life is misused. There is danger inherent when water is polluted or is used in excess with no measure. For BENDEE DOWNS, it becomes crucial to use water efficiently in areas like drinking, showering, for toilet and commercial purpose. According to Biermayer (Sept 28, 2005), there should be parameters in which people in the households should use water for showering. For example, a person should spend on average a maximum of eight minutes per day showering and as such use 2.5 gallons per day. The following baseline shows how water can be conserved for showering using calculations. In the equation, the persons-showers per day are calculated by multiplying with gallons per shower so as to obtain the estimated 2.9 billion gallons of water used by a large population per day for showering. Person-showers per day= (population)x (showers per day per person) Key= population equals 290 million Showers per person per day = 0.75 Drinking is another area which needs conservation of water usage even though water drinking is one of the recommended components for life. Fluid intake is of paramount importance and as Valtin (Nov. 2002) writes, the recommended average intake for each person per day is eight volumes per day. The average fluid intake per person per day is 1696 millimeters (Valtin November 2002). With this amount, there would be considerate conservation while still maintaining the health of the people in BENDEE DOWNS in Australia. However, they could too minimize this usage but maintain a considerate amount rather than reducing too much. Drinking of water is essential and cannot be done away with and so, other sectors would be used to conserve considerate amount of water for drinking purposes. The Waterless toilets are the modern home systems which can turn waste into compost and be used in other places. According to Edward Moran (Jan 1978), the waterless toilets are capable of turning waste into resource as new composters. It is a revolution in modern times and can help conserve water and better utilization of waste in BENDEE DOWNS. They do not wash away human wastes in a flood of water but use the natural processes in converting the waste into useful products (Edward Moran Jan 1978). A general view of the waterless toilet and the cross sections The waterless toilet are also called the dry toilet where water is not used to dilute or in transporting the human waste. According to Ryn (1999), this form of the toilets has the capability to convert wastes to some usable nutrients which can be used for other forms of productivity like in agriculture. This is the best way even to ensure that our rivers are clean and the lakes are free from constant pollutions. The waterless toilets are designed in a manner that they can be used when water is not available or are in insufficient quantities or when the conventional systems are not working. These forms of toilets vary from being simple to being complex, and one can choose the one to have depending on his or her capability. The waterless are generally more efficient than the ones which are used in the present times or by those who can make to purchase the waterless ones. However, Gibson (2005) notes that the only deficiency in the usage of these modern ways of conserving water is the expensive nature, and so, only the able ones are able to utilize this technology. Many nations are going towards the adoption of this technology and Gibson writes that the State of Arizona had planned to install a total of 75 waterless urinals so as to save approximated 40000 gallons of water which is used for toilets each year. Water used for commercial purposes ought to be conserved to a level that every other organization or in a business access this precious commodity and there is a level playing ground for this. According to Seneviratne (2007), the focus in commercial use of water should be on how best to conserve water and reusing it. There should be a cost-effective method where every other organization or a business applies to ensure equity. There should be auditing in water to know how commercial players use their water and if there is found to be misappropriation of water use, some punishment should be conducted to the offenders. Sereviratne (2007) writes that a detailed analysis of water use and how best to go about this reports that water by one company should not exceed 50kL/day which translates to 13, 000 US gallons/day. A study done in Southern California shows that commercial business are capable of saving more than 20% of the water in the institutional sector (Seneviratne 2007). And therefore, there is possibility that this too can be applied in BENDEE DOWNS in the conservation of water by the commercial sector and other major players. The graph below shows the effect of regulations in saving of water by percentage as time progresses. The study of the rainfall patterns is crucial to determining whether a nation can cope with the climatic times. The best way is when the country or the region target to put up measures to ensure that the people residing in an area are adequately taken care of during turbulent times or when the rainfall levels have fallen to levels that cannot sustain life. Rainfall Collection in BENDEE DOWNS Rainwater can be collected and stored for both domestic and commercial use, and this is done using a number of methods. Rainfall water collection is possible in every other household or in commercial sectors so as to save water and for development purposes. According to Briere (2007), even urban and rural runoff can be collected and reutilized in future. For example, such runoff can be used to irrigate during the dry spells or refined and purified and be used for human consumption or for other household work. The systems used to collect water have three major components namely: A hard and impenetrable surfaces; for example a roof or a concrete slab; a storage container, and a means in which this water is directed from the hard surface like roof to the container. The picture below shows one of the ways in which water from the rain can be collected and stored for future use: Pictures of rainfall water collection systems Use of Mozzie control methods for the mosquitoes is an efficient way of controlling the entry of these harmful insects into the collected water. They are known to be clean and virtually silent and the only sound heard is that of the mosquitoes as they try to get inside the water tank or anywhere else the water is kept. These control methods are connected to the household main power and put in a way they are invisible. They are small and easy to install and it is just a matter of putting it somewhere near the likely breeding sites in the garden or anywhere else they are known to inhabit. According to Stewart (2002), the Mozzie blocker when combined with the Citronella oil is capable of releasing citronella oil into the atmosphere to chase away the mosquitoes and it is particularly of importance during the summer months when the mosquitoes are known to be very active and many in numbers. The picture below shows a typical mozzie method of keeping at bay the mosquitoes from getting into useful areas and more so the collected and stored water. Use of tanks is famous in most nations and both in rural and urban centers where water is collected either from the rainfall or from other areas of water. Tanks are useful because they can store water for a long period without the water going bad unless it is contaminated. This water can be used during the dry spells or for other domestic and commercial use. Tanks come in varying degree of sizes, and types and the use of a particular form of a tank is determined by the intended use. If it is for domestic work, plastic tanks would do but if it is for commercial purposes and for irrigation, other durable forms like concrete tanks are necessary. Tanks (2004) writes that all tanks regardless of the type should be examined regularly especially to remove accumulated sediments. The recommended period is after every two to three years or when the sediments and other impurities are evident in the tank and are impeding the flow of water. According to Ariyananda (1999), the WEDC Conference estimated the cost of a brick and ferrocement tanks to be Rs 8245 translating to 120 US dollars for a brick tank while that of a ferrocement tank is Rs 10175= 147 US dollars as in the year 1999. Water tanks are usually situated somewhere near their source or near their intended use point like in the garden. The following picture demonstrates a tank being used to collect rainfall water. Abdulla (July 2009) argues that due to the unpredictable weather situations and changes, it is paramount that most of the rural and urban residents apply this methodology in order to save their resources during the dry spells. The conservation of water and its storage goes in size and cost but the most important thing is to establish the best sizes for the tanks to be used for particular amount of water. Water levels like 25, 50, 75 and 100 litres need varying levels of the tanks for storage. For water which is meant for domestic work, that water can be stored in gallons of 25 litres and small tanks to save 50 litres. 75 litre gallons and tanks can be used to keep water meant to last for a week while anything more than 100 litres can be used for other purposes like washing for a period exceeding a week. More than 1000 litres can be used for irrigation purposes and for commercial work. The rainfall patterns in Australia varies depending on seasons, where there are times when the rainfall collected is recorded at highest while at other times it is at its lowest (by Smith July 13-17 2009). The following graph as analyzed by Environment Australia (2001) looks at varying patterns of rainfall in Australia on a yearly basis. The representation is perhaps a way of indicating when people should have unexpected climate conditions referring to rainfall. The central and northern Australia is studied that it may drop the rainfall level by 20% by the year 2070 and in other areas a drop of 10% while where the optimism is put by other reports that the increase may be actually 10-20% by the year 2070 (Csiro 2002). References Abdulla, F 2009, “Roof Rainwater harvesting systems for household supply in Jordan” A journal of Elsevier Company, Vol. 243, Issue 2, pp 195-207. Ariyananda, T 1999, Rainwater Harvesting for domestic use in Sri Lanka, A report of the WEDC Conference, Addis Ababa, pp 1-4. Biermayer, P 2005, Potential water and Energy savings from showerheads, A journal of Berkeley National Laboratory, Vol. 1 No 1, pp 4. Briere, F 2007, Drinking water distribution: Sewage and rainfall collection, Presses Internationale Polytechnique, Canada. Csiro, 2001, Australia, state of the environment 2001 Inland waters. A journal of the Australian Government. Environment Australia, 2001, Australia, state of the environment 2001 volume 6. A journal of the Australian Government. Gibson, G 2005, Waveform Politics: Equilibrium Pattern Volume 4, Butterworth-Heinemann, Burlington. Hall, T 1997, Managing New Mexico Land and Water Resources for the Best use: Now and through 2020, A journal of Mexico State University, Vol. 1 No 1, pp 140. Moran, E 1978, “Waterless Toilets.” Popular Science Magazine, Vol. 212 No1 pp 140. Ryn, S 1999, The toilet papers: Recycling waste and conserving water, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction. Seneviratne, M 2007, A practical approach to water conservation for commercial and Industrial facilities, Butterworth-Heinemann, Burlington Smith, I 2009, Patterns of summer rainfall variability across tropical Australia-results from EOT analysis. Report of 18th World IMACS/MODSIM congress. Stewart, R 2002, Robin Stewart’s Chemical Free Pest Control, Black Inc, Melbourne. Tanks, R 2004, Guidance on use of Rainwater tanks, A journal of the Australian Government, Vol. 1 No 1 pp 41-43. Valtin, H 2002, “Drinking at least eight glasses of water a day.” Really? Is there a scientific evidence for “8x8”? A journal of Dartmount Medical School, Vol. 283, Issue 5 pp 6-32. Read More