Comments on: China’s Water Crisis http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/ se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenki Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:22:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Ayesha Lakhani http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-180234 Ayesha Lakhani Fri, 16 May 2008 10:11:04 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-180234 The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) points out that more than one billion people worldwide have gained access to improved sanitation over the past 14 years. Still, an estimated 2.6 billion people, including 980 million children, have lagged behind. “Children are especially vulnerable to diseases caused by lack of proper sanitation,” says UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman. “Poor sanitation and hygiene and unsafe water claim the lives of an estimated over 1.5 million children under the age of five every year.” At any one time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases, according to the Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO). The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) points out that more than one billion people worldwide have gained access to improved sanitation over the past 14 years. Still, an estimated 2.6 billion people, including 980 million children, have lagged behind.

“Children are especially vulnerable to diseases caused by lack of proper sanitation,” says UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman. “Poor sanitation and hygiene and unsafe water claim the lives of an estimated over 1.5 million children under the age of five every year.”

At any one time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases, according to the Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO).

]]> By: Ashoka Changemakers http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-180095 Ashoka Changemakers Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:09:38 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-180095 Cast Your Vote in The Global Competition -- Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis Ashoka’s Changemakers and Global Water Challenge invite you to vote for the most innovative approaches to providing access to safe drinking water and sanitation worldwide. We’ve received 265 entries from 54 countries, and 8 finalists were chosen for their pioneering ideas: 1. Naandi Foundation, India 2. WaterParterns, United States 3. City Garbage Recyclers, Kenya 4. Ecotact – Innovating Sanitation, Kenya 5. Swayam Shikshan Prayog, India 6. Himanshu Parikh Consulting Engineers, India 7. The Clean Shop, South Africa 8. Centre for Community Organisation and Development, Malawi Now we need your help: Log onto www.changemakers.net, read through these inventive solutions and select your 3 favorites by May 11. The three winners will each receive $5,000. Your voice is vital. Vote today! Cast Your Vote in The Global Competition — Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis

Ashoka’s Changemakers and Global Water Challenge invite you to vote for the most innovative approaches to providing access to safe drinking water and sanitation worldwide.

We’ve received 265 entries from 54 countries, and 8 finalists were chosen for their pioneering ideas:

1. Naandi Foundation, India
2. WaterParterns, United States
3. City Garbage Recyclers, Kenya
4. Ecotact – Innovating Sanitation, Kenya
5. Swayam Shikshan Prayog, India
6. Himanshu Parikh Consulting Engineers, India
7. The Clean Shop, South Africa
8. Centre for Community Organisation and Development, Malawi

Now we need your help: Log onto http://www.changemakers.net, read through these inventive solutions and select your 3 favorites by May 11. The three winners will each receive $5,000.

Your voice is vital. Vote today!

]]> By: Roberto Wohlgemuth http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-177699 Roberto Wohlgemuth Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:28:37 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-177699 The Global Water Challenge and Ashoka’s Changemakers launched a global collaborative competition to find the most innovative community-based water and sanitation solutions. Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis is a collaborative competition to find and discuss groundbreaking approaches that are making universal access to safe water and sanitation a reality. Addressing challenges from the high cost of water in urban areas to creating access to water in rural areas can lead to critical impacts on global health, the environment, poverty, peace and conflict. The competition offers a forum for ideas projects to be shared and reviewed by investors and leaders in the field. Even if you do not offer a proposal of your own, we invite you to join the dialogue. Your experience and insights are invaluable in the creation of truly innovative approaches to providing universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Funding will be made available for the most innovative work currently being done around the world at the close of the competition. Submit, review and comment on entries starting now through March 26, 2008. Online voting will take place April 16-30 2008 at www.changemakers.net The Global Water Challenge and Ashoka’s Changemakers launched a global collaborative competition to find the most innovative community-based water and sanitation solutions.

Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis is a collaborative competition to find and discuss groundbreaking approaches that are making universal access to safe water and sanitation a reality. Addressing challenges from the high cost of water in urban areas to creating access to water in rural areas can lead to critical impacts on global health, the environment, poverty, peace and conflict. The competition offers a forum for ideas projects to be shared and reviewed by investors and leaders in the field.

Even if you do not offer a proposal of your own, we invite you to join the dialogue. Your experience and insights are invaluable in the creation of truly innovative approaches to providing universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Funding will be made available for the most innovative work currently being done around the world at the close of the competition.

Submit, review and comment on entries starting now through March 26, 2008. Online voting will take place April 16-30 2008 at http://www.changemakers.net

]]> By: Eat, drink and try to survive. « WildeRix http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-84904 Eat, drink and try to survive. « WildeRix Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:40:51 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-84904 [...] This echoes concerns raised at Anthropik concerning the impact that water shortages will have on the collpase of civilization. 1, 2, 3  [...] […] This echoes concerns raised at Anthropik concerning the impact that water shortages will have on the collpase of civilization. 1, 2, 3  […]

]]> By: Oriental Myths (The Anthropik Network) http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-25683 Oriental Myths (The Anthropik Network) Fri, 13 Oct 2006 15:47:27 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-25683 [...] But this is a far cry from creating the situation. China today is already on the brink of total collapse—from water wars or its own growth—but it would be a mistake to think that industrialism created these problems. Chinese civilization deforested its land, salted its earth, eroded its soils, and plunged its people into despair, starvation, and even grisly cannibalism all on its own, millennia before the Industrial Revolution. While these trends may have been intensified by contact with a more complex competitor, China provides no model of sustainability. As admirable as techniques like "night soil" might be for slowing the process, there can be no doubt that the nature of that process is precisely the same in the East as it is in the West. [...] […] But this is a far cry from creating the situation. China today is already on the brink of total collapse—from water wars or its own growth—but it would be a mistake to think that industrialism created these problems. Chinese civilization deforested its land, salted its earth, eroded its soils, and plunged its people into despair, starvation, and even grisly cannibalism all on its own, millennia before the Industrial Revolution. While these trends may have been intensified by contact with a more complex competitor, China provides no model of sustainability. As admirable as techniques like “night soil” might be for slowing the process, there can be no doubt that the nature of that process is precisely the same in the East as it is in the West. […]

]]> By: K http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-21600 K Thu, 31 Aug 2006 08:10:43 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-21600 I have lived in China for a few years, mostly in the Pearl River Delta. Hong Kong is in the south-east of the delta. In most of urban China people live and work in brick and concrete buildings that become ovens in the summer when there is no electricity for A/C or fans. Last year in the summer I got to experience a night with no electricty in my apartment in Dongguan, which is in the delta. The heat woke me up at least half a dozen times, even though I had all the windows open and slept nude. I was able to take showers, which provided quick, short lasting relief. I kept my front door locked. Having it open would be to dangerous. If some one of the many thieves came and stole something, the police would not care. The one nice thing about police incompetence is that I have rarely seen them patroling. Occasionally they set up a road-block to shakedown illegal motorcycle taxi drivers. As I had expected the noise pollution from outside assaulted me, even with my earplugs. By 7 a.m. I finally stopped trying to sleep. I guess in total I got a couple hours of sleep, though I was damned agitated. The down slope of peak oil will hit this part of China very hard. Most urban apartments would become unihabitable in the summers here. I wonder if that Huai Basin is the river that flows in Harbin. This past winter there was a huge hazardous chemical spill into that river. It was so big that the national government could not hide it. Also after flowing out of China it flowed into Russia, so if it tried to hide it, it would fail. There were news reports on TV here about water being sent into Harbin by trucks. Soon (a couple of months or so) after that Guangzhou, which is on the north of the Pearl River Delta, had a similar problem, but on a smaller scale. I had no problem with getting or using water then, even when I visited Guangzhou around that time. The thing is while the Mad Max scenario may be far-fetched, a pseudo-zombie version of the Dawn of the Dead would not be. I have lived in China for a few years, mostly in the Pearl River Delta. Hong Kong is in the south-east of the delta.

In most of urban China people live and work in brick and concrete buildings that become ovens in the summer when there is no electricity for A/C or fans. Last year in the summer I got to experience a night with no electricty in my apartment in Dongguan, which is in the delta.

The heat woke me up at least half a dozen times, even though I had all the windows open and slept nude. I was able to take showers, which provided quick, short lasting
relief.

I kept my front door locked. Having it open would be to dangerous. If some one of the many thieves came and stole something, the police would not care. The one nice thing about police incompetence is that I have rarely seen them patroling. Occasionally they set up a road-block to shakedown illegal motorcycle taxi drivers.

As I had expected the noise pollution from outside assaulted me, even with my earplugs. By 7 a.m. I finally stopped trying to sleep. I guess in total I got a couple hours of sleep, though I was damned agitated.

The down slope of peak oil will hit this part of China very hard. Most urban apartments would become unihabitable in the summers here.

I wonder if that Huai Basin is the river that flows in Harbin. This past winter there was a huge hazardous chemical spill into that river. It was so big that the national government could not hide it. Also after flowing out of China it flowed into Russia, so if it tried to hide it, it would fail. There were news reports on TV here about water being sent into Harbin by trucks.

Soon (a couple of months or so) after that Guangzhou, which is on the north of the Pearl River Delta, had a similar problem, but on a smaller scale. I had no problem with getting or using water then, even when I visited Guangzhou around that time.

The thing is while the Mad Max scenario may be far-fetched, a pseudo-zombie version of the Dawn of the Dead would not be.

]]> By: Peter http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-21222 Peter Sat, 26 Aug 2006 23:13:56 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-21222 NPR reported a few weeks ago that Chinese pollution is now reaching California. And it's just going to get worse. The American Dream is now truly the Global Nightmare. Yet so many still want to be like us, albeit to varying degrees. I'm currently half way through a fascinating book by Morris Berman titled Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire. (Jason, I think you'd like it. Next time you're at B&N grab a copy and plonk yourself down in a comfy chair. He doesn't get into Peak Oil other than to talk about our total dependence on oil which led to the Iraq invasion and which will lead to more energy wars.) One of the main messages of the book is that despite all of our material wealth, we are some of the unhappiest people on earth because there is little in our lives beyond the market and consumerism. Yet the media brainwashes almost everyone into thinking that they need to be like Americans. If you're looking for a good read, this is it. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393058662/sr=8-1/qid=1156307376/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-2500724-7731952?ie=UTF8 NPR reported a few weeks ago that Chinese pollution is now reaching California. And it’s just going to get worse.

The American Dream is now truly the Global Nightmare. Yet so many still want to be like us, albeit to varying degrees.

I’m currently half way through a fascinating book by Morris Berman titled Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire. (Jason, I think you’d like it. Next time you’re at B&N grab a copy and plonk yourself down in a comfy chair. He doesn’t get into Peak Oil other than to talk about our total dependence on oil which led to the Iraq invasion and which will lead to more energy wars.)

One of the main messages of the book is that despite all of our material wealth, we are some of the unhappiest people on earth because there is little in our lives beyond the market and consumerism.

Yet the media brainwashes almost everyone into thinking that they need to be like Americans.

If you’re looking for a good read, this is it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393058662/sr=8-1/qid=1156307376/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-2500724-7731952?ie=UTF8

]]> By: Water, Water, Everywhere (The Anthropik Network) http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-21204 Water, Water, Everywhere (The Anthropik Network) Sat, 26 Aug 2006 20:03:09 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2006/08/chinas-water-crisis/#comment-21204 [...] "China's Water Crisis," The world's most populous country faces a major water crisis, created by bureacratic mismanagement, industrial pollution, and the sheer economic toll of overpopulation. The result is the imminent collapse of the Middle Kingdom. [...] […] “China’s Water Crisis,” The world’s most populous country faces a major water crisis, created by bureacratic mismanagement, industrial pollution, and the sheer economic toll of overpopulation. The result is the imminent collapse of the Middle Kingdom. […]

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