Although most of our work is UK based, and not all of it is about water, we are passionately interested in global issues about water.

Inspired by Kanu’s comment about he used water in Delhi, we thought who better to talk about water in different countries than the people who actually live there? So, welcome to this page where you can read what people from across the world consider are important issues about water in their own countries or cities.

We look forward to it becoming a page full of lively and thought provoking blogs. If you would like to contribute to this page please contact info@ech2o.co.uk

 

A unique water management system - Margret Oellrich-Wagner, Upper Harz, Germany

A unique water management system – Margret Oellrich-Wagner, Upper Harz, Germany

On a recent geological trip to the Harz Mountains in Northern Germany, Margret and Rolf found this perfect swimming spot (below) near where they were staying. To their surprise they had stumbled upon a water management system that is so unique it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in
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A short history of manhole covers - ech2o newsletter snippet

A short history of manhole covers – ech2o newsletter snippet

The first ‘manholes’ are from the Roman era when they were slabs of stone or wood to enable easier access over stone-covered channels carrying water or sewage. The style of manholes we are familiar with today – mostly a removable cast-iron cover, round or rectangular and at least the width
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Rivers in the sky - Amazon and Congo - ech2o newsletter snippet

Rivers in the sky – Amazon and Congo – ech2o newsletter snippet

Evapotranspiration from the Amazon rainforest releases nearly 5 cubic miles of moisture into the air, which is more than the daily discharge of the Amazon River itself. This release of moisture is them moved by winds leading to the term ‘rivers in the sky’. The interiors of continents often get
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Methane bubbles, Lake Baikal - Russia - ech2o newsletter snippet

Methane bubbles, Lake Baikal – Russia – ech2o newsletter snippet

Cool photo (taken by Stanislav Tolstnev) of frozen methane bubbles on Lake Baikal. The bubbles start to freeze at the end of November and because they freeze in layers, can form pillars up to 1.5 metres deep. The bubbles themselves are trapped in clear ice. More info and a short
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Replenishing groundwater in India - ech2o newsletter snippet

Replenishing groundwater in India – ech2o newsletter snippet

A five year study of two degraded watersheds in the hilly, semi-arid region of Bundelkhand, central India demonstrated the advantages of restoring defunct haveli’s to store monsoon rains to replenish groundwater. Traditionally a haveli is an earthen rainwater harvesting tank, which acts as a reservoir during the monsoon (June to
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Flood tunnels of Tokyo – Japan - ech2o newsletter snippet

Flood tunnels of Tokyo – Japan – ech2o newsletter snippet

The flood tunnels of Tokyo are the largest stormwater drain system in the world. A 6.3 km tunnel system connects five water courses to the main river (the Edo) 50 m below the surface. Why is this massive engineering feat necessary? Well, more than 100km2 of the Tokyo river basin
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Bubble barrier - Netherlands - ech2o newsletter snippet

Bubble barrier – Netherlands – ech2o newsletter snippet

Currently being trialled in Amsterdam in Westerdok at one of the outlets from the canals into the IJ. To prevent Amsterdam canal plastic from flowing into the North Sea. Basically a perforated tube is laid diagonally across a river or canal bed, air is pumped through it and the resulting
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Warren Liebold - RIP - Cath Hassell, US

Warren Liebold – RIP – Cath Hassell, US

I saw Warren talk at a Waterwise event in 2005 in Oxford maybe earlier. Talking about the free WC upgrades in New York City as part of the implementation of mass metering. Something I had known about since the early 1990s and which I had waxed lyrical about ever since.
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Artificial snow at the Winter Olympics - China - ech2o newsletter snippet

Artificial snow at the Winter Olympics – China – ech2o newsletter snippet

Beijing 2022 was the first Winter Olympics to rely almost 100% on artificial snow. Before the Games it was estimated that 222 million litres of water would be needed to create the snow conditions, in one of the world’s most water-scarce cities. Whilst China pledged to deliver a “green and
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Collecting water in an Indian village - ech2o newsletter snippet

Collecting water in an Indian village – ech2o newsletter snippet

Collecting water from wells is primarily a job for women and girls. In Nashik in Maharashtra, women have to climb inside a 60 foot well to collect water as can be seen left and in this video. The onerous task can take hours and is mostly done at night. The
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Rainwater Harvesting - Nepal - ech2o newsletter snippet

Rainwater Harvesting – Nepal – ech2o newsletter snippet

This report from Al Jazeera highlights three ground-breaking examples from Nepal which support rainwater collection and use it to mitigate against water shortages. For the past four years in Nepal, Liwali residents have been collecting rainwater through a system of pipes connected to the zinc sheet roofs of shacks built
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Mangrove rebuild - Senegal - ech2o newsletter snippet

Mangrove rebuild – Senegal – ech2o newsletter snippet

The IHRA (International Rainwater Harvesting Association) are co-funding a project in central Senegal to help prevent the advance of ‘tannes’ (salty lands) by restoring mangrove forests. In addition to restoring the mangrove ecosystem, the project also promotes better management of natural resources, particularly rainwater, in order to reduce runoff and
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Time lapse videos on the London canals - Cath Hassell, UK

Time lapse videos on the London canals – Cath Hassell, UK

Back in 1924 a 13 minute film was made following a canal boat as it travelled across London from east to west. Starting in Limehouse Basin it carried 85 tons of coal (86 tonnes metric) to Paddington Basin all by horse power. It’s a fascinating glimpse of the canal back then but
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Drought in Taiwan - Taiwan - ech2o newsletter snippet

Drought in Taiwan – Taiwan – ech2o newsletter snippet

Taiwan is the most recent country to suffer a devastating drought. Taiwan should be one of the rainiest places in the world – its climate is subtropical in the northern and central regions, and tropical in the south. Typhoons are common in summer and autumn, it also gets monsoons and
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Toilet to tap in California - USA - ech2o newsletter snippet

Toilet to tap in California – USA – ech2o newsletter snippet

Excellent article about recycled wastewater  in California where intensifying drought has meant the utilities are increasingly relying on sewage to generate the state’s water needs. Twenty years ago, Los Angeles County spent millions on a recycled wastewater plant only to shut it down within weeks of its opening after an outcry
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Cyclones in the Indian subcontinent - India - ech2o newsletter snippet

Cyclones in the Indian subcontinent – India – ech2o newsletter snippet

Interesting video about rapid intensification of cyclones – a phenomenon that is occurring more frequently and is driven by climate change. 90% of the current heating of the earth is being absorbed by the oceans, and this heat is being held in the top 2,000 metres, not the deeper ocean. Cyclones need
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Bathing in sunshine - Susie Diamond, UK

Bathing in sunshine – Susie Diamond, UK

We are a family of 4 with two adults and two teenagers. We all take showers every day or two, and my husband and I usually take a bath each at least once a week (I am only sharing this as it’s relevant to our hot water consumption). Our 5m²
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Asparagus growing in Peru  - Peru - ech2o newsletter snippet

Asparagus growing in Peru  – Peru – ech2o newsletter snippet

‘Where there is no engineer’ is an initiative from The Dublin Institute of Technology and Engineers Without Borders, Ireland. It focuses on community resilience and one particular case study looks at asparagus production in the Ica region of Peru. Most of this region is more than 4,000 meters above sea
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Running Out? Water in Western Australia - Sarah Bell, Australia

Running Out? Water in Western Australia – Sarah Bell, Australia

As an academic in urban resilience and environmental engineering I have made a career researching water all over the world. My very first water research started in Western Australia as an eight year old choosing my own school project. Forty years later I still have the very first research reports
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Our 20 year old rainwater harvesting system - Viv Lund, UK

Our 20 year old rainwater harvesting system – Viv Lund, UK

Looking for a new family home in London in 1999 we took advice and found a suburban ‘semi’ that would lend itself to one or two modifications enabling more sustainable use of resources. Within 18 months of moving in, the insulation had been improved and we were the proud users
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See through loos - Japan - ech2o newsletter snippet

See through loos – Japan – ech2o newsletter snippet

In Japan there are, apparently, two concerns with public toilets, especially those located in parks. The first is whether it is clean inside, and the second is that no one is secretly waiting inside. These loos, that turn opaque once the doors are locked, addresses the first issue in a
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I wish I'd been a monk ... Warren Liebold, Europe in the Middle Ages

I wish I’d been a monk … Warren Liebold, Europe in the Middle Ages

Water Technology in the Middle Ages: Cities, Monasteries, and Waterworks after the Roman Empire, by Roberta L. Magnusson, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.   Before reading Water Technology in the Middle Ages I don’t think it ever occurred to me that life as a monk during this period of
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Pneumatic Poo - Philippa Jefferis, UK

Pneumatic Poo – Philippa Jefferis, UK

What links Cairo, Oman, Gibraltar, Bolivia, Porto and the capital city Yangon in Myanmar with the Houses of Parliament in London? Unless you have really spent a lot of time doing pub quizzes during this Lock Down, then it is highly unlikely that your first thought for connecting these places
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Water at The Graig, Llanidloes, Mid Wales - Chris Lord Smith, UK

Water at The Graig, Llanidloes, Mid Wales – Chris Lord Smith, UK

Despite living in one of the wettest part of Wales, water and its conservation is of great importance.  For example, this is written in the middle of May and for the last 6 weeks we have had no significant rain fall.  Because the land is free draining and is on
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Do not use the toilet while the train is standing in the station - Cath Hassell, India and UK

Do not use the toilet while the train is standing in the station – Cath Hassell, India and UK

“No more platform No 2s” was a headline in the Guardian back in October 2017 referring to the fact that in 2019 the practice of trains discharging the contents of their toilets directly onto the tracks would stop.[1]  A combination of new trains and retrofitting old stock with holding-tank toilets
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Testing for coronavirus in wastewater – a game changer in the fight against Covid-19? - Cath Hassell, World

Testing for coronavirus in wastewater – a game changer in the fight against Covid-19? – Cath Hassell, World

We all know that Covid-19 is a respiratory illness and you catch it by inhaling infected droplets, but can the virus that causes it (SARS-CoV-2) be found in wastewater and if so is that a good or a bad thing?   Spread of Covid-19 in water SARS-CoV-2 has been detected
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Sewer workers in Pakistan - Pakistan - ech2o newsletter snippet

Sewer workers in Pakistan – Pakistan – ech2o newsletter snippet

Sanitation is such an important job and yet in many countries across the world the people who clean the sewers face discrimination, incredibly unsafe working conditions and are poorly paid. This excellent report highlights the issues faced by sewer workers in Pakistan including the lack of safety gear and caste discrimination.
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Living in the sea – virtually - Philippines - ech2o newsletter snippet

Living in the sea – virtually – Philippines – ech2o newsletter snippet

Fascinating short film about the inhabitants of Ubay Island in the Philippines. After an earthquake in 2013 lowered the island by a metre, the island is flooded by the sea at high tide for four hours a day. The islanders were offered relocation on the mainland but opted to stay. Some houses
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Turning fire hydrants into public water fountains - USA - ech2o newsletter snippet

Turning fire hydrants into public water fountains – USA – ech2o newsletter snippet

There are 118,000 fire hydrants throughout New York. A fire hydrant can release 4,500 litres of water per minute when fully opened, so recreational use may cause the network to lose pressure, potentially reducing the system’s capacity to quench fires. This enormous release of water also poses a risk for
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Big dams on the Nile - Ethiopia - ech2o newsletter snippet

Big dams on the Nile – Ethiopia – ech2o newsletter snippet

Big dams are always contentious. This article looks at the proposed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile, one of the three main tributaries of the Nile that begin in Ethiopia. It will double the country’s electricity generation capacity with the potential of earning a billion dollars annually from energy
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Handy pods - Cambodia - ech2o newsletter snippet

Handy pods – Cambodia – ech2o newsletter snippet

Where do you go to the toilet when you live in a floating home? Over 100,000 people live on Tonlé Sap Lake in Cambodia.  Many people use the lake as a toilet, the same lake that they use to wash dishes and clothes and that children swim in. The original
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'Open defaecation free Nepal' - Philippa Jefferis, Nepal

‘Open defaecation free Nepal’ – Philippa Jefferis, Nepal

Nepal declared open defaecation free country, so the headline proclaimed from The Himalayan Times (https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/nepal-declared-open-defaecation-free-country/).  My mind instantly turned to a recent memory, while I was at our project site in Humla.  I had been playing peek-a-boo with a cute, but snotty nosed, little girl.  On previous encounters she had
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NeWater - Singapore - ech2o newsletter snippet

NeWater – Singapore – ech2o newsletter snippet

This is what Singapore call its treated wastewater. There are five NEWater plants supplying up to 40% of Singapore’s current water needs. The water undergoes a three step process. Microfiltration: Microscopic particles including some bacteria are filtered out at this stage. Reverse Osmosis: Undesirable contaminants are removed here. The water at
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Water in Florence - Axel Alabi, Italy

Water in Florence – Axel Alabi, Italy

Italy is composed of many beautiful areas, from the vast farmed hills in Tuscany to the spacious beaches in Sicily, not forgetting the rich history preserved in Rome. It is also home to a rich culture forged through hundreds of years of development. And what about its water conservation? Focusing
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Trans-National Corporations and water accessibility - Axel Alabi, Nigeria

Trans-National Corporations and water accessibility – Axel Alabi, Nigeria

Water is directly linked to an area’s economic state, ‘without clean water you can’t grow food… you can’t stay healthy, you can’t stay in school and you can’t keep working’. [1] Nigeria Facts Nigeria, one of the group of countries in Africa that are not land-locked, is comprised of 36
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Chicago's Super Sewer - USA - ech2o newsletter snippet

Chicago’s Super Sewer – USA – ech2o newsletter snippet

Completed in 1985 (and extended in early 2018) to prevent raw sewage polluting Lake Michigan when it rained Chicago’s ‘super sewer’ is being overwhelmed. The TARP (Tunnel and Reservoir Plan) reservoir stores up to 3.5 billion gallons of rainwater and sewage (almost 16 million m3) until the wastewater treatment plants
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New method of rice farming - Nepal - ech2o newsletter snippet

New method of rice farming – Nepal – ech2o newsletter snippet

Nepalese rice farmers have boosted rice yields by 25% by sowing fewer plants and cutting down on the levels of flooding of the paddy fields. Research has shown that more weeding is required and there is also a risk if rains fail in fields where there is no access to
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Water crisis in India - India - ech2o newsletter snippet

Water crisis in India – India – ech2o newsletter snippet

Across India, 600 million people face acute water shortages, with around 200,000 dying every year because they lack access to clean water, and it is estimated that at least 30 percent of the population in India is affected in one way or the other by contaminants in water supplies. The
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Drinking the water of the Ganges - India - ech2o newsletter snippet

Drinking the water of the Ganges – India – ech2o newsletter snippet

I have been meaning to write up this story since pretty much the first edition of this newsletter but somehow never got round to it. So, I was 22 (relevant cos I still had that proto-adolescent brain that thinks you are invincible), travelling in India, had been there six months
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Not a lot of people know this - Sweden - ech2o newsletter snippet

Not a lot of people know this – Sweden – ech2o newsletter snippet

2 x outlets are required in all showers in student accommodation in Sweden. This little known fact was discovered by Kat (who is Swedish) after a student, who was renting her flat in Uppsala, fell asleep in the shower after a late night out, blocked the outlet and brought down the
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Wind catchers of Persia - Persia - ech2o newsletter snippet

Wind catchers of Persia – Persia – ech2o newsletter snippet

Fab images of some of the wind catchers of Persia. A way of cooling buildings having been practiced for hundreds of years, often with water at the base of the towers to cool the air further. They are certainly effective, so much so that they have been used to refrigerate and
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Women plumbers in Jordan - Jordan - ech2o newsletter snippet

Women plumbers in Jordan – Jordan – ech2o newsletter snippet

Great picture gallery of women plumbers in Jordan women plumbers in Jordan by Amanda Ruggeri. With interviews with the plumbers and background of the water security issues facing the country.
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Cape Town beats the drought! - South Africa - ech2o newsletter snippet

Cape Town beats the drought! – South Africa – ech2o newsletter snippet

Back in March Cath blogged about the water crisis in Cape Town  At that point it was touch and go whether Cape Town would completely run out of water. That scenario has now passed. Heavy rains at the end of June have bought water levels up in the Theewaterskloof dam to
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Trends in freshwater availablility - worldwide - ech2o newsletter snippet

Trends in freshwater availablility – worldwide – ech2o newsletter snippet

This fascinating infographic from Nature (an international science journal) proves the adage that every picture paints a thousand words. In a nutshell, red shows the availability of freshwater is going down and blue that the availability is going up. But it’s the possible/probable reasons why that are really interesting.
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Why your water footprint doesn’t matter - Judith Thornton, UK

Why your water footprint doesn’t matter – Judith Thornton, UK

Three thousand litres of water – that is the amount needed to produce the food each British person eats every day. This is the opening line of a recent article also published on The Conversation. The piece reports on research published in Nature Sustainability, which investigated the water footprint of
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The long queue for the long drop - Safa El-Jamal, UK

The long queue for the long drop – Safa El-Jamal, UK

Having only just recovered from the million miles I walked when at Glastonbury Festival I am now reminiscing on the delight that was the toilet experience there. With a total of 200,000 festival revellers the toilet queues at Glastonbury can be pretty long! Tip – always choose a set of
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A history of water use on a family farm - James Bomford, UK

A history of water use on a family farm – James Bomford, UK

Spring Hill Farm near Pershore in Worcester was a family farm from the early 19th Century until the 1990s. The farm is 600 acres (248 hectares) and the soil type is sandy loam and alluvial clay loams. The farm was originally owned by the Ecclesiastical Commission and my great grandfather
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A love for water - being water smart & paddling pool neutral - Rosie Rand, UK

A love for water – being water smart & paddling pool neutral – Rosie Rand, UK

I grew up on the Dorset coast surrounded by the sea and rivers, and I have always had a love for water. I enjoyed endless summers as a kid in paddling pools, the sea or playing in local rivers and I think this has been the key factor in my
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From toilets to taps - USA - ech2o newsletter snippet

From toilets to taps – USA – ech2o newsletter snippet

www.waterpolls.org  is an interesting website. As the name suggests it is full of information garnered about water from polling the public (US public in this case) and a lot of different surveys are freely available to access. A couple of things jumped out at us. The first is that just
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Cape Town’s Water Crisis – What lessons can be learned? Cath Hassell, South Africa

Cape Town’s Water Crisis – What lessons can be learned? Cath Hassell, South Africa

Cape Town’s water crisis is now big news globally, though it has been exercising the minds of the four million city dwellers since this time last year. As I write this blog (26th Feb 2018) ‘Day Zero’ is now July 9th (a grace period of almost three months since the beginning
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Improving water supply to the residents of Freetown  - Philippa Jefferis, Sierra Leone

Improving water supply to the residents of Freetown – Philippa Jefferis, Sierra Leone

It is estimated that 54% of the world’s population now lives in urban areas and that proportion is expected to increase to 66% by 2050. That fact, and the predicted global population growth could mean another 2.5 billion people to the number of urban dwellers within the next 32 years,
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Beyond the urban: water efficiency and community participation in remote communities - Cara Beal, Australia

Beyond the urban: water efficiency and community participation in remote communities – Cara Beal, Australia

Some remote Australian communities have access to drinking water for only nine hours a day for part of the year, but these households can still use up to ten times the average of urban households. Many communities in the Torres Strait Islands have their mains water supply limited to nine
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Ice stupas - India - ech2o newsletter snippet

Ice stupas – India – ech2o newsletter snippet

The lack of water from Himalayan melt ice is causing serious issues in the high plateaus of Ladakh in India. Ice stupas, invented by Sonam Wangchuk, take advantage of winter streams to provide a source of water in May and June when the growing season occurs but the streams have
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How low can I go? - Safa El Jamal, UK

How low can I go? – Safa El Jamal, UK

It was 10 years when I awoke from an accidental nap in the middle of my climate change lecture. As I readjusted to my surroundings, I discovered that my lecturer was having a rant about the global water situation. I sat upright, hooked by his impassioned talk. It was at
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Composting toilets in Bronx zoo - USA - ech2o newsletter snippet

Composting toilets in Bronx zoo – USA – ech2o newsletter snippet

Thanks to Warren Liebold who works in water for New York City Council for this next bit. The photos are ten years old but still sorta charming.  The Bronx Zoo had an early 20th Century comfort station near one of its entrances and it drained to an early 20th Century
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The iconic Brooklyn water towers - USA - ech2o newsletter snippet

The iconic Brooklyn water towers – USA – ech2o newsletter snippet

I’ve been meaning to include these in the newsletter ever since Warren Liebold sent us a make your own Brooklyn water tower kit a couple of years ago which now has pride of place in the ech2o office… I assumed they were decommissioned but was completely wrong about that as
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The Pooh Ponds of Broome - Chris Hassell, Australia

The Pooh Ponds of Broome – Chris Hassell, Australia

As a bird-nerd I can appreciate the water nerdery of this site, and Cath in particular. But I have never heard her mention birds when rabbiting on about sewage. Rather it’s all Wastewater Treatment Plants and mega-litres of water and kilos of solid-effluent and miles of loo paper. So it
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World drought situation - worldwide - ech2o newsletter snippet

World drought situation – worldwide – ech2o newsletter snippet

Virtually every day there is news about drought in some area of the world. While I was looking for a good image to show this, I chanced upon this interesting blog from summer 2015 about seven recent major droughts . I also found two maps produced by the US National Center
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Why plants need water - Samantha Mbire, UK

Why plants need water – Samantha Mbire, UK

All living things need water to stay alive, and plants are living things! Plants, however, need much more water than many living things because plants use more water than animals. A few weeks ago I went on a trip to Wisely, at the Royal Horticultural Garden and it was really
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A trip to the canal - Samantha Mbire, UK

A trip to the canal – Samantha Mbire, UK

Most of Britain’s canals were built during the industrial revolution from around 1750 to 1850. Today I went for a walk near the ech2o offices and saw lots of different interesting stuff. This is an explanation of how the locks work  that I took a picture of. Locks are about
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Rain gardens. A chance to keep our cities alive, in five easy steps - Helen Spring, UK

Rain gardens. A chance to keep our cities alive, in five easy steps – Helen Spring, UK

Ongoing wildlife declines here in Britain and around the world are enough to stop you in your tracks. The Living Planet report released by WWF in 2016 reported that there has been a decline in all vertebrate species by 58% in the years between 1972 and 2012[1]. In other words,
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Saudi Arabia's water crisis - Saudi Arabia - ech2o newsletter snippet

Saudi Arabia’s water crisis – Saudi Arabia – ech2o newsletter snippet

It’s not just California that is experiencing severe water shortages. Saudi Arabia sits on one of the world’s biggest and oldest aquifers. But a (what is now recognised as) flawed agricultural policy in the late 1970s and ’80s, when a programme of food self-sufficiency was pursued has led to its
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Fresh Water Transfer Allocation Agreements or… balloons to Barbados - Caribbean - ech2o newsletter snippet

Fresh Water Transfer Allocation Agreements or… balloons to Barbados – Caribbean – ech2o newsletter snippet

Based on the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) standards the cumulative annual renewable freshwater availability requirement for Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Haiti and St Kitts amounts to 18.7 billion m3, whilst they currently have
just 14.2 billion m3. Aquifers are drying out and becoming salinated and this deficit
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Updates on domestic sanitation in Ireland; and a possible sustainable future - Féidhlim Harty, Ireland

Updates on domestic sanitation in Ireland; and a possible sustainable future – Féidhlim Harty, Ireland

Féidhlim Harty looks at the effect the forthcoming EPA Code of Practice on domestic scale wastewater treatment systems will have on reducing the contamination of groundwater in Ireland. And asks whether we need to be smarter in how we deal with sewage.
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Water in walls - The impact of solar radiation on the moisture safety of walls - Valentina Marincioni, UK

Water in walls – The impact of solar radiation on the moisture safety of walls – Valentina Marincioni, UK

Damp is a perennial problem in the UK. Valentina Marincioni explains why the sun is more effective at drying out wet walls in damp and rainy UK rather than sunny Italy, and the effect that adding internal wall insulation this has on the movement of water vapour in UK buildings.
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On the banks of the River Nile – Egyptian villagers views on water efficiency - Suzanne Armsden, Egypt

On the banks of the River Nile – Egyptian villagers views on water efficiency – Suzanne Armsden, Egypt

Until a few years ago, I lived in Upper Egypt within a small village community on the Eastern banks of the River Nile opposite the granite ridge which forms the Valley of the Kings. The River Nile – which courses through over 10 countries – has always been the lifeblood
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How Sustainable is Your Oasis?: A Review of Water Resources in Middle East Cities - ech2o newsletter snippet

How Sustainable is Your Oasis?: A Review of Water Resources in Middle East Cities – ech2o newsletter snippet

Just in before deadline day (thanks Ben) this fabulous article by Karim Elgendy about how cities in desert areas historically were founded, where they get their water supplies from, and the challenges for their future. (The image shows date farms in Liwa UAE, fed by groundwater.)
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Rainfall data for Australia - it does what it says on the tin! - ech2o newsletter snippet

Rainfall data for Australia – it does what it says on the tin! – ech2o newsletter snippet

Great interactive map of rainfall in Australia, 1900 to the present year by year. With major droughts and major floods highlighted. And this is a timeline of Melbourne’s water supply from 1803 onwards. From Peter Curtain’s blog (as per above).
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How New York gets its water - USA - ech2o newsletter snippet

How New York gets its water – USA – ech2o newsletter snippet

Most of New York’s water comes from the Catskill/Delaware watershed (more than a million acres of land) 40% of which is owned by the state, the city or non-profit organisations. A lot of effort is directed at ensuring the source supply itself is protected – front of pipe rather than
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WatEf Network in Rotterdam - Netherlands - ech2o newsletter snippet

WatEf Network in Rotterdam – Netherlands – ech2o newsletter snippet

Cath recently spent an interesting couple of days in Rotterdam on a study trip looking at how the city (80% of which is below sea level) deals with its stormwater run-off. Given that Rotterdam is also home to some seriously quirky architecture as well as using its port areas really
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A toilet odyssey in Japan - Japan - ech2o newsletter snippet

A toilet odyssey in Japan – Japan – ech2o newsletter snippet

Last September I visited Japan for a holiday and had some interesting encounters with their toilets. The Tour operator had given me very clear instructions on how to use the Eastern style toilets, which was useful and made me realise that I had previously used them incorrectly. (We wondered exactly what
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Water use around the world - ech2o newsletter snippet

Water use around the world – ech2o newsletter snippet

We really like www.watersaving.com. It shows fresh water withdrawal per person per day for every country in the world, divided across the three sectors of agriculture, industry and domestic. The site also has more detailed information for some countries about water availability, access to safe water and sanitation, cost of water,
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Boston rethinking its relationship with the sea - ech2o newsletter snippet

Boston rethinking its relationship with the sea – ech2o newsletter snippet

Check out what city planners think Boston may look like in the future if, rather than building ever higher sea walls, they actually allow water into the city in a series of canals just as Venice does.
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Water, Energy, and Data - Bora Ristic, World

Water, Energy, and Data – Bora Ristic, World

Bora Ristic looks at the water footprint of data centres, links Radiohead with growing tomatoes, highlights what Google and Apple are doing to lower their water footprint and ask whether in the future we will choose internet service providers based on their environmental performance.
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A very water efficient elephant… - Sally Hall, UK

A very water efficient elephant… – Sally Hall, UK

Sally Hall gives the low down on the UK’s most water efficient elephant!
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Ancient Indians and the art of water governance by Sunita Narain - India - ech2o newsletter snippet

Ancient Indians and the art of water governance by Sunita Narain – India – ech2o newsletter snippet

Sunita Narain is an environmental activist who heads up the Centre for Science and the Environment based in New Delhi and writes a brilliant blog every two weeks about different environmental issues in India. Occasionally she blogs about water. ‘Take water, for instance. Traditionally, we built highly sophisticated systems, which
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Lydia’s travelling tales - Yosemite National Park, California - USA - ech2o newsletter snippet

Lydia’s travelling tales – Yosemite National Park, California – USA – ech2o newsletter snippet

My flatmate Jonathan has just returned from travels around California including into Yosemite National Park. I had previously travelled in the USA in the summer of 2011 with his ‘big sis’ Simone so we were comparing experiences. I was shocked to hear that when he visited Yosemite that it was
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Managing Water Demand - Dr Alison Browne, UK

Managing Water Demand – Dr Alison Browne, UK

The water industry has tried to manage consumption through technological ‘fixes’. But only by understanding how and why water is used by actual people can demand be reduced, argues Dr Alison Browne.
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Confessions of a low water user - Jo Saady, UK

Confessions of a low water user – Jo Saady, UK

Jo Saady of Ecotecture hasn’t used much water in her 20 years of being an architect. But has now decided she can save even more by giving up flushing the toilet!
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The Public Lav Lottery - Kate Fewson, UK

The Public Lav Lottery – Kate Fewson, UK

Kate Fewson of Closed Loop Projects turns her attention away from female urinals to the bog standard public loo and all the perils that may await the unsuspecting user…
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Saving Water - Dr Tina Holt, UK

Saving Water – Dr Tina Holt, UK

Tina Holt blogs about how having small children who will only bath, flush the loo, or wash their hands if someone reminds them, results in very low overall household water use and is to be recommended!
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Global Trends in Water Efficiency - worldwide - ech2o newsletter snippet

Global Trends in Water Efficiency – worldwide – ech2o newsletter snippet

The Water Efficiency Network (WATEF) hosted an excellent virtual masterclass on global trends in water efficiency back in June. There were speakers from Taiwan, Australia, USA and UK. Always interesting to hear from other countries as to their strategies to meet the supply/demand mismatch, an issue that is becoming more
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Public Toilet Provision, Gender and Menstruation - Dr Clara Greed, UK

Public Toilet Provision, Gender and Menstruation – Dr Clara Greed, UK

Dr Clara Greed blogs about the under provision of public toilets for women, both in the UK and abroad, and concludes that public toilets are the missing link in creating sustainable, accessible and equitable cities.
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Lydia Clare-Skinner visits the French town of Evian, samples the local water and reports back, France

Lydia Clare-Skinner visits the French town of Evian, samples the local water and reports back, France

Lydia Clare-Skinner visits the French town of Evian, samples the local water and reports back
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Water footprints – what do they really tell us? - Judith Thornton, UK

Water footprints – what do they really tell us? – Judith Thornton, UK

Judith Thornton discusses Water footprints and what do they really tell us?
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Flood Management in the UK - Jim Allen, UK

Flood Management in the UK – Jim Allen, UK

Jim Allen, a civil engineer with expertise in SuDS design blogs about the recent extreme weather events in the UK, the complexity of flood management, gives the Environment Agency a cautious thumbs up and calls for a tidal barrage across the Severn Estuary. All this in less than 900 words!
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Water Submetering in New York? - Warren Liebold, US

Water Submetering in New York? – Warren Liebold, US

Back in the late 1980's New York City replaced 1.3 million toilets for free in a successful water efficiency programme. They have just launched a similar scheme to replace 0.8 million toilets. And yet apartments in the city are not metered for water. Why ever not? Warren Liebold Director of Universal Metering for New York City explains why.
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A nervous woman’s view on the female urinal - Kate Fewson, Germany

A nervous woman’s view on the female urinal – Kate Fewson, Germany

Kate Fewson of Closed Loop Projects reminisces about a drunken encounter with a women’s urinal in Germany and asks what would it take for her to use one successfully?
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Drinking tap water - a tale of two cities - Finland - ech2o newsletter snippet

Drinking tap water – a tale of two cities – Finland – ech2o newsletter snippet

‘It is a far far better thing I do now than I have ever done…’ That was how I felt last week in Hastings drinking the local tap water, which basically tasted of mud. Trevon meanwhile has arrived back from a short trip to Helsinki raving about the tap water
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Water Conservation Nature's Way: The Beaver - Russell Stevens, UK

Water Conservation Nature’s Way: The Beaver – Russell Stevens, UK

Beavers are back in Kent, doing what they do best, building dams across rivers and streams. Russell Stevens of Conker Conservation explains the many environmental benefits of a beaver’s construction skills.
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Australian Water Stories - Stephen Choi, Australia

Australian Water Stories – Stephen Choi, Australia

Stephen Choi moved to Sydney from London 18 months ago. His blog about the extremes of drought and flood that Australia suffers from, is inspired by personal testimony from Australian citizens.
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Rainfall data from India - ech2o newsletter snippet

Rainfall data from India – ech2o newsletter snippet

This is a great little resource.   You can click on any major Indian city to see total average yearly rainfall, and when in the year it falls. As you would expect in such a large and geographically varied country there is a huge difference. Rainfall varies from 325 mm in Jodhpur,
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Water supply and sanitation in Sweden - Tim Sibthorp, Sweden

Water supply and sanitation in Sweden – Tim Sibthorp, Sweden

Tim Sibthorp, a Brit who has lived in Sweden for the last 30 years, blogs about the differences in water use between the two countries and provides an overview of water supplies and waste water treatment in Sweden.
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Fossil water under the Sahara Desert - Africa - ech2o newsletter snippet

Fossil water under the Sahara Desert – Africa – ech2o newsletter snippet

This is a fascinating discovery which has recently come to light. Scientists estimate that Africa’s groundwater totals about 0.66 million cubic kilometers, which means the continent has over 100 times more water underground than on the surface. And huge amounts of that fossil water (estimated to be as much as a
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Urban and rural water supplies in Mali - Yaoussa Bagayoko, Mali

Urban and rural water supplies in Mali – Yaoussa Bagayoko, Mali

The average water consumption in Mali is just 50 litres/person/day in urban areas, and far less in rural areas. This low use is due to a combination of factors, including the fact that most people have dry toilets and over 50% of urban homes are not connected to a piped water supply.
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Water use and mis-use in New Dehli - Kanu Agrawal, India

Water use and mis-use in New Dehli – Kanu Agrawal, India

Clean drinking water and sanitary toilet facilities are a fundamental necessity. With a soaring population and a growing economy, India’s cities are struggling to supply water to their citizens.
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