But what about water in underdeveloped nations?

Water and Sanitation

·       An estimated 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation and 1.1 billion people are without access to safe water. (UNICEF, 2006)

·       Globally, more than 125 million children under five years of age live in households without access to an improved drinking-water source, and more than 280 million children under five live in households without access to improved sanitation facilities. (UNICEF, 2006)

·       90% of wastewater in developing countries is discharged into rivers and streams without any treatment. (UNDP, UNEP, World Bank, and the World Resources Institute, “World Resources 2000-2001”, pg. 25-26)

·       Diarrhea can be reduced by 26% when basic water, hygiene, and sanitation are supplied. (World Water Day, 2001)WATER AND DISEASE

·       4,000 children die each day as a result of water-related illnesses. (WHO 2004)

·       In the past ten years, diarrhea has killed more children than all the people lost to armed conflict since WWII. (WSSCC, 2004)

·       Water is implicated in 80% of all sickness and disease worldwide. 19% of deaths from infection and disease worldwide are water related and waterborne diseases contribute to nearly 4 million child deaths. (Rehydration Project, www.rehydrate.org/facts/progress_water.htm)

·       At any one time, it is estimated that half the world’s hospital beds are occupied with patients suffering from water-related diseases. (WSSC, 2004)

·       Diarrhea kills more than three million people each year and chronic diarrhea is a leading killer of people with AIDS. (USAID, 2004)

·       Major diseases transmitted by water: cholera, typhoid, bacillary dysentery, infectious hepatitis, and Giardia. (WHO, “Right to Water,” 2003)

·       Major diseases caused by lack of water: scabies, skin sepsis and ulcers, yaws, leprosy, trachoma, dysenteries. (WHO, “World Health Report” 2002)

Water and Economic Growth

·       Over 40 billion work hours are lost each year in Africa to the need to fetch drinking water. (WHO 2004)

·       Water-related illnesses cost the Indian economy 73 million working days per year. (WSSCC, 2004)

Source= Water for People http://wfp.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage

Some Water Use Facts

A 2003 Government Accounting Office (GAO) report stated, “Water managers in 36 states anticipate shortages in localities, regions, or statewide in the next 10 years.”¹

1. Freshwater Supply: States’ View of How Federal Agencies Could Help Them Meet the Challenges of Expected Shortages. U.S. Government Accounting Office, July 2003.

•  Worldwide consumption of water is rising at double the population growth rate.

•  One inch of rainfall drops 7,000 gallons, or nearly 30 tons of water, on a 60-foot-by-180-foot plot of land.

•  On average, 50–70 percent of residential water is used outdoors for watering lawns and gardens.

•  It is estimated that on a typical Thanksgiving, after dinner, 16.4 million Americans watch football. At halftime, American toilets flush 16.4 million times and use up to 48.5 million gallons of water (depending on the toilet type). Using water-efficient toilets would save 22.3 million gallons of water, or the same amount of water needed to fill 1,476 swimming pools.

•  The average five-minute shower uses 15–25 gallons of water.

Source: American Water Works Association

More Water Statistics

–     Americans use five times the amount of water that Europeans use.

–     An average human uses about 50 gallons (190 liters) of water daily.

–     A person pays about 25 cents for water use on a daily basis.

–     Two thirds of the water used in a home is used in the bathroom.

–     To flush a toilet we use 1.6 to 7 gallons (6 to 26.5 liters) of water.

–     To brush your teeth you use 2 gallons (7.5 liters) of water. (IF you let the faucet run!) While brushing your teeth, instead of leaving the tap running, you should fill up a glass to rinse your mouth.

–     For an automatic dishwasher 9 to 12 gallons (35 to 45 liters) of water is used.

–     Saving a bottle of cold water in the fridge is better that taking it from the tap, because it saves time and water.

–     Baths use less water than a typical shower. Soaking in a partially filled tub will use less water than a short shower.

–     The average person spends less than 1% of his or her total personal expenditure dollars for water, wastewater, and water disposal services.

–     Less than 1% of the water treated by public water systems is used for drinking, cooking, and bathing.

–     Bottled water can be up to 1,000 times more expensive than tap water and it may not be as safe.

–     Public water supplies must meet or exceed certain standards. The kind of standards that are used differ for each country. Many public water supplies consistently supply water that is much better than the minimum standards.

–     Today, drinking water meets over a hundred different standards for drinking water quality.

–     The principal sources of contamination are associated with the post World War II chemical age.

–     1 gallon (Four liters) of gasoline can contaminate approximately 750,000 gallons (2.8 million liters) of water.

–     If all new sources of contamination could be eliminated, in 10 years, 98% of all available groundwater would then be free of pollution.

–     Most of the world's people must walk at least 3 hours to fetch water.

–     Freshwater animals are disappearing five times faster than land animals.

–     It takes 1,500 gallons (5,680 liters) of water to process one barrel of beer.

–     It takes 120 gallons (450 liters) of water to produce one egg.

–     To process one chicken we need 11.6 gallons (44 liters) of water.

–     To process one can of fruit or vegetables we need 9.3 gallons (35 liters) of water.

–     About 6,800 gallons (25,700 liters) of water is required to grow a day's food for a family of four.

–     It takes 1,850 gallons (7,000 liters) of water to refine one barrel of crude oil.

–     To manufacture new cars 39,000 gallons (148,000 liters) of water are used per car.

Welcome to my new Plumbing Engineering blog!

Plumbing Engineering can actually be an exciting realm. Who would have thought this to be true? Many people take plumbing for granted. On a global scale, many people probably don’t view it so casually. Most of the world’s population already is immersed in the trauma-inducing reality of a shortage of fresh, clean, safe drinking water, and much of that population also have severe sanitation deficiencies. This can further exacerbate the fresh water crisis by facilitating the contamination of the already insufficient drinking water supply. This in turn leads to more disease, and more contamination.

This scenario may be most often applied to third world countries, and is probably rare in the United States and other “developed” nations, but there are still huge inadequacies of safe drinking water in many areas of even the most technologically advanced nations. Groundwater aquifers are diminishing and many others are polluted through over pumping and other practices that bring an influx of undesirable substances into our water supplies. This brings the Plumbing Engineer into a new age of designing methods to improve these conditions and to help to provide an adequate supply of fresh water of a sufficient quality to sustain our populations.

Many of the concepts that are explored in these pages, will not necessarily be “new”, but are probably unfamiliar to the majority of Plumbing Engineers. Since most of us, but not all, are so out of touch with the value and importance, and even necessity of these alternative water systems, we will first provide a brief background into the history of water itself. We will also explore the history of humanity’s interaction with water on our planet. We will look at our current state of water resources, precipitation levels, and evapotranspiration rates. We will look at some of the current and emerging plumbing codes governing alternative water system implementation, as well as the benefits and hazards of these systems. These subjects are critical to the understanding of the systems that we are designing and essential to our charge of efficient application of these systems.