Down under warned it's drying up

[simon]

<a href='http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ ... 9D859A.htm' target='_blank'>http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ ... r><br>This may not be "new" news, but it's no-where near old news as it's still happening and getting worse. I guess it'll take something really bad to happen for people to start caring. <br><br>I do my best not to waste water, but no one I know cares about this, "it'll never happen".

[Sabre]

Us Americans dont seem to care about anything.. I use alot of water because of the fact were having a drought in florida and the lawn will die if the sprinklers arent on. I know its bad and I conserve as much as I can.<br><br>But I suppose its different in the land down under. I hear its rather dry there.<br>I hope everything turns out ok.

[Softpaw]

Most people around here have well water, so they feel the direct effect of droughts: No water in the well. At all. They then have to get the well drilled deeper, which usually costs a fortune.

[Ankaris]

Living in the UK, the closest I've ever come to something even remotely like this was a hosepipe ban a few years back, in the middle of summer.<br><br>Makes you appreciate all the rain a lil' more after reading this.<br><br>Anyhoo. Desalination does seem like an excellent solution, does anyone know why they don't follow that up? Remove the salt, chlorinate to remove bacteria like at all water plants, job done *simplified I know...*<br><br>After all, taking what's needed from the seas would be... well, comparatively it would be a drop in the ocean <!--emo&:P--><img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Burning Sheep Productions]

I'm pretty water concious, I do try to recycle the water when I can.<br>And instead of drinking water from the tap, I drink soda water!

[Tavis]

<!--QuoteBegin-Ankaris+May 31 2004, 02:59 AM--> <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'><b>Quote:</b> (Ankaris @ May 31 2004, 02:59 AM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Living in the UK, the closest I've ever come to something even remotely like this was a hosepipe ban a few years back, in the middle of summer.<br><br>Makes you appreciate all the rain a lil' more after reading this.<br><br>Anyhoo. Desalination does seem like an excellent solution, does anyone know why they don't follow that up? Remove the salt, chlorinate to remove bacteria like at all water plants, job done *simplified I know...*<br><br>After all, taking what's needed from the seas would be... well, comparatively it would be a drop in the ocean <!--emo&:P--><img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table> <!--QuoteEEnd--><br> The problem with desalination is that it takes a relatively large amount of energy to remove salt from ocean water, more than it takes to treat other sources. Because salts are dissolved in seawater, filters won't work. You have to remove it by other means, such as adding chemicals to make the salts precipitate from the water in solid form or boiling off the water to leave the salts behind and condensing the water vapor. I know, there is more than one way to purify water, and I can only barely scratch the surface of this topic without some research.<br><br>Another problem I can think of involves figuring out what to do with the salt. Removed sea salts can't simply be dumped back in the ocean, and while there are some uses for salt, purifying a sufficient quantity of water will produce an enormous supply that would simply be difficult to put to use or set aside.

[Northern_l33tness]

The leftover salt would be a problem, since Australia has already been experiencing problems with very high salt levels in the soil killing off plants. I don't think they want to make matters worse. Plus, as has been mentioned, the high amount of energy required.<br><br>My uncle is one of those people in Australia who is bad about water consumption. While he now does recycle his "grey water" as it's called for garden use, he keeps several species of plant that need , and takies really long showers. His wife often cuts the water on him when he's showering because of it.<br><br>In case you're wondering, my uncle and his wife moved from Canada to Australia, while the rest of my family didn't, which explains why I'm Canadian even though he lives halfway around the world. He's a university professor at UWA.

[Burning Sheep Productions]

What's a UWA?

[Zaaphod]

<!--QuoteBegin-Burning Sheep Productions+Jun 1 2004, 02:03 AM--> <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'><b>Quote:</b> (Burning Sheep Productions @ Jun 1 2004, 02:03 AM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> What's a UWA? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table> <!--QuoteEEnd--><br>University of Western Australia, I think.<br><br>Anyway, I have to admit I'm a bit wasteful of water. I take loooong showers.<br>

[Burning Sheep Productions]

I tend to do that too, and sometimes I can't remember if I've washed my hair or not.<br>Although It'd be better if I didn't, I can't stand having silky hair.

[norsenerd]

There realy isnl;t enough fresh water in the world. In osuth Aferca they're cutign down trees so that they use up less watter. The water suply there is slowly increasing.<br><br>[sarcasim]I like my apartmetn complex. The lawn sprikalers water the sidewalk and street al,ost as much as the grass and they still water even in the ground had been drenched by rain.[/sarcasim]<br><br>There realy is too much water wasted. Maybe we shoudl start mining the ice caps for watter.

[Henohenomoheji]

maybe we should mine Mars for water...<br><br>To be honest, I'm not sure if that was sarcasm or not either. I think it was at first, but then I thought it would be a good idea, cause then we wouldn't have thousands of homeless penguins, seals, polar bears, and other ice animals... course, it would cost a lot of $$$, but...

[Northern_l33tness]

At my school, we have urinals that flush every few minutes 24/7. Makes a great mess when some kid decides to plug them with toilet paper.<br><br>Vancouver, Canada (where I live) has tons of water around it, but we still have watering restrictions because we don't have much resovoir infrastructure. I don't mind sprinkling restrictions because I'm allergic to grass and sprinkling restrictions help kill people's grass.

[Burning Sheep Productions]

Allergic to grass... that must suck.