Water Conservation Essay Example for Free

Water Conservation Essay INTRODUCTION: Water is essential for life on earth. Water is needed for growing food, keeping ourselves clean, generating power, controlling fire and most importantly to stay alive! This list is simply non-ending. This shows that water is an integral part of our daily life and we are heavily dependent on it. Water conservation: Refers to reducing the usage of water and recycling of waste water for different purposes such as cleaning, manufacturing, and agricultural irrigation. Fresh Water Availability: * Two thirds of the surface of the Earth covered with water, so you might be thinking why it is a problem. It is because most human uses require fresh water with about 97.5% of the water on the Earth, salt water it leaves only 2.5% to be fresh water. Furthermore, two thirds of it is made up of ice frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining majority is groundwater with a very small fraction present above ground or in the air. * Access to safe drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the world, but approximately one billion people still lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack accesses to adequate sanitation. There is a clear correlation between access to safe water and GDP per capita. * A recent report of 2009 suggests that by 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50%. * Water plays an important role in the world economy, as it functions as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling and transportation. THE CRISIS: * 97 % of the Earths water is salt water? * The percentage of the worlds total water is available to drink is less than 1 %. * Water conservation refers to reducing the usage of water and recycling of waste water for different purposes like domestic usage, industries, agriculture etc. * Over the years rising populations, growing industrialization, and expanding agriculture have pushed up the demand for water. * Efforts have been made to collect water by building dams, reservoirs and digging wells; some countries have also tried to recycle and desalinate sea water. * Water conservation has become the need of the day. * The method of recharging ground water by harvesting rainwater is gaining importance in many cities. * Water conservation can be done through what you do, not by what you know. * In the forests, water seeps gently into the ground due to vegetation cover. This groundwater in turn feeds wells, lakes, and rivers. Protecting forests means protecting water catchments. In ancient India, people worshipped Nature and one of them was Water. AT A STAKE: The importance of protecting our water resource cannot be overstated. Regrettably, in countries like Canada that are blessed with an abundance of fresh water, there is continuous misuse and abuse of the resource: household toilets that use 20 liters per flush when 6 liters would do, and to industrial plants and municipalities that use water bodies as convenient sewers. About 70 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water. Of that, only 0.3 percent is usable by humans. The remaining 99.7 percent is either unusable salt water or unavailable fresh water. And, most of the 0.3 percent is out of reach, locked up in icecaps and glaciers. Water is a commodity that is essential to life on this planet. Plants and animals need clean water to survive. Humans rely on finite supplies of freshwater to stay alive, without it people cannot live more than a few days. Almost everything we do uses water in some way. Unfortunately, all of earth inhabitants share 1 percent of all the water on earth. And with exploding human population growth, especially in poor countries, these finite supplies get quickly used up. The water we have now is all there will ever be. We cannot quickly produce more water. It can form on its own through the ecosystem but that takes centuries, whereas using up the earth’s water resources takes just a few seconds by turning on a tap. It is our responsibility to not only conserve water, but to make sure that it stays clean as well. According to the World Bank, as many as two billion people lack adequate sanitation facilities to protect them from water-borne disease, while a billion lack access to clean water altogether. â€Å"According to the United Nations, which has declared 2005-2015 the â€Å"Water for Life† decade, 95 percent of the world’s cities still dump raw sewage into their water supplies?† Thus it should come as no surprise to know th at 80 percent of all the health maladies in developing countries can be traced. Water wastage People waste water in their homes without even realizing it. We have become so accustomed to have a 24 hour supply of water to meet all of our needs from cooking, to cleaning, to drinking, that we sometimes forget that we do not have an infinite supply of water. Besides using renewable energy in the home to cut back on the use of electricity, we must also learn how to save our water supply. Here are a few tips on how to do so. †¢ The first thing you should do is check for leaks in taps, pipes, and dishwasher hoses which can cause over 2,000 liters of water per month to be wasted. Repairing any leaks will save you a ton of money and you will also be saving the environment. †¢ In the same way that you can buy renewable energy, you can also buy water efficient taps that will make the most of your water and will ensure that you are not wasting any while the tap is running. †¢ To save both water and energy, if youre not already using green energy, then you should wait until your dishwasher is completely full before running it. On average, dishwashers use approximately 40 liters of water per load, but thanks to features that some dishwasher have, you can specify that it is a light load, or rinse only, or air dry. All of these features allow you to save both water and energy. Goals of Water Conservation The goals of water conservation efforts include as follows: Sustainability: To ensure availability for future generations, the withdrawal of fresh water from an ecosystem should not exceed its natural replacement rate. Water efficiency: Water efficiency can be defined as the accomplishment of a function, task, process, or result with the minimal amount of water feasible, or an indicator of the relationships between the amount of water needed for a specific purpose and the amount of water used, occupied or delivered. Energy conservation: Water pumping, delivery, and wastewater treatment facilities consume a significant amount of energy. In some regions of the world over 15% of total electricity consumption is devoted to water management. Habitat conservation: Minimizing human water use helps to preserve fresh water habitats for local wildlife and migrating water flow, as well as reducing the need to build new dams and other water diversion infrastructure. Water conservation: Water conservation refers to reducing the usage of water and recycling of waste water for different purposes such as cleaning, manufacturing, and agricultural irrigation. Water Saving Tips * Monitor your water for unusually high use. Your bill and your water meter can help you to discover leaks. * Water your lawn and garden in the morning or evening when the temperatures are cooler, to minimize evaporation. * Wash your fruits and vegetables in a pan of water. Reuse it to water the plants. * Check outdoor faucets, sprinklers and hoses for leaks. * Upgrade older toilets with water efficient models * Water can also be conserved by landscaping with native plants. * Shorten your shower by a minute you will save up to 150 gallons per month. Taps with low flow and high pressure can be used. * Put a weighted object in the toilet tank to displace water so less is used with each flush in conventional water closets. * Run only full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher. EXTRA MEASURES: There is a gap between the seasonal availability of water and its equitable supply throughout the year. Accordingly the storage of water and passage through soils is very important. It is well known that about 70% area in this country is subject to varying degree of water stress. There are areas with heavy rainfall but water problems become predominant during non-monsoon periods. It is thus a matter of concern to create a redistribution system and requirements as and when it is needed. Although there are many methods for water management, the two important methods are mentioned as follows. Rain Water Harvesting: Rain Water Harvesting as a method of utilizing rain water for domestic and agricultural use is already widely used throughout the world. It is a method which has been used since ancient times and is increasingly being accepted as a practical method of providing potable water in development projects throughout the world. It has wide application also in urban and peri-urban areas where the reliability and quality of piped water is increasingly being questioned. Despite these facts the percentage of households using rain water harvesting in Zimbabwe both in urban and rural areas is remarkably low. Social solutions: water conservation programs are typically initiated at the local level, by either municipal water utilities or regional governments. Common strategies include public outreach campaigns, tiered water rates (charging progressively higher prices as water use increases), or restrictions on outdoor water use such as lawn watering and car washing. Watershed Management: A watershed is an area bounded by the divide line of water flow so that a distinct drainage basin of any small or big water course or stream can be identified. The rain falling over this area will flow through only one point of the whole watershed. In other words, the entire area will be drained only by one stream or water course. In this way we will have definitive water resource which can be assessed and analyzed for planning for the optimum utilization through ground water, wells, tube wells, small ponds, bigger tanks or reservoirs. Watershed management is very important for rainfall and resultant run-off. More than 900 watersheds of the flood prone rivers have been identified and are at present in operation. The development of delayed through propagation of water harvesting technology is also based on the concept of micro watershed. Himalayas are one of the most critical watersheds in the world. The damage to reservoirs and irrigation systems and misused Himalayan slopes is mounting as are the costs for the control measures during the flood season every year. The vast hydroelectric power potential can be harnessed from the Himalayas watersheds on a sustainable basis. The concept of water shed management has been extended to agro-industrial watersheds which take care of agro-industrial development. Awareness on Soak Pit: A soak pit is a covered porous-walled chamber that allows water to slowly soak in the ground. Pre-settled effluent from a collection and storage or treatment chamber is discharged to the underground chamber from where it infiltrates into the surrounding soil. Conclusion †¢ We must use our water wisely. Earlier water has been abundant resource and unfortunately was used carelessly. Today water is a precious resource to us and to future generations. Life wouldnt be the same without it. †¢ Water is one of nature’s most important gifts to mankind. Essential to life, the survival of all living beings depends on water.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel :: essays papers

Like Water for Chocolate Some stories are meant for movies, but then again, there are times when I wish some stories remained stories, unless we had a French film director do them. Laura Ezquivel' s novel is a treat. It stays with you as a fine dessert, or a fine food, and she knows it so well, and revels in it. In the film version, this gets lost because it cannot translate. The twelve recipes for each month get reduced to an occasional side story. In the novel, it is the food that brings about the results, and Tita has learned to make the most of the secrets of the culinary delights. The movie couldn't possibly show us how Tita and her mentor ever decided the reasons why such and such a dish were done for whatever occasion. This loss reduces the richness of the story into a film that is missing a third dimension, but never the less, it is still good. Sometimes the food is sad.... the whole table has a tremendous cry upon eating such a magnificent dessert. Other times the food is so hot that the older sister has to leave to cool off, which is not enough even after a cold shower. And trot off she does in the hands of a military opposite to what the mother stands for. Tita's revenge is working. I, personally, love the writing of Laura Ezquivel, much better than I do the movie version. But I think that much of this problem may have been because I saw a version that was DUBBED and the voices were repetitive, unemotional, and so glaringly bland, that it ruined what looks like a good film. It also appears to have taken away the food part of the whole story, which is as tasty as anything else.... it matches the desires in all the film, but then, that must have not been the reason to make a film, or to distribute it to other nations. Superb performances, if you can get by the lousy translations and often screwy sub-titles. Read the novel first, and then watch the film without the voices. But a great novel, nonetheless... see it and read it afterwards.More and more I see less and less in American releases ... the fineness and rhythm of language are just not there . Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel :: essays papers Like Water for Chocolate Some stories are meant for movies, but then again, there are times when I wish some stories remained stories, unless we had a French film director do them. Laura Ezquivel' s novel is a treat. It stays with you as a fine dessert, or a fine food, and she knows it so well, and revels in it. In the film version, this gets lost because it cannot translate. The twelve recipes for each month get reduced to an occasional side story. In the novel, it is the food that brings about the results, and Tita has learned to make the most of the secrets of the culinary delights. The movie couldn't possibly show us how Tita and her mentor ever decided the reasons why such and such a dish were done for whatever occasion. This loss reduces the richness of the story into a film that is missing a third dimension, but never the less, it is still good. Sometimes the food is sad.... the whole table has a tremendous cry upon eating such a magnificent dessert. Other times the food is so hot that the older sister has to leave to cool off, which is not enough even after a cold shower. And trot off she does in the hands of a military opposite to what the mother stands for. Tita's revenge is working. I, personally, love the writing of Laura Ezquivel, much better than I do the movie version. But I think that much of this problem may have been because I saw a version that was DUBBED and the voices were repetitive, unemotional, and so glaringly bland, that it ruined what looks like a good film. It also appears to have taken away the food part of the whole story, which is as tasty as anything else.... it matches the desires in all the film, but then, that must have not been the reason to make a film, or to distribute it to other nations. Superb performances, if you can get by the lousy translations and often screwy sub-titles. Read the novel first, and then watch the film without the voices. But a great novel, nonetheless... see it and read it afterwards.More and more I see less and less in American releases ... the fineness and rhythm of language are just not there .

A Street Car Names Desire Essay

A Street Car Named Desire deals with a culture clash between the Old South’s â€Å"plantation† mentality (priding itself on false pretenses) and the New South’s relatively uncivilized, yet real, grip on reality. The two characters who come to represent this tension are Blanche and Stanley Kowalski. Blanche advertises herself as a champion of â€Å"Southern Honor. † This entails an unfaltering dedication to virtue and culture. These are not, however, driving factors in her life but only mask her alcoholism and delusions of grandeur. By contrast, Stanley is an industrial worker who acts on habit and structure. Tennessee Williams juxtaposes illusion and reality by depicting the antagonistic relationship between the two by consistently employing symbolism. Blanche is constantly escaping the realities of life by retreating into her own fabrications. Her plummet into a delusional world begins when her beloved husband reveals himself to be gay and, soon after, shoots himself. She falls into a spiral of affairs after this event in a search to find emotional satisfaction and to reaffirm her womanhood. She ignores the obvious detrimental effect of her intimacies because all she wants is to be happy again: to be loved. Blanche physically escapes the reality of her life by leaving Belle Reve and Laurel to go to her sister’s home in New Orleans. Here, she misrepresents who she is and enters another relationship where she recreates her identity. When confronted about her lies, Blanche explains that she lies because she refuses to accept the hand fate has dealt her: I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it! (Williams, 34) Lying to herself and to others allows her to make life appear as she thinks it should be rather than as it is. Her final, deluded happiness (as her sister and Stanley commit her to an insane asylum) shows her acceptance that illusion is an adequate reality, but it also shows reality’s inevitable triumph. The driving force of reality, embodied by Stanley Kowalski, quickly dismantles all the falsities Blanche comes to represent. He is a practical man firmly grounded in the physical world who disdains fabrications. He finds meaning only in the primitive and straightforward: â€Å"There’s something downright bestial about him! †¦ He acts like an animal, has animal’s habits! †¦ Yes, something ape-like about him† (71). An animal would not create an alternate reality for a situation but would act according to the real, harshness of life in order to ensure its own survival. Stanley’s animal habits can be looked at as an appreciation only for tangible truths. In the end, Stanley succeeds in debunking all the false images Blanche created about herself. He goes out of his way to reveal Blanche’s past and then flaunts it in a crude, insensitive way: â€Å"Take a look at yourself here in a worn-out Mardi Gras outfit, rented for 50 cents from some rag-picker†¦ Do you know that I’ve been on to you from the start, and not once did you pull the wool over this boy’s eyes?†¦ Ha ha! Do you hear me? Ha ha ha† (67). Stanley again asserts his bestial tendency, but this time to show his dominance. When he proceeds to physically rape her, he metaphorically strips her of the false reality she created. Williams uses symbolism to show that Blanche is trapped in a life of delusion. The Varsouviana Polka and the use of light are reoccurring symbols that elude to her disconnect with reality. The Polka is the music that played the night her husband committed suicide. Blanche says that it ends only after she hears the sound of a gunshot in her head. It plays at various points in the play, symbolising this event that triggered her mental decline. Whenever a situation gets too â€Å"real,† Blanche firmly believes she hears the Varsouviana, panics, and looses her grip on reality. Also, throughout the play, Blanche avoids appearing in direct, bright light, especially in front of Mitch: â€Å"And turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare†(45). It is clear she avoids the lights in efforts to conceal the reality of her age and fading beauty. Symbolically, Blanche avoids light in order to prevent Mitch from seeing her for who she is. She, once again, retreats into her own world of illusion. Blanche is never able to be looked at â€Å"in the light† and exposed. She never faces reality. Both Stanley and Blanche have a hard time relating to the other gender without sexual implications. The difference is that Stanley is upfront about this â€Å"animalistic† behavior towards women, while Blanche tries to paint herself as above the primitive nature of her sexual impulses. We can call one approach realistic and the other delusional, but it doesn’t change the fact that both characters approach interactions in a sexual way. What does this say about the nature of what is real and what isn’t? Williams seems to draw an ambiguous line. This implies that reality and illusions coexist in our lives, and what we choose to label our views and actions is just a matter of perspective.

The Battle Of The American Civil War - 1018 Words

On September 17, 1862, the Union and Confederate armies met near the Maryland village of Sharpsburg in a battle that still remains the single bloodiest day in American history. The battle consisted of many attacks and counterattacks between Union General George B. McClellan and The Army of the Potomac against Confederate Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Confederates managed to fight relentlessly over the course of the struggle. However, after losing over a quarter of his forces, the following day General Lee pulls his army and retreats back to Virginia, ending the Confederate offensive attack. Although the Battle of Antietam was not a complete victory for the Union, it was a major†¦show more content†¦On the other hand, the battle and the Confederate retreat increased the morale in northern soldiers and civilians, including the Army of the Potomac. After months of despair and despondency, spirits and confidence had been lifted in the North. Newspapers and press rejoiced of the great victory and spoke of the wonderful outcomes the Nation will experience as a result for centuries to come. For instance, one daily newspaper, the New York Herald, declared that â€Å"the battle of Antietam has broken the back of the rebellion [and] changed the tide of affairs, and victory now attends us everywhere.† (138) This battle was the first time that the North had fought upon their own territory and soldiers, and civilians of western Maryland, began to feel a deep-seated American patriotism. FINAL SENTENCE Another significant outcome of Antietam was the issuing of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Two months earlier, Lincoln had called a meeting with the Cabinet to announce his intentions of issuing an Emancipation Proclamation. However, at this time, for both domestic and foreign reasons, members of the Cabinet counseled Lincoln to postpone issuing the proclamation until the Uni on was again experiencing military success. The Battle of Antietam proved to be the military victory that Lincoln and the Cabinet needed. On September