Australia town bans bottled water

A rural town in Australia has voted overwhelmingly to ban the sale of bottled water over concerns about its environmental impact.

Campaigners say Bundanoon, in New South Wales, may be the first community in the world to have such a ban.

They say huge amounts of resources are used to extract, package and transport bottled water.

The discarded plastic bottles then end up as litter or go into landfill sites, the "Bundy on Tap" campaign says.

More than 350 residents turned out to vote at the public meeting in the town hall.

Only one resident voted against the ban, along with a representative from the bottled water industry, ABC news reported.

The BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney says locals have promised not to set upon visitors if they ignore the ban, but they will be encouraged to fill a reusable container from water fountains in the main street.

The reusable bottles will bear the slogan "Bundy on Tap".

Campaigner John Dee said local opinion had been incensed when a drinks company announced plans to tap an underground reservoir in the town.

Environmental impact

"The company has been looking to extract water locally, bottle it in Sydney and bring it back here to sell it," he said.

"It made people look at the environmental impact of bottled water and the community has been quite vocal about it."

The ban has been supported by shopkeepers in the town, which has a population of about 2,500.

"We believe Bundanoon is the world's first town that has got its retailers to ban bottled water," said Mr Dee. "We haven't found it anywhere else."

New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees has backed the cause, ordering government departments to stop buying bottled water and use tap water instead.

Mr Rees says it will save taxpayers money and help the environment.

courtesy: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8141569.stm

Good time to start harnessing power from solar

Year by year mercury in India is rising and it seems as if there is no way it is going to reverse in coming years. Rivers are drying up with delayed monsoons and increasing temperatures thus putting stress on hydroelectricity. The only way to take advantage of this soaring temperature is to plan for large scale or house hold level solar based power harnessing and thus mitigating the power scarcity or crisis as mentioned below.

India heat wave sparks protests

Protests are growing in Delhi over power cuts as the Indian capital remains in the grip of a heat wave.

The government of the northern state of Punjab has announced that its offices will shut early as it also attempts to deal with a similar power crisis.

In Delhi, police have been called to break up demonstrations outside the offices of electricity companies.

Hundreds of people turned up at the house of a state minister demanding a solution to the problem.

As residents wait for this year's delayed monsoon, it is getting hotter and hotter and the disruptions to power supplies are getting bigger and bigger.

'Grim'

Most of the residents at the protests are without power for between six to 10 hours a day.

With temperatures in the mid-40s, there is an increasing demand for electricity as everyone tries to cool down.

The system here is unable to cope.

Some people are now sleeping in their air-conditioned cars.

The Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, has described the situation as grim.

This city will host the Commonwealth Games next year and some say the current crisis shows that it is not ready.

The chief minister has dismissed those fears, saying two power plants are being constructed for the games.

This year's delayed monsoon is slowly moving across India. The people of Delhi are praying it gets here soon.

courtesy: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8123012.stm

Interesting stats on bottled water industry in India

As India lacks an efficient and safe potable water supply, its urban population is increasingly depending on bottled water to quench their thirst. Bottled water is going to be a huge and crucial industry in the future. For those of you who are interested in venturing into this industry, these are some interesting stats to know as a start.

http://www.rediff.com/business/report/2009/jun/12/bottled-water-plants-consume-7-point-03-mn-cubic-m-of-water.htm

Over seven million cubic m of water is consumed by 1,952 licenced mineral and packaged drinking water plants in the country annually.

According to figures available with the Central Ground Water Board, while 1,940 licences have been issued in the country for packaged drinking water, only 12 of them have been issued for bottling of mineral water.

Andhra Pradesh -- with 471 licences to manufacture packaged drinking water -- leads the tally, according to the Bureau of Indian Standards.

Himachal Pradesh, famous for its natural springs, has eight licences for bottling mineral water. Incidentally, it has the least number of packaged drinking water licences -- seven -- in the country.

Tamil Nadu comes second with 447, followed by Gujarat with 179 licences. Gujarat also has one mineral water bottling licence.

According to data collected by the Central Ground Water Board from state governments, the quantum of ground water used by the plants is around 7.03 million cubic m per annum.

Water cess is levied and collected by state pollution control boards for prevention and control of water pollution.

Differential rates of cess are collected depending upon the use of
water.

courtesy: http://www.rediff.com/

Singapore water makes global waves!

.....Continuation to the previous post

A BBC article on Singapore's water story.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7371463.stm

Singapore International Water Week 2009

SIWW is an annual international event hosted by singapore and attracts delegates, companies and organisations from all over the world. With its innovative and effective urban water management capability, Singapore was able to turn what was once its crisis into competence.
Through this event Singapore aims to realise its goal of becoming a global waterhub.

When: June 22 -26, 2009
Where: Suntec Singapore, International Exhibition and convention center

Go to the website for more details.
http://www.siww.com.sg/

Is electric car a sustainable solution?

The quest for green cars has led to the idea of electric cars. Everyone is betting big on it as the direct carbon emissions from the electric car is zero. But, when it is seen from a whole system point of view it doesn’t seem to be greener solution than the fossil fuel based cars.

An all-electric car runs on batteries charged at one of the power outlets which source from conventional power generation plants. Major portion of the power generated in the world comes from coal based thermal power plants or other fossil fuel based generators, which are the biggest greenhouse gas producers. Also, a centralized power generation is an inefficient system with losses accounting to around 75% during generation and transmission (as shown in figure below). In a fossil fuel based car, energy is utilized where it is produced and more efficient than centralized power generation. Thus, indirectly an all-electric car is a greater green-house gas producer than a conventional car running on fossil fuel. Global warming is a global phenomenon rather than local. Though we will be able to shift the pollution to the outskirts or away from the urban areas, it is going to become worse globally and will hit back as climate change. We are able to minimize the effect at one part but we are aggravating it at another.

Source: http://www.cfcl.com.au/Assets/Images/Energy-Distribution(72dpi).jpg

Also, batteries used in these cars are derived from lithium ion and have very short life. More batteries mean more generation of waste, and more usage of resources. What we are lacking when creating a new product is - looking through the whole system. There is need for estimation of its whole life cycle right from where all its resources come from and where it will end up at the end of its life.

Unless, most of the power is derived from renewable sources I don’t think an electric car is a sustainable solution.

More sources for your light reading:
http://www.dieselnet.com/news/2006/04cnw.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/business/global/02electric.html?_r=1
http://economistonline.blogspot.com/2009/04/chinas-electric-car-ambition.html
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/427272/1/.html

Greatest Technological Challenges of the 21st century

National Academy of Engineering has announced a list of 14 engineering challenges in the 21^st century chose by the expert committee individuals, who have contributed to the world through their technological innovations and leadership.

List of 14 greatest engineering challenges of the 21^st century:

• Make solar energy affordable
• Provide energy from fusion
• Develop carbon sequestration
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
• Provide access to clean water
• Reverse engineer the brain
• Prevent nuclear terror
• Secure cyberspace
• Enhance virtual reality
• Improve urban infrastructure
• Advance health informatics
• Engineer better medicines
• Advance personalised learning
• Explore natural frontiers

Interesting thing to note is that 9 out of 14 in the list are directly related to preserving our environment. The main objective behind creating this list is to emphasize on the fields to invest on research to achieve sustainability and to preserve life in this world. So, you can say that 21^st century is the century for the GREEN revolution.

Sources:

http://www.physorg.com/news122357469.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080215151157.htm