The Blue of the Blue Planet

Water:
The Blue of the Blue Planet
Where it comes from, where it goes to and what happens in
between
Where did it
come from? It all
started with the
big bang
First, only the light elements were
formed – H and O included.
Water is present since the big bang
H und O
gehören zu
den frühen
Elementen
Liquid water: only 1 bn years
after accretion phase!
Imported by
meteorites: „dirty
snowballs“
Still delivered by further meteorites
The strange molecule H2O
Use of surface
tension
Why you can
scate on ice
Abiotic generation in the „primordial soup“
(Stanley-Miller-experiment)
Amino acids, fatty acids, aldehydes, nucleotide precursors, senseless
polymers (humic substances) – but no life until now!
Andy Warhol´s recepy
Distribution of water is uneven on earth:
Sometimes there is too much…
Floods in mythical memory:
Deluge
Deluge myths in various cultures:
No deluge:
- Mesopotamia, Persia
- India
- North- and South Amerika
- Southern seas
- Greece
- Phenicia, Syria, Egypt
- China
- Japan
- Afrika
Sometimes it is not enough
Camel in Lake Aral
Sometimes it is cold…
Ice
…sometimes
it is hot
…sometimes it is flying
Sometimes, it floats
above us
Bacteria live and
grow in clouds
Ice crystals in
cirrus clouds
What is virtual
water?
„Virtual water is the amount of
water that is embedded in food
or other products needed for its
production“
Example for required quantities of
irrigation water:
Vegetarian diet:
1-2.5 m3/d
Meat based (US style):
ca. 5 m3/d
Irrigation: by far the largest use of water!
40 % of world food cultivated from irrigated areas
Lowering of
ground level in San
Joaquin Valley
after 50 years of
irrigation:
Spray irrigation: 40 % evaporation loss
Ineffective irrigation by flooding
12 meters!
Most effective system:
drip irrigation
More crop for drop
Irrigation – „Green revolution“ as a
mixed blessing:
¾ Leaking pipes
¾ Excessive watering (flooding)
¾ Evaporation loss
¾ Increase of salt concentration due to
capillary and evaporation effects
¾ Effective drainage of water
¾ Cultivation of water-demanding crops
Competition for water resources
Origin of the word „Rivals“:
„Those who share a common stream“
(Webster´s Dictionary)
Current acute water conflicts:
¾ Palestine and Israel: Watersheds, water abstraction
¾ Turkey, Irak, Syria: Güney Anadolu dam project: 22 dams, 19
power plants;
) Euphrat & Tigris water loss > 50 % in Irak and Syria
¾ Darfour (South Sudan): Pastures and water
¾ In 2005:
- 500 conflict-like confrontations vs 1.200 cooperations
- Remarkable example India/Pakistan: Water contract although
there is no peace contract!
The challenge: Megacities!
¾ Drinking water quality, production and distribution
¾ Waste water collection and treatment
¾ Water management
Shantitown in Kenja
¾ Cultural/religious barriers
¾ Education
¾ Enforcement of rules
Mexico City
Kairo
Most frequent form of wastewater disposal in
Africa: “oxidation ponds” - a huge safety risk
Animals drowning
within ponds
Pond near dwellings
Animals feeding at oxidation ponds
Concept of the future? „From toilet to tap“
NeWater plant in Singapore
Important factor
for acceptance:
Water is injected
into natural
reservoirs
Site for family
visits
Three Gorges Dam
Methane- and CO2emissions from hydroelectic
plant reservoirs
Second largest use of
water: Cooling and
energy generation
Cooling water
against dog heat
Some dogs
overdo it
Egypt mural ~ 2000 BC:
Weaving, Washing, Wrenching and folding of laundry
Classical use of water: Washing
½ Washning
until 70 years
ago (similar to
4000 years
ago)
Contemporal
washing ¾
Future of cleaning:
integrated processes
High human to
water ratio
Popular German duty
And the inevitable
94 % pure water
Water damage
Beauty from water
Water and beauty
Beautiful use of water
Significant improvement in morals!
Water and well-being has
tradition:
The bathing house in
medivial times: a source
of joy (and a sink of sin)
Interesting aspect: a water better than nature!
Sources were holy and
protected by nymphs
(Lukas Cranach)
Metaphorically
clean water:
from the source
Water lifting mechanics
Modern ground water well
How do most people
on earth get water?
Women´s work
Water price 500 times
higher than tap water
Waiting for
drinking water
Walking for hours and hours
Pont du Gard: Roman Aquaeduct
Good solutions have been
found since thousands of
years
Roman water policy:
Public over private use!
Influent
Outlets at
various levels
High-tech
water pipe
1. Public drinking
water fountains
2. Public pools/water games
3. Private household drinking water
Food directly from water
Where does
the water go?
Drinking water for flushing
excreta to the treatment plant
Decentral waste water
disposal: Antique and
modern versions of latrines
Social aspects of waste water:
„Evening greeting“ (medivial wood
cutting)
Key strategy: Disruption of the fecal-oral cycle
Loss of quality of life
Futile attempts to
close the circle
Water and
micracles –
particularly
popular:
Transforming
water into wine
The art of walking
on water
Not always successful
But basically, it is
pretty simple
Water miracles in the fate of people
But not always perfect
Holy water: Challenging the immune system
Not restricted to non-christian
religions:
Legionella, Aeromonads etc.: poorly
blessed are the immuno-suppressed
Baptism at river
Ganges:
Organisms of
fecal-oral cycle
Eternal dream: The fountain of youth
Greek mythology: one day, Charon the ferryman will carry us
across the Styx and bring us into the kingdom of the dead
And this is where we are heading - but not yet…
Bonus tracks
Conflict between religion and water treatment:
Bagmati River in front of the Pashupatinath temple,
Kathmandu, was so highly polluted before 2002 that it
could not be used for religious purposes.
¾ This was a major problem for the devotees, and the solution
was to build a cleaning station just above the temple
which treated the sewage before it was channeled back
into the river again.
¾ But then the problem was wether the water was holy or only
clean since humans had interferred in the sacred river
and created a „pure“ river by technological means.
¾ This caused huge debates among priests, laymen and holy
men, but since then there were no real options it has
been accepted somehow as holy water
IWHA discussion site, contribution of Terje Oestigaard (Jan. 2006)
Germanic „Donnerbalken“
Roman public toilet
It was not always like
that: traditional toilet
systems
Version of 1948
Water and religion (ctd.)
One of the examples of water managemment for religious purposes is at Aqua
Sulis (Bath) in the south-west of England where the warm springs were
originally a Pagan centre but where the Romans used them for formal bathing,
and so on until the 18th and 19th centuries.
¾They are still in existence today but as a heritage site for visiting not for the
curative or religious purposes as previously.
Terry Langford, IWHA discussion site (Feb. 2006)
For Muslims, doing good is a great virtue, and those who do it are rewarded
generously by Allah.
¾This has been, and still is apparent in past and present efforts by some
Muslims in digging wells and building water reservoirs all over the Islamic world.
¾From an archaeological viewpoint, Darb (route of) Zubidah, the wife of Haroun
AlRashid, which is over 1500 klms or so, was built, hundreds of years ago, for
the support of pilgrims coming from the NE parts of the Islamic world to
Makkah.
¾This route was leveled and cleared of lava rocks in some places, wells and
water reservoirs were made available, as well as resting stations were built,
which later became villages and cities.
¾Till now, Muslims in many parts of the world support the digging of wells in
many parts of Africa, the Indian sub-continent, and other places.
Abdullah Alsharekh, IWHA discussion site (Feb. 2006)
Jumping for sediment destabilization
From where did earth receive
its water?
• “Late Veneer”: Earth was formed dry, collected
water from ice-containing meteorites
Habitable
zone
+
Some of the “building blocks” came from beyond
the “snow line”: Earth is not only formed from
local material of this solar system
Why is it still there? Mars lost it already!
Was there really water
on mars?
Water for fire fighting
Water games
Atmosphere acts as cooling
trap – water condenses in
high altitudes (almost
completely)
Water loss from
atmosphere to space:
yearly ca. 200 km3/Jahr
Some „juvenile water“ is still
enclosed and seeps out
continuously (ca. 500 km3/y)
Sediment-bound water is
moved into depth by plate
tectonics
Wasserquellen
Tankwagen für Trinkwasser