Water Fountains of Dubai

[pyro123]

Has anyone seen the construction of Dubai's Palm Islands? Watched it on the discovery channel. Pretty cool, but no wonder they went broke and can't complete the third island.

[q0192837465]

Originally Posted by asahai69

dubai is built on the persian gulf coast.

It's a desert, it has salt water, but not fresh water.

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by q0192837465

Wasting drinking water in a desert is just wrong

you can say the same about fountains in vegas then

[q0192837465]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

you can say the same about fountains in vegas then

People are taking fresh water for granted. Some day, countries will wage war over fresh water just like what they'r doing for oil right now, only that oil is a luxury item but water is an absolute necessity

[asahai69]

dude. oil is a bit different than water. we burn oil up and it aint gonna come back. water is a different story.


or ur totally right and im ignorant. i should buy some brita water filter stocks now!!! or atleast buy a distilling machine while its cheap. i mean. there is totally no way to make fresh water out of salt water right?

[tonyvu]

Originally Posted by asahai69

dude. oil is a bit different than water. we burn oil up and it aint gonna come back. water is a different story.


or ur totally right and im ignorant. i should buy some brita water filter stocks now!!! or atleast buy a distilling machine while its cheap. i mean. there is totally no way to make fresh water out of salt water right?

There are several ways to make salt water fresh but that takes a hell of a lot of time and money.

[q0192837465]

I can't believe you guys have no idea who valuable fresh water really is. Of course, we live here in Canada where we have more fresh water than we'll ever need. We can afford to use drinking water lavishly to wash our cars & water our gardens. But many countries around the world lack renewable water source. We are just lucky that water shortage doesnt concern us.

Water Crisis
While the world's population tripled in the 20th century, the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold. Within the next fifty years, the world population will increase by another 40 to 50 %. This population growth - coupled with industrialization and urbanization - will result in an increasing demand for water and will have serious consequences on the environment.



People lack drinking water and sanitation


Photo by ADMVB bokidiawe@yahoogroupes.fr
Already there is more waste water generated and dispersed today than at any other time in the history of our planet: more than one out of six people lack access to safe drinking water, namely 1.1 billion people, and more than two out of six lack adequate sanitation, namely 2.6 billion people (Estimation for 2002, by the WHO/UNICEF JMP, 2004). 3900 children die every day from water borne diseases (WHO 2004). One must know that these figures represent only people with very poor conditions. In reality, these figures should be much higher.




Water resources are becoming scarce


Agricultural crisis


Although food security has been significantly increased in the past thirty years, water withdrawals for irrigation represent 66 % of the total withdrawals and up to 90 % in arid regions, the other 34 % being used by domestic households (10 %), industry (20 %), or evaporated from reservoirs (4 %). (Source: Shiklomanov, 1999)



As the per capita use increases due to changes in lifestyle and as population increases as well, the proportion of water for human use is increasing. This, coupled with spatial and temporal variations in water availability, means that the water to produce food for human consumption, industrial processes and all the other uses is becoming scarce.



Environmental crisis


It is all the more critical that increased water use by humans does not only reduce the amount of water available for industrial and agricultural development but has a profound effect on aquatic ecosystems and their dependent species. Environmental balances are disturbed and cannot play their regulating role anymore. (See Water and Nature)





The concept of Water Stress



Source: WaterGAP 2.0 - December 1999



Water stress results from an imbalance between water use and water resources. The water stress indicator in this map measures the proportion of water withdrawal with respect to total renewable resources. It is a criticality ratio, which implies that water stress depends on the variability of resources. Water stress causes deterioration of fresh water resources in terms of quantity (aquifer over-exploitation, dry rivers, etc.) and quality (eutrophication, organic matter pollution, saline intrusion, etc.) The value of this criticality ratio that indicates high water stress is based on expert judgment and experience (Alcamo and others, 1999). It ranges between 20 % for basins with highly variable runoff and 60 % for temperate zone basins. In this map, we take an overall value of 40 % to indicate high water stress. We see that the situation is heterogeneous over the world.



An increase in tensions


As the resource is becoming scarce, tensions among different users may intensify, both at the national and international level. Over 260 river basins are shared by two or more countries. In the absence of strong institutions and agreements, changes within a basin can lead to transboundary tensions. When major projects proceed without regional collaboration, they can become a point of conflicts, heightening regional instability. The Parana La Plata, the Aral Sea, the Jordan and the Danube may serve as examples. Due to the pressure on the Aral Sea, half of its superficy has disappeared, representing 2/3 of its volume. 36 000 km2 of marin grounds are now recovered by salt.

[danny_d19]

I was waiting to hear "boats and hoes!"