For a stink-free compost toilet, all you need is a hole in the ground, a bucket of leaves, soil or sawdust, and you’re ready for...um...business. Simple, effective and water-free. MICHELLE MULDER
For a stink-free compost toilet, all you need is a hole in the ground, a bucket of leaves, soil or sawdust, and you’re ready for...um...business. Simple, effective and water-free. MICHELLE MULDER
When Mexico City began running out of drinking water in the 1980s, city officials brainstormed solutions and found answers in the toilet. Every day most of us with flush toilets use a quarter of our drinking water to wash away waste. Mexico City launched a program to replace conventional toilets with toilets that use two-thirds less water for every flush. By 1991, Mexico City was saving 7.4 billion liters (about two billion gallons) of drinking water every year.
Meanwhile, some people wonder if we even need to flush at all. Why are we using drinking water to poop into? Probably because flush toilets stink less than latrines, where human waste decomposes in a hole in the ground. Latrines aren’t the only water-free toilet option, though. Compost toilets have two containers, one that you sit on and the other that does the composting. Once you’ve done your business, you toss in lime (a form of calcium), ash, sawdust or wood chips. This smothers the stink, and eventually you’ll be able to add your toilet’s compost to the garden to grow next summer’s salads, tomatoes and corn on the cob. From yuck to yum, without a drop of wasted water!
In many parts of the world, farmers face floods from monsoons and then months of drought. This farm is in India. PIXELAPPEAL/DREAMSTIME.COM
In some parts of the world, rain falls so hard that more than half the water runs along the surface of the soil without ever soaking in. Anagha Ann Gopakumar grew up in Aluva, India, where most of the rain falls in just 100 hours each year. She’d watched the annual monsoons all her life, and the cycle was always the same: monsoon, flood, drought. She felt sorry for the local farmers.
When she was ten, she began reading books and websites about water. Then her grandmother told her that farmers used to collect rainwater to use later in the year. So Anagha clambered up to her roof to set up a rainwater harvesting system. She used bamboo gutters that funneled rain into a container. Pebbles and charcoal helped filter the water into a pipe that ran to a well. The next time the monsoons came, she collected enough water for her family and for some of the local farmers too. Then she taught them how to build their own systems. In 2006, she won an International Young Eco-Hero Award for environmental achievement.
Boys off to find water for their families in Laos. JIM HOLMES
Stop! Catch that rain! Rain barrels can save families hundreds of liters of water every year. ZYGIMANTAS CEPAITIS/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Did you know that farmers can shape their fields to catch more rain?
In the 1970s, in Laporiya Village on the edge of Thar Desert in India, people and their cattle were getting thirsty. It didn’t seem to be raining any less than before, but more of the rain was running off the land and away from fields and wells. Worried, almost half the families moved away to places with more water, but the families who stayed decided to restore the water harvesting system that their ancestors had used, a system that people had forgotten about over the years.
Imagine if all the water used by golf greens went to people instead. SEESEA/DREAMSTIME.COM
These days, dikes surround each pasture, and those pastures are sloped, so if one receives more rain than it needs, water flows down to the next. Eventually, excess water collects in a deep village pond, where people can come get it. In the past few decades, local well water has become fifteen meters (sixteen yards) deeper, and crops are producing three to twelve times more food, all because people remembered the simple farming techniques of a few generations ago.
WATER FACT: Earth is home to a lot of golf courses. And those green lawns need plenty of water. In fact, the world’s golf courses consume 9.5 billion liters (2.5 billion gallons) of water every day. That’s enough clean water to quench the thirst of 500 million people.
These women in Kenya are planting trees to stop soil erosion and water runoff. By planting trees, the people of Kenya have turned much of their country from dry, barren dust into rich agricultural land. THE GREEN BELT MOVEMENT
In the 1970s, Professor Wangari Maathai watched people struggle to find firewood, grow food and find water in Kenya. She encouraged women to plant trees and, by doing so, changed the entire future of her country. Where trees grow, water can sink into the ground, and where there’s water, there’s life. THE GREEN BELT MOVEMENT
Runoff doesn’t only happen on hot, arid farmland. It also happens in cities, where rain can’t soak into the soil because the ground is covered in pavement. Forests cover about 30 percent of Earth’s land, but we’re cutting down our trees fast, mostly so we can build buildings or roads. The more we chop, the more rain rolls along Earth’s surface instead of soaking into it.
Why is that a big deal? Rain does more than just water plants. It also soaks into the ground to refill aquifers, those natural underground pools that so many rely on for water. We’re draining them quickly, and they take thousands of years to refill.
What to do? Plant a tree! Or several! Trees and their roots act like little dikes, trapping the water in one place so that it can soak into the ground. Sure, the trees will use some of the rainwater, but in general, the more trees and plants we’ve got, the more water will soak into the soil instead of escaping sideways. Imagine what the world would be like if every single person planted a tree, or two or three.
A girl stands in front of a water tank and two large FogQuest fog collectors on a farm in Tojquia, Guatemala. FOGQUEST/MELISSA ROSATO
What if you’ve already tried every water-harvesting technique you know and planted trees galore, but you’re still thirsty? Try harvesting fog! In Africa and South America, people have been doing it for thousands of years: fog condenses onto leaves, and people either shake it into containers or drink it on the spot.
A Canadian nonprofit organization decided to use modern technology to harvest fog for the mountain village of Chungungo, Chile. Until 1992, villagers struggled to collect enough drinking water to survive. Then FogQuest set up ninety-four big nets made of inexpensive, durable plastic mesh on nearby El Tofo Mountain. Each net stretches between two wooden poles above a trough on the ground that’s connected to pipes leading to the village.
These days, an average of 15,000 liters (almost 4,000 gallons) of water a day pours down from the fog catchers. The local people have even started growing gardens and fruit trees with all the water they’ve got flowing down from their misty mountainside. FogQuest has projects around the world.
WATER FACT: Several major cities lose up to 70 percent of their fresh water through leaky pipes and faucets.
In Matamoros, Mexico, the local government solved its water problems by using a different natural resource: kid power! Sometimes it might not seem like kids have much say in how the world works, but kids teach the adults in their lives a lot. That’s why the government of Matamoros created a program called the Water Detectives. First, they taught kids how to conserve water. Then they gave them badges announcing their important roles. Teams of water detectives visited houses and businesses throughout the city. They talked to adults about repairing leaky pipes and using dishwashing or laundry water for gardening and car washing. The result? One year later, the city’s citizens were using 18 percent less water. That’s almost a fifth of the water supply saved, thanks to kids!
Kids in Matamoros, Mexico, take water conservation seriously. And thanks to them, adults do too. COURTESY OF NATIONAL FILM BOARD/DAVID SPRINGBETT
How do you wash your hands in a place without running water? Tippy taps like this one are becoming more and more popular around the world. Step on a lever or a string, and a tiny bit of water comes out—just enough to rinse soapy hands, and no more. Simple technology can save water and save lives at the same time. CAWST
You can make a big difference to the world’s water supply even without an official badge. And you can begin right where you live. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Turn off dripping faucets. Fix leaks. Take a five-minute shower instead of a bath. Use a watering can instead of a hose for your garden. Experiment with water harvesting and set up a rain barrel. Put a water-saving device in your toilet tank and save 750 liters (almost 200 gallons) of water a year!
A lot of the products we use wind up in the water. Whenever possible, help your family choose nontoxic chemicals for cleaning at home. Avoid pesticides, and find out where you can dispose of toxic liquids responsibly, instead of pouring them down the drain.
Did you know you can make your own biosand filter? Youth programs about water issues let you explore new ideas while making new friends. CAWST
Kids at the CAWST Youth Wavemakers Summit in Calgary, Canada, learn about water, sanitation and hygiene, and how to take action. CAWST
Choose tap water over bottled water. Plant trees. Cultivate an edible garden instead of grass (which needs a lot of water and doesn’t taste nearly as good!). If you’re not into vegetables, planting native plants instead of grass can save water. Native plants get all the water they need from the rain.
Eating fruits or vegetables washed in dirty water makes many people sick. This girl is washing lettuce in Laos. JIM HOLMES
Tell your friends what you know about water. Write to people in power who can have a major impact on the world’s water. The mining companies of Canada and the United States, for example, are responsible for a big chunk of water pollution around the world. (Canada is home to 70 percent of the world’s mining companies!) Ask them to use responsible mining techniques to keep poisons out of our waterways.
Raise money for wells, latrines or water filters in other parts of the world. (Check out the “Resources” section of this book for some websites that might help.) Join thousands of kids worldwide who are just as passionate about water as you are.
WATER FACT: In many places in North America, families use 30 percent more water in the summertime to water gardens and lawns. Using water from rain barrels would save each household over 3,785 liters (1,000 gallons) of water in those hot summer months.
Way back in Chapter One, we saw how the Minoans had running water and flush toilets 3,600 years ago, and then for the next several centuries, people in the very same region forgot about plumbing. Later, the Romans built a big sewer system under Rome, and a few centuries afterward, people forgot how to do that too. Times change. Each society values different things.
No matter where you live, every drop of water is precious. These children in Vietnam are moving water to a school tank for a new latrine block. JIM HOLMES
Once Mr. Watt developed his steam engine in the 1700s, humans had easy access to more water than ever before. It no longer seemed like such a precious resource. But the world’s clean water supply is limited, and it’s time to change the way we think about water.
Since the first humans walked the earth, people have risen to the challenge of finding, cleaning and conserving water. These days, we’ve got both the knowledge of the past and the technology of the present to help us with this challenge. With creative thinking and a whole lot of teamwork, who knows what exciting developments the future will bring?
When hiking in Parque de los Glaciares, Argentina, we filled our water bottles in the nearest stream. MICHELLE MULDER
Camping at Parque de los Glaciares in Argentina was a treat. Not only was it gorgeous, but we didn’t have to bring a drop of water with us! A big glacier feeds the park’s lakes and streams, providing some of the freshest, cleanest water you’ll ever drink. Anyone found washing, peeing or pooing within ten meters (about ten yards) of a lake or stream is fined and kicked out of the park. Imagine if everyone treated the planet’s water with such respect!
Soon this girl's community in El Balsamo, Nicaragua, will have water piped directly to its homes, allowing kids like Dania more time to go to school. GREEN EMPOWERMENT/ SHERRI PHILLIPS