English, asked by MsBrainlyBee, 11 months ago

stories on water conservation

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Answered by Anonymous
2

Toto One-Gallon Double Cyclone Toilet. Consumers can make an impact in the water conservation effort by choosing efficient plumbing products. ...

North China Plain Water Conservation Project. Water scarcity is a growing problem in the North China Plain. ...

South Korea 's Rainwater Recycling System....

@Ramanari12

Answered by dkp9987
1

Answer:

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North China Plain Water Conservation Project

Water scarcity is a growing problem in the North China Plain. One of the most densely-populated regions in the world – it encompasses Beijing – the area has fertile soil for farming but an arid climate. In fact, in many areas agricultural demands far exceed the availability of ground water and can no longer be met with additional hydraulic infrastructure. Likewise, water pollution from heavy urbanization and industrialization has compounded the water scarcity. But industry in China uses between 4 and 10 times the water as industry in more developed nations.

According to the New York Times, scientists say aquifers below the North China Plain may be drained within 30 years without change.

“There’s no uncertainty,” hydrologist Richard Evans, who has worked in China for the past two decades, told the Times. “The rate of decline is very clear, very well documented. They will run out of groundwater if the current rate continues.”

A major source of water depletion in China is its agriculture. The Community Party insists on feeding the country’s massive population with its own grain. But massive agricultural efforts require huge amounts of groundwater in the North China Plain, which produces half the country’s wheat, according to the Times.

The North China Plain Water Conservation Project — financed for $74 million by the World Bank — is directed at increasing the water efficiency of China’s agriculture. The project has already supported improvements to more than 257,000 farms on the North China Plain. The major components of the project include: Irrigation and drainage works, such as canal lining, low-pressure pipe, drains, wells and sprinklers; agricultural support including land leveling, tilling schedules, soil fertility improvements, crop pattern adjustments and mulching; forestry and environmental monitoring; and institutional development and capacity building for water and soil conservation.

Since the project’s implementation, agricultural productivity in the area has increased by 60 to 80 percent per unit of water. Agricultural production has tripled and the increase of farmer per capita has ranged from 10 to 554 percent.

The reduction of agricultural water consumption has had a huge impact on the North Plain’s groundwater reserves. In fact, across most of the project area, groundwater depletion has been reduced to negligible levels or eliminated entirely.

Furthermore, the project strengthened arrangements for irrigation system operation and maintenance. The project originally hoped to establish 100 water user associations, but ultimately more than 500 were created—the first time WUAs took large-scale responsibility for financing and operating irrigation systems in China. The existence of the WUAs promotes water measuring with corresponding water charges on a volumetric basis.

South Korea ‘s Rainwater Recycling System

The Chinese may have shown how redeveloping an area’s water system can help conserve water sources, but Korea is demonstrating innovative ways to conserve water by building an eco-friendly city from the ground up. A project that began 12 years ago, Songdo is built on an artificial island just west of Seoul and is set to cost about $35 billion. Media has labeled Songdo the city of the future. Cisco is wiring every inch of the city with fiber-optic broadband and, and TelePresence screens will be installed in all homes, offices, hospitals and shopping centers—allowing residents to place video calls from all over the city. Plus, the city’s streets and buildings will be equipped with sensors to monitor everything from temperature to road conditions—ensuring the city runs lightning-speed efficiency.

About 40 percent of Songdo will be dedicated to green space, such as rooftop vegetation that reduces storm water and takes advantage of sunshine on hot days—helping to cool the city. Rainwater traps will capture “grey water,” which will be recycled for use in sinks, toilets and dishwashers, dramatically decreasing the need for fresh water.

“We didn’t just look 10 years ahead, we looked at 50 years, a hundred years from now,” Sustainable Design Specialist Peter Lee said in a Cisco release. “And saving water is one of the key elements that we tried to pursue, in terms of sustainability.”

City designers found many uses for the grey water stored in containers after rainfalls. In addition to household fixtures, it is recycled for irrigation, as well as in parks and industrial facilities. The innovations help Songdo reach its goal of reducing commercial water use by 30 percent. The city also has a nearly two-mile canal which circulates millions of gallons in ocean water.

“We’re building an environmentally friendly system that is unique to any other in the world,” Incheon Free Economic Zone’s Commissioner Lee Jong-Cheol said in the Cisco relea

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